Chesterton’s Zack Bowser cleared his mind and focused.
The sophomore forward converted a penalty kick two-plus minutes into Wednesday night’s Duneland Athletic Conference game. He also added an assist as the Trojans edged visiting Lake Central 2-1.
“I just knew I had to put it in the net and get that early start so we could possess after that,” Bowser said of the penalty kick.
Chesterton (10-0-1, 5-0), ranked No. 2 in the Class 3A state coaches poll, gained the inside track to the conference title with the win against No. 7 Lake Central (6-4-1, 3-1).
“This is our biggest win of the season,” Bowser said. “We’ve had some good nonconference games, but with Lake Central, it puts us in front. Everyone on the team is feeling it.”
Bowser buried a penalty kick with 37:31 left to play in the first half. The fast start didn’t surprise Chesterton coach Lucas Sabedra.
“Zack Bowser and the forwards have a pretty good mindset to go to goal,” Sabedra said. “They’re hyped up from the get-go, so of course they want to score right away.
“That’s his killer instinct and that’s what happened. If he didn’t get clobbered in the box, he was one-on-one with the goalie, and I’d take those chances all the time.”
Bowser set up the Trojans’ second goal with 16-plus minutes left in the half. He received a short corner kick, dribbled past a Lake Central defender and sent a cross to Joey Stark, who hammered home the shot.
“Zack Bowser up top is so cheeky,” Lake Central coach Jereme Rainwater said. “It’s hard to stand him up one (on) one. You have to close with a second defender, and there were a couple times he exposed us.”
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The Indians gained back a goal with 59.6 seconds left in the half on Rob MacNeill’s penalty kick.
Neither team scored in the second half. Lake Central played the final 18:50 with 10 men after a red card.
But it was the start that more concerned Rainwater.
“If it wasn’t for games like this, I would’ve been done coaching a long time ago,” Rainwater said. “You’d just like to be on the other end of it.
“But hats off to Chesterton, they came to play. Their mission was to get part of that Duneland title and stopping them at the beginning was more than we could handle.”
Chesterton didn’t want to get too far ahead. But the Trojans moved closer to their first conference title since 2015 after Lake Central and Crown Point shared last season’s championship and the Indians won in 2016.
“Our first goal was to win the DAC, so this was a game we knew from the beginning of the season was going to be our No. 1 challenge,” Sabedra said. “We were focused on this game and now we have to look forward to the other DAC games.
“We have to keep our ego in check and not take anyone lightly.”