Chesterton presented a Portage cornerback the option of defending Matt Estill or Colton Tuzinski on a play-action pass in the second quarter Friday.
The defensive back picked Tuzinski. That left Estill open down the sideline.
Quarterback Garritt Slatcoff completed the pass to Estill for a 26-yard touchdown. It was the Trojans’ second of three TDs in the quarter on the way to a 35-14 victory.
“We’ve been working on that all summer,” Slatcoff said of the play during a phone interview on Monday. “… It was good to finally connect on it.”
The senior threw two TDs to Estill and also rushed for one TD to help Chesterton improve to 4-2 overall and 3-1 in the Duneland Athletic Conference.
“He’s done a great job through the end of the season last year and throughout our offseason of providing some great leadership and stepping up and doing some great things on the field,” Chesterton coach Mark Peterson said. “He’s commanded that role of making adjustments and seeing what’s going on to be able to throw the ball to some open people down the field.
“That was something that came into play for us Friday against Portage.”
Those adjustments have come with time. Slatcoff is in his second varsity season.
“Coming off last year, I feel more confident,” he said. “I have a year of varsity under my belt, so I’m more comfortable with the offense and with the game speed. With a year under my belt, I feel better about what we’re running and more confident.”
The Trojans have been just as steady on defense. Chesterton has allowed more than 14 points in a game just once this season. Peterson listed linebacker Luke Finke and defensive back Josh Chorba among the leaders. He said defensive lineman Tony Zelenika has been a “nice surprise.”
The Trojans are allowing 12.3 points per game.
“The kids have really bought in and done some nice stuff,” Peterson said.
Take it on the run: Kankakee Valley uses a rotation of running backs. Friday, it was Riley Fisher’s turn to produce big numbers.
Fisher rushed for three TDs in a 34-27 win against South Newton.
“He does seem to have acceleration and he’s a tough runner,” Kankakee Valley coach Brad Stewart said. “He has to work on his blocking a little bit, but he has been very valuable to us.
“He’s not necessarily our pounder, but he’s the one that seems to make the big run, when we’re running up the middle especially.”
Kankakee Valley won its second straight game.
“We got off to a good start,” Stewart said. “The kids played really hard at the beginning of the game. We got ourselves a nice lead. We took advantage of a couple of mistakes South Newton made.
“Riley Fisher really stepped up and hit the holes real good and the defense played well in the first half.”
The Kougars (4-2, 1-2 Northwest Crossroads Conference) are at Andrean (4-2, 1-2) on Friday. They last beat Andrean in 2008.
“We’re going to have to try to control the clock,” Stewart said. “Hopefully we can step up our defense a little bit and not allow the big play.”
Numbers adding up: Calumet quarterback Kobe Fowler rushed for 392 yards and five TDs in a 38-26 victory against Lake Station.
Fowler scored on runs of 4, 4, 81, 18 and 1 yard. He also converted three two-point conversions to account for all but two of the team’s points.
Calumet (3-3, 2-2 Greater South Shore Conference) won its second straight game since switching Fowler from running back to quarterback.
Twitter: @lamondpope
