ST. JOHN | With time waning and overtime on the horizon, Lauren Doreski wasn’t about to play 14 extra minutes of soccer.
The Lake Central senior displayed some fancy footwork with less than two minutes remaining, coaxing a goal into the upper portion of the net to give the Times No. 8 Indians a 2-1 win against No. 6 Chesterton in Duneland Athletic Conference action.
On that goal, Doreski took the ball to her right, changing up her usual motion of cutting left in an attempt to throw the defense off guard.
“She’s stepping up, doing what we need,” L.C. coach Julie Moore said of Doreski. “That’s Lauren, she’s always doing what the team needs.
She played sweeper, she played midfield, she played forward all in today’s game. She was everywhere but goalie today.”
For Lake Central (10-3, 4-1 DAC) this win is huge in continuing to prove to others that the Indians are still very strong despite losing 12 seniors last season.
“We’re definitely going to look back to this game and reflect — it’s a big thing for us to win against Chesterton,” Doreski said. “We just wanted to show everyone that we came out to play tonight. We came out to show that we’re here and we’re a threat to people.”
Lake Central starting goalkeeper Lindsay Kusbel suffered a possible concussion early in the game. On a shot attempt from Chesterton, the ball deflected off Kusbel’s face, hit the crossbar and then bounced off the back of her head. She was experiencing blurred vision and had a headache after the incident.
In Kusbel’s absence, junior varsity goalkeeper Alexia Laurisch stepped up huge for the Indians, making six saves — which included the final desperation shot from the Trojans.
Down 1-0 early in the second half, Chesterton (6-4-1, 2-3) tied it up 1-1 when Elizabeth Benson found the right side of the net less than three minutes after the break.
Lake Central threatened for much of the first half, finally coaxing a goal in about five minutes before halftime when Serena Stincic-Perez connected off a rebound to give the Indians a 1-0 lead at the break.
Chesterton coach David Galloway thought his team played good soccer, but just couldn’t put enough shots in the net.
“I think we had the better run of play today,” he said. “We possessed the ball fairly well tonight and certainly had the game under control.
Give them credit; Lauren Doreski came up big for them tonight.”
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