LC's Bowman in right place at right time

Lake Central sophomore Cody Barnes (23) jumps in the air as he celebrates with senior Geoffrey Bo.
(Scott M. Bort/Post Tribune)

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CHESTERTON -- Since Geoffrey Bowman has been pretty much everywhere for Lake Central this season, it only made sense that he was in the right place at the right time on Wednesday night.

Bowman's well-placed boot in the 34th minute gave the Indians all the offense they needed to beat Chesterton 1-0 in Duneland Athletic Conference action.

The Indians (7-1, 3-0) had all sorts of chances to pad their lead, but shots banged off the post and the crossbar. So it was up to Bowman to put a bit of separation between LC and the host Trojans.

"Geoffrey's a kid that we've been able to move around the field," Lake Central coach Jereme Rainwater said. "He's played several different positions. He's taken to them all with the answer, 'Yes, sir.'

"His maturity right now -- the way he's playing -- is as good as anybody in the area."

The goal followed a free kick that was headed to the middle of the field by a Chesterton player. "It just bounced right to my foot," Bowman said. "I took a touch and a shot it."

The ball went over a leaping Chesterton keeper Alec Houpt and landed across the goal line, something even Bowman wasn't expecting.

"I was pretty surprised it actually went over," Bowman said. "He's a pretty tall kid."

Given the circumstances, however, the result was just what Chesterton coach Jamie Sensibaugh was afraid of.

"Any time the ball's in the box and it doesn't get cleared out of there, something can happen and it's usually not good," Sensibaugh said.

The Indians made sure nothing else good happened for the Trojans (4-3-1, 2-2), securing their first victory in Chesterton in, well, a long time.

"I've been doing this 10 years now and I can't remember the last time we won here," Rainwater said. "It's tough to come play Chesterton, with their fans up there, on their home turf.

"There's a couple stars you put on your calendar every year. With the force that Chesterton has been the last few years, this was obviously one of the stars we had on our schedule."

Fresh in Bowman's memory were losses to the Trojans the past two seasons.

"We wanted to show them," he said. "We wanted to get it back."

The Indians ended their drought by playing an effective game of keep-away, making goalie Tony Halterman's job easier.

"We always talk about possession," Rainwater said. "If we own the ball 80 percent of the time, then we're only giving the opponent 20 percent of the opportunities to put it in. I thought we did a good job of possessing the ball tonight."

So did Sensibaugh,

"Lake Central is a very good team," he said. "Maybe the best team we've played all year long. They controlled the ball. They possessed well, they were creative in the offensive third, they moved up as a unit."

And they moved at a swift pace.

"They just are a good team," Sensibaugh said. "The fastest team we've played on the flanks all year long. Nick Czapla, that kid -- we were just lucky they didn't do more damage over there."

With 11 seniors to replace from last year's team, the Trojans are still feeling their way.

"They don't know how to manage a game right now," Sensibaugh said. "It's something we talked about -- at the end of the game we needed to be more assertive. We needed to be more aggressive."

In other words, more like Geoffrey Bowman when he had a scoring chance.