Biehl leads Chesterton past rival Valparaiso

Updated: August 24, 2011 10:07PM

Valparaiso and Chesterton don’t get along. And that geographic rivalry was on display Tuesday as the Trojans’ girls soccer team edged the Vikings 2-1 at home.

Valparaiso maintained a steady offensive attack, but the hero of the game was Chesterton junior captain Rosie Biehl, who accounted for both of the Trojans’ goals.

“This is a big win for us, especially after loosing the senior players from last year and having several players out due to injury,” Biehl said. “They are a big rival and anytime you can beat your rival it feels good.”

Weather was a factor prior to the start of the game with a passing storm that caused a 25-minute delay, but that didn’t phase either team.

Valparaiso (2-1, 1-1 DAC) was the aggressor in the first half, maintaining an offensive attack throughout. Valparaiso senior Kate Johnson and junior Andrea Violanti were the main contributors to the Valparaiso attack, but a stellar performance by Chesterton keeper Alexandra Bucko kept the Vikings off the scoreboard.

The start of the second half saw much of the same Valparaiso offensive attack. The Vikings were first on the scoreboard in the 40th minute when Jenelle Klumpe took a corner kick and placed it perfectly for Violanti, who headed the balll to the back of the net for the 1-0 advantage.

Biehl came up with the tiebreaker off a ball that was deflected by the Valparaiso keeper and fired it into the back of the net.

The momentum seemed to shift to Chesterton’s side and the Trojans took advantage of it in the 76th minute as Biehl drove in the game winner.

Bucko was stellar in the net for the Trojans (3-1, 2-0 DAC).

“Valparaiso is a very tough team and we weathered their attack early holding the score to 0-0 at the half,” Chesterton coach David Galloway said. “We then made some adjustments and capitalized on some opportunities in the second half to capture the win.”

Said Valparaiso coach Rob Cespesdes: “We just need to finish games out and protect our goal and unfortunately we did not do that tonight, we played hard early but could not carry that out the entire game.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.