By JEROME MURPHY

Argus-Press Sports Writer  Oct 10, 2023

CHESANING — At this point, every win the Chesaning boys soccer team adds to its season total is history-making.

The Indians have long-since surpassed their school record for victories in a season, set at 10 last year.

Wednesday’s 3-0 triumph against Corunna improved Chesaning’s 2023 mark 17-1. More significantly, it also gave the team its first ever playoff victory.

Chesaning now advances to Monday’s Division 3 district semifinal vs. Durand, a 4-3 winner Wednesday over Ovid-Elsie. The Railroaders improved to 8-11-3 with their victory. The Chesaning-Durand district clash will be held at Williamston High School with a game time of 7 p.m.

Although Wednesday’s score doesn’t look like too bad of a blowout, it undersells Chesaning’s dominance — the Indians enjoyed a 20-0 advantage in shots on goal over the Cavaliers.

Corunna was only able to stay relatively competitive thanks to an excellent outing from junior goalkeeper Paul Galesk, who collected 17 saves and kept the Cavaliers within striking distance.

But Corunna, which ends the season at 4-14-1, never did find an offensive rhythm. The Cavaliers threatened deep inside enemy territory two or three times in the first half but could not get a shot off against the stingy Indian defense.

“Our midfield is really strong and our defense is coming along,” said Chesaning coach Tom Dempsey. “We’re starting to play the ball better in transition and advancing it down into the corners. It pulls the defense apart and it forces them to split. Really in the first half and into the second half, they (the Cavaliers) were just jamming the middle.”

Chesaning scored within the first 2 minutes of the contest.

Senior midfielder Blake Laskowski found the on a long shot that was out of Galesk’s reach. It came with 38 minutes, 9 seconds left before halftime.

“We always seem to tense up in these sort of games, so I knew the quicker we put a ball in the back of the net, the sooner we would relax and play our style of game,” Laskowski said. “I did not think that was going in. Everytime I shoot a volley, it goes about 40 feet over the net.”

Some 3 minutes later, Chesaning padded the lead to 2-0, as sophomore Justin Lange converted a penalty kick while finding an open spot to the right corner of the net.

Despite Chesaning peppering Galesk with a multitude of shots from all angles, that’s where the score remained through the first half.

The only other score came with 10:08 left in the second half. Darkness had long descended on the crowd at Morningstar Field by that time. Chesaning put the game out of reach off a set play. Senior midfielder Nate Ferry skied for a header to the right side of the goal off a corner kick by Zac Garno.

“That was a beautiful ball by Garno,” Ferry said. “It made the finish really easy for me. He teed it up.”

Added Ferry, “This is spectacular. It was a good team effort. We played tough and we knew they were going to pack it in so we practiced against it.”

Corunna coach Kyle Gregoricka said Galesk did keep his team in the thick of it for a long time.

“As always, Paul did a great job for us,” Gregoricka said. “Yeah, it was a tough one today. I’m very proud of all of our players, though. And our seniors — Johnathon (Palin), Caden (Earl) and Braden (Veale). It’s always a tough one to lose but I’m proud of how they fought up here.

“Paul has been around three years and he’s always done a great job and he gives us a lot of confidence. I know Chesaning has had a great season and they are a good team and I want to give them a lot of credit. And they have a real good chance of getting to the finals. We’ll see how they do.”

Gregoricka indicated that Chesaning’s fast start made it hard for Corunna to get back into things.

“I felt at halftime, we handled the pressure well and we stood up to them pretty well until that last goal, obviously,” Gregoricka said.

Dempsey said that Chesaning had some good shots but Galesk did a good job of turning away most of them.

“There were a couple (of saves) that I am surprised he made,” Dempsey said. “We have a couple right at him but the ones we had picked off on the corners, he made some great saves.”

Dempsey said that the Indians have set school records for wins in a season in each of the last three years.

“We have 17 this year and we had 10 last year and four the year before that,” Dempsey said.

Laskowski is hoping Chesaning can keep the magic going.

“Our goal is to make it as far as we can,” Laskowski said. “We’ve got a good run and I have a feeling this team can make it far.”

Galesk said Corunna knew coming in that it faced a formidable challenge.

“We came into this game knowing how hard it was going to be and how good they were this season,” Galesk said. “And I feel we have improved a lot over the season and just didn’t get it done tonight.”

The other district semifinal at Williamston Monday will pit 10-6-1 Williamston, currently ranked No. 13 in Division 3, against 10-7-3 Portland at 5 p.m. The district title match is set for Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at Williamston.