NORTH MANCHESTER – Manchester freshman Chase Fierstos definitely played without fear Tuesday night at home against Churubusco. With leading scorer Clayton Petrie receiving stitches in the trainer’s room, Fierstos made 4 of 4 field goals in the second quarter, three of which were three-pointers. Fierstos’ hot quarter propelled the Manchester Squires (1-3) to a 68-45 win over the Churubusco Eagles (0-5) in a game of winless teams. Fierstos finished the game with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, picking up two assists and two steals as well. “Chase is starting to understand varsity basketball – where we need him to be and the role we want him to play,” Manchester coach Eric Thompson said of the 5-foot-9 guard. “We are happy with the way he stepped up.” And he picked the right time to step up. After scoring seven points and recording two steals, a rebound and blocking a shot in the first quarter, Petrie got caught up in a pileup for a rebound, resulting in a bloody chin. Leaving late in the quarter, Petrie didn’t return until late in the second. “Clayton showed some toughness,” Thompson said. “He got stitched up. It was like hockey. He got stitched up and came right back out and played.” Thanks to Fierstos’ 11-point second quarter, Manchester built a 31-18 halftime lead over the Eagles, which ballooned to as much as 58-26 in the fourth quarter until Churubusco closed the game on a 19-7 run. “It’d be nice to be able to hold them back, but I’m just happy we were able to execute the way we wanted to for three-and-a-half quarters,” Thompson said about his team’s fourth-quarter defense on an Eagles team that averaged 27 points coming in. Starting two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman, while also playing two more freshmen, Thompson was searching for his team’s first win, and he got it in a big way. “I knew we had it in us,” he said. “The nice thing was, we were all clicking at the same time. The guys are learning their roles and what we want out of them.” Despite missing a quarter, Petrie still managed to score 15 points to go with five rebounds and three steals. The Squires also got nine points off the bench from junior Claudel Dickantone, while sophomore Lucas Schilling chipped in eight. Up next for Manchester is its Three Rivers Conference opener against Southwood Friday, which will be followed by Saturday’s game against Class 3A No. 5 Guerin Catholic. Guerin comes in as the defending Class 3A champions and is also coached by former Manchester coach Pete Smith, whose 1988 sectional championship team will be honored between the junior varsity and varsity games. “It will be a good thing for our community,” Thompson said. “Pete did a great job here and continues to do a great job at Guerin Catholic. We’re not worrying about them. We’re more worried about us and how we do things. If we’re doing things right, we’ll be able to compete and hopefully make Coach Smith a little nervous at the end of the game.” But before that community event, Thompson’s focusing on Friday’s home game against the Southwood Knights. “We’re focused on Friday more than we are Saturday,” he said.
