On a windy cold snowy Halloween, Chelsea football welcomed Grosse Ile to town for the first round of the playoffs.

What’s that? You don’t believe me? Come on, I wouldn’t lie about snow.

I wasn’t kidding about the wind, either. It was strong enough to run through the banner before the team could get to it.

The team didn’t seem to mind.

The game was streamed live on the Fox Sports Detroit website, so there was a tv cameraman roaming the Chelsea sidelines.

The coaches were bundled up for the cold.

The calendar said it was October, but there’s a chance we all made a HUGE mistake and it was actually December. This was the scene just before kickoff:

The wind didn’t end its shenanigans at running through the banner before the team did. It also blew over all the pylons.

(On at least one occasion it blew the football a few yards down the field after the referee spotted it, too, but I didn’t get a photo of that.)

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Chelsea football welcomed Haslett to town to wrap up the regular season.

Chelsea’s week 8 win over Dexter had guaranteed them a playoff berth, but week 9 was important: a win would give Chelsea a good chance at a home playoff game.

(It was also senior night, so the seniors were recognized before the game. I’ll post all those photos in a separate post another day.)

The first quarter ended in a scoreless tie, but in the second quarter the Bulldogs got on the board when Bailey Edwards got behind the defense for a long touchdown.

Later in the second quarter, Edwards caught a short pass, made a move, and…well, you can probably guess the rest.

At the end of the first half, Chelsea led Haslett 14-0.

The band celebrated senior night, too.

One senior band member was wearing a hat that should look familiar if you read this blog over the summer:

That’s the hat worn by the Monitors and the Merries, our wonderful local vintage base ball clubs. Why did she have a vintage base ball hat? Well…

…she’s related to a Monitor. Huzzah!

Haslett tried to put together a fourth-quarter comeback, but the Chelsea defense thwarted those plans.

With the win, the Bulldogs finished the regular season at 7-2 and started looking forward to the playoffs.

After the postgame huddle, Chelsea waited for the Haslett players to leave the field. A win would have made Haslett 5-4 and would have given them a chance at the playoffs, but the loss brought an end to the high school football careers of the senior Vikings. As the last few Vikings slowly began to make their way off the field with tears in their eyes, one of the Bulldogs spotted one of his erstwhile opponents and did what he could to encourage his fellow athlete.

At the beginning of the post, I said a win would give Chelsea a good chance at a home playoff game. Guess what? Chelsea got a home playoff game! The Bulldogs will be hosting Grosse Ile on Friday at 7pm. See you there!

Chelsea football welcomed Dexter to town.

A win would guarantee Chelsea a return to the playoffs after a one-year absence. Also, a win would be a win over Dexter, which is something every Chelsea athlete always wants forever and ever. #BeatDexter

Before the game, the student section went for the festive look with a color blast.

The parking lot couldn’t help but dress up for the game, too.

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Chelsea celebrated homecoming with a big game against longtime rival Tecumseh.

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Chelsea football faced Lincoln.

The game was scheduled to be played at Lincoln, but due to a tragic accident at Lincoln’s stadium earlier in the week, the game was moved to Ann Arbor Pioneer.

There was a moment of silence during pregame.

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Chelsea traveled to Adrian to take on the Maples.

The evening didn’t start well for me: when I arrived, I realized I’d left all my memory cards at home in Chelsea, about 45 minutes away. My dad (generously) offered to scour Adrian for a memory card or two to get me through the evening, so I just watched pregame warmups and hoped he’d be successful.

He wasn’t back with cards when the game started, but that was okay: the game didn’t start any better for Chelsea than the evening had started for me. Chelsea fumbled the first snap and Adrian took it back for a touchdown and a quick 7-0 lead. Then, to my great relief, my dad showed up with a couple cards (having had to visit four different stores to find them!), and I got to work.

The Bulldogs got it together after that disastrous first snap and built a healthy 24-7 lead by the end of the half.

This interception was a good moment…

…in a half that had few good moments for Chelsea. Turnovers provided Adrian either with points or with an easier path to points, Chelsea’s offense ground to a halt, and the Maples slowly chipped away at the Bulldogs’ lead.

Jacob had his helmet ripped off at the end of one play…

…and he did not care for the officials’ decision not to call a penalty.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Adrian took a 27-24 lead. The Chelsea offense responded with a long, methodical drive, much of which seemed to consist of runs to the left like this one.

Eventually the offense was within field goal range, but there was still time to push for the end zone. Optimism was high when Chelsea had second and goal from the two, but a false start pushed the Bulldogs back, and the drive stalled.

(There are three coaches visible in that photo, and they’re all striking the same pose! Coaches gonna coach.)

The field goal unit took the field…

…and tied the game at 27 with under a minute to play. Adrian knelt to run out the clock, and the game went to overtime — Chelsea’s second overtime game of the year.

Chelsea won the toss and gave Adrian the ball first, and the Maples found the end zone. Chelsea had one possession to match Adrian’s touchdown.

Like so much else on Friday, it didn’t start well. First down…

…was a seven-yard sack. That was followed by a false start and an incomplete pass, leaving Chelsea looking at third and goal from the 22. Justice Staton dropped back, rolled left to avoid pressure, and launched the ball into the end zone…

…where Noah van Reesema came down with the ball, pulling it away from a defender for the improbable touchdown. The extra point once again tied the game, and Chelsea started the second overtime with the ball. On first down…

…Kenny McDowell’s touchdown put the Bulldogs ahead, and Adrian had one possession to score. The Maples had third and goal at the one, but their third- and fourth-down passes to the corner of the end zone fell incomplete, and the Bulldogs began celebrating their 41-34 2OT victory!

The 4-1 Bulldogs will be back in action this Friday at 7pm against Lincoln. This next part is VERY important, so pay attention: due to an incident that has made Lincoln’s stadium unavailable, the game will be at Ann Arbor Pioneer. Again, Chelsea will be playing Lincoln on Friday at 7pm at Ann Arbor Pioneer.

On a beautiful fall evening, Chelsea welcome Ypsilanti to town for game 4 of the 2014 season. There were some special guests in town for this game:

Those are members of Chelsea’s 1959 football team! They were recognized during the game:

Also in attendance were Chelsea’s seventh- and eighth-grade football players. They were on the sidelines for pregame warmups as part of Future Bulldog Night.

It won’t be long before we’re seeing those players on the field on Friday nights.

Okay, back to the usual Friday night events.

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Chelsea football traveled to Ann Arbor to take on the River Rats of Huron.

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Chelsea’s first home game of the 2014 football schedule brought Belleville to town. The weather forecast was insisting that the evening would be marred by storms that would potentially wipe Michigan’s lower peninsula off the map — well, you know how dramatic weather forecasts can be — but as game time approached and pregame began, the weather remained pleasant.

The cheerleaders were ready for the game.

So was the band.

The team was ready for the game, too.

Last week’s game didn’t start so well for the Bulldogs — Northview jumped out to an early 14-0 lead — but this week’s game started so very well.

In fact, the team started so well that Belleville’s first possession ended with an interception.

The team gets pretty excited about interceptions.

The good start got even better when, on third and short from the 17, Justice Staton tried a quarterback sneak and found a whole lot of open space.

Two Tigers caught up with him around the ten yard line…

…but Staton was not impressed…

…and he shrugged off their attempted tackle to give Chelsea an early lead.

As all this excitement was going on, the sky was becoming increasingly grumpy.

Play continued for a bit longer, but before anything else of consequence happened, this ominous scene ushered in weather that brought the game to a halt.

After waiting over an hour to see if the weather would allow the game to resume, it was decided that the best course of action would be to postpone the rest of the game until the next afternoon. Unfortunately, I already had plans for Saturday afternoon, so I wasn’t able to see the rest of the game. But here’s a summary:

Chelsea touchdown
Chelsea touchdown
Chelsea touchdown
Chelsea touchdown
Belleville touchdown
Game over

In other words, Chelsea carried its dominating start through the rest of the game and ended up with a resounding 35-7 victory.

Chelsea’s next football game is at Ann Arbor Huron on Friday at 7pm. Come on out and cheer on the Bulldogs!