Friday was Chelsea’s homecoming football game against Adrian. I ended up with too many pictures for one post, so today is just football pictures. The next post will feature photos of the fun around the football game.

Hey, look who showed up for homecoming:

That’s former Bulldog standout Nick Hill, now playing football at Michigan State. (Just to be clear: Nick is on the right. Also, he’s not the Arena Football League quarterback.)

Sometimes people pose for me:

The above catch on Chelsea’s first drive was good. The following sequence on the same drive was even better.

See if you can spot the 15-yard penalty in this next sequence:

Did you see it? The referees didn’t.

Chelsea blocked an Adrian field goal attempt in the first half. The block sent the kick sailing off to the side just past the line of scrimmage, where this gentleman grabbed it out of the air and took off running:

He made it deep into Adrian territory before they tackled him.

There was a video crew filming the game, and they brought with them a small remote controlled helicopter that carried a camera. It wasn’t supposed to venture over the field, but at one point it did end up over the action. Here it is hanging out above the players between plays:

This gentleman would like you to know that the Bulldogs have taken possession:

These gentlemen are pleased that the referee agrees with their ruling on the play:

After the above Chelsea touchdown happened, the Bulldogs were trailing 27-21. But then the defense forced a three and out with a set of nice plays:

And when, on fourth down, the Adrian punter couldn’t handle a bad snap, Chelsea recovered and took over in great field position.

The next play was…well, here, take a look:

The extra point gave Chelsea a 28-27 lead.

Late in the fourth quarter, Adrian drove down the field, even converting a fourth down in Chelsea territory. But when another fourth down presented itself, the Maples decided to try a field goal. The good news for Adrian: unlike the previous attempt, the field goal wasn’t blocked. The bad news for Adrian: the kick sailed wide left.

The Chelsea defense was maybe a little bit excited.

Chelsea was able to gain a first down and run out the clock.

Nick Hill was pleased to see a Chelsea victory.

The Bulldogs were pleased to have won.

Is winning exciting?

WINNING IS EXCITING.

As I was leaving the field, a very different scene caught my eye.

There are always players on the opposite side of jubilation. It was fun to finally see the Bulldogs on the pleasant side of things this year.

Chelsea next faces Lincoln. The game will be in Chelsea on Friday at 7pm. This will be the final home game of this season — be there!

Chelsea football traveled to Ypsilanti to take on the Braves Phoenix Grizzlies. This is the first year for Ypsilanti Community High School — formed as a result of the merger of the Ypsilanti and Willow Run districts — but the school is at the old Ypsi facility, so the football stadium is the same old stadium. Of course, that means it’s the same marvelously old-school scoreboard that has been in use for…well, for a long, long time. Here, take a look:

I hope that scoreboard stands for another 50 years. That thing has character!

Ypsi is one of the few Ann Arbor-area high schools with a real grass football field. That meant Chelsea had to bring this:

As you may have seen in the first sentence, Ypsi has had a few different mascots in recent years: after being the Braves for many years, they switched to the Phoenix only a few years before merging with Willow Run and becoming the Grizzlies. However, the water tower overlooking the stadium prefers to stick with the longtime Ypsilanti High School terminology:

Chelsea dug a bit of a hole in the first half, but this touchdown narrowed the gap:

If you weren’t sure if it really was a touchdown, this may help:

The game started dry, but at some point in the first half it started raining, and that rain persisted the rest of the evening.

Another Chelsea touchdown narrowed the gap even more:

There were a number of turnovers in this game. Defenses tend to get excited about turnovers:

Chelsea’s punter can beat up your punter:

As I said, there were a number of turnovers. Here’s another fumble Chelsea forced:

Artificial turf has its advantages, but from my perspective as a photographer, grass and mud stains make pictures just a little bit better.

Chelsea next faces the Adrian Maples. The game is in Chelsea on Friday at 7pm. There are only two home games left this year — be there!

Saline traveled to Chelsea to take on the Bulldogs. The students had fun customizing their wardrobe before the game.

It was Future Bulldog Night, so the middle school football players watched warmups from the sidelines.

There were also miniature cheerleaders in attendance.

The band joined in the colorful theme.

In keeping with the apparent theme of the season, there was another minor snafu during the entrance:

The Bulldogs next travel to Ypsilanti. The game is on Friday at 7pm.

Chelsea football traveled to Belleville for its second game of the season. As usual, the Bulldogs took the field by running through their banner, but this time things didn’t go as planned. Here are the photos:

Here’s the above sequence animated:

Do you see what happens when you don’t stay in your lanes, gentlemen?!

The rest of the team took the field with no trouble.

This was the scene during the anthem:

Among the pictures I take, there are a scant few that have made me sit back and just look for a minute. The above is one such picture.

This was happening during the game:

Unfortunately, this was happening at halftime:

This tackle stopped Belleville just shy of the end zone on third down:

Sadly, Belleville kicked a field goal to take a 17-14 lead, and that ended up being the final score.

The Bulldogs next face the Saline Hornets. The game will be in Chelsea on Friday at 7pm. Be there!

Chelsea football opened its season at home against Lansing Sexton.

Pregame:

Do you see the smile on Coach Lindauer’s face?

That smile means FOOTBALL.

Last year the banner was facing the crowd, so the players were running under a banner that said AESLEHC SGODLLUB. As you can see from the above photo, now the crowd is cheering for the AESLEHC SGODLLUB. #OgSgodllub

The game started with an unusual tactic: After receiving the kickoff and before running a single play, Sexton took a timeout. As we on the sideline were saying we hadn’t seen that and were wondering why on earth a coach would burn a timeout before the first play of the first game, Sexton proceeded to score an 89-yard touchdown. So…first-play timeouts for everyone! You get a timeout! You get a timeout! And YOU get a timeout!

Sexton scored again shortly after its first touchdown, but the game settled down after that and the score stayed 15-0 until late in the second quarter, when Chelsea put together a drive. On a third down deep in Sexton territory, quarterback Scott Crews took off running…

…and scored to cut Sexton’s lead to 15-7.

The weather was generally pleasant most of the evening, but with 8:46 to go in the fourth quarter the officials spotted lightning, forcing the teams to vacate the field to wait for the lightning to go bother someone else (like Dexter or whatever). The rule requires officials to suspend the game until 30 minutes after the last lightning they see. Sometimes lightning moves out of an area quickly and games are resumed before too long; other times lightning sticks around long enough that the coaches decide to finish the game on Saturday. On this strange Friday, neither was true.

We waited…and waited…and waited…and the lightning was making itself at home. The fly in the ointment was this: Sexton had to travel to Chelsea from the Lansing area — about an hour away — and understandably, they weren’t too keen on making a second trip to Chelsea on Saturday. Chelsea was open to waiting as long as necessary to resume the game, so we waited…and waited…and waited some more. Finally (FINALLY), after more than two and a half hours — the length of a typical high school football game — the officials allowed the teams to resume the game. The teams took the field to warm up at 11:32pm.

Most of the crowd had gone home by then, but a dedicated set of fans remained.

As the game resumed, I took a picture of this creature on the Chelsea sideline:

Looks friendly, don’t you think?

Before the delay, Chelsea had been wearing down the very talented but relatively thin Sexton roster. However, the delay gave Sexton plenty of rest, so shortly after the game resumed, Chelsea punted and (a few plays later) Sexton scored. Chelsea added a late touchdown to make it close, but the onside kick went out of bounds, and that was that. The game ended right around midnight.

Next game:
The Chelsea Bulldogs will face Belleville. The game will be at Belleville on Friday at 7pm.

If you know ANYTHING about me, you know I am unwavering in my belief that football season is the REAL most wonderful time of the year. You probably also know I look forward to fall Friday nights all year. Well, you don’t get to Friday nights without a couple weeks of preseason practices, and Chelsea’s practices started last week. I made it out to Thursday’s practice.

Sometimes helmets need a little adjustment. Here, Coach Lindauer — who also happens to be the mayor of this fine city — takes care of that.

Though there has been talk of (finally) installing a new scoreboard, the old Jerry Niehaus Field scoreboard is still there.

Being a football coach is hard work, y’know?

Week 8 brought Dexter to town. Ah, Dexter. The Dreadnaughts — who use a ship as a mascot even though the type of battleship was the dreadnought, WHERE’S THE CONSISTENCY — are Chelsea’s close and fierce sports rivals. Unfortunately for Dexter, the football rivalry has been one of the most lopsided series in the area. In fact, it might be THE most lopsided series in the area. How lopsided? Let’s put it this way: I’m 31, and I was 14 (and even MORE awkward!) the last time Dexter beat Chelsea in football. Or let’s put it another way: Dexter’s current 17-year-old seniors weren’t even one year old the last time Dexter beat Chelsea. There have been a few close games in the intervening years — including one VERY close call that put a proper scare into the Bulldogs regarding the winning streak — but after another victory in 2011, Chelsea’s win streak was a very healthy 16 games. And…well, that streak really wasn’t in great danger this year.

Okay, hold on. Let me explain. I’m about as cautious as it gets about expressing great confidence in the outcome of a game between rivals. Weird things happen in rivalries. Lousy teams beat good teams. Rivalries make me nervous. I’m terrified of assuming victory. But this year’s Chelsea/Dexter football game? I mean, come on. Chelsea had a rough start to the year with three losses, but that got turned around with greatly improved play and four straight victories. And as for the Dreadnaughts…well, an 0-7 record featuring six extraordinarily lopsided losses provided little evidence of a team that could threaten an upset without an inconceivably great performance and a few big breaks.

There were miniature cheerleaders in attendance:

And, if I may break the timeline for a moment, they performed at halftime:

Anyway. Back to the timeline.

Shortly after the game started…yeah, it was apparent the win streak was going to grow. The Bulldogs didn’t score on their first drive, but they scored a lot after that. This was not an evenly-matched game. At all.

Chelsea put up 34 in the first half and took its foot off the gas in the second half, which resulted in a final score that was not representative of the lopsided nature of the game. (A certain high school football program in Ann Arbor could take notes from this. It’s not bad to win by less than you could have.)

The win was Chelsea’s 17th straight win over Dexter. More importantly, it was Chelsea’s fifth straight win after opening the season with three losses, making the Haslett game a huge opportunity to clinch a playoff spot. I don’t know if you all appreciate what a remarkable turnaround this team has engineered this season: from 0-3 to 5-3 with a very real chance at a guaranteed playoff berth. That is outstanding.

So. The regular season ends this Friday when Haslett comes to town. This is big. This is so big. The game is in Chelsea on Friday at 7pm. SHOW UP AND SUPPORT THE BULLDOGS. Please? Thank you. I look forward to seeing you there.

The Bulldogs, riding a three-game win streak, had to prepare for another stiff test with the 6-0 Tecumseh Indians coming to town. Tecumseh’s last winning season prior to this year was 2007, so they’ve been fairly enthusiastic about the whole deal. In fact, when I traveled to Tecumseh for the JV game on Thursday evening, I found that they were selling playoff shirts emblazoned with the slogan “ROLL TRIBE.” (I also got to watch Chelsea’s freshman and JV teams defeat their previously undefeated Tecumseh counterparts, with the JV managing the feat in a somewhat lopsided fashion. That was enjoyable. Good job, guys.)

Anyway. Tecumseh rolled into Jerry Niehaus Field undefeated and feelin’ alright (yes sir), but the Bulldogs were starting to pick up steam, and there’s been more than a smidgen of tension in the Chelsea/Tecumseh series over the years. It hasn’t been Chelsea’s main football rivalry, but it’s been quite heated at times, and beating Tecumseh has long been a satisfying accomplishment here in Chelsea.

Oh, and it was Chelsea’s homecoming. If you’re going to win a game, it had better be homecoming.

Homecoming means there was a parade.

Those coats typically mean it was rainy or cold. In this case, it was both. Well, it was more rainy than cold, but it felt colder than it was because it was raining. What I’m saying is that I’m pretty sure the precipitation and the temperature conspired to make everybody wonder if it had become pre-winter without warning. My hands mostly stopped working by the end of the evening, so I’m pretty sure it had.

The students were all dressed in white not because the homecoming theme was Casper the Friendly Ghost — although now I’d like to see that happen — but because after the parade they were heading over to the high school parking lot to get colorful. That event was fun enough that I’m going to give those photos their own post. Check back tomorrow.

The band also got colorful, though not quite in the same fashion.

And, of course, at halftime there was the coronation. Do you know when it seemed to rain its hardest? Yup. At halftime.

Okay, now let’s talk football. After the teams traded punts, Chelsea opened the tricky app on its smartphone* and tried a halfback pass.

It may have been mildly successful.

That went for a touchdown, in part because the defense bit so hard on the run that the nearest defender was actually back in Tecumseh.

*Come on, reaching into a bag of tricks is so 90s. Nobody carries a bag of tricks anymore.

The 7-0 lead was great…but it didn’t stop there! On the ensuing kickoff, a Bulldog wrested the ball from the Tecumseh kick returner’s arms. A few seconds later the ball was again in the end zone.

Unfortunately, Tecumseh settled down and managed to pull back within one at 14-13, which wasn’t very nice of them.

You can see from these photos that it quit raining in the first half. As the homecoming shots above show, though, that didn’t last long enough.

Late in the second quarter, the ball zipped down the field and ended up inside the five. No, not on its own. This guy helped:

A couple plays later the ball was in the end zone.

Later, apparently a bit miffed at having not finished his earlier run in the end zone, Mr. Edwards took off on another lengthy scamper. This time he was running through the rain, and this time he ended up in the end zone.

Though it wasn’t what you might call a downpour, the rain was surprisingly heavy at times.

Tecumseh managed to put two second-half touchdowns on the board, and late in the game Chelsea’s lead was down to a slim 31-28 lead. Tecumseh ended up with one final possession to put points on the board…and the rain registered its disapproval of Tecumseh’s efforts.

Tecumseh got uncomfortably close to Chelsea’s end zone despite the rain, but a penalty for a chop block pushed them back 15 yards, and Alex Maloney put an end to their hopes with an interception in the end zone on fourth and 21.

The Bulldogs were pretty happy about it.

With the win, the Bulldogs kept alive their hopes for a six-win season to automatically qualify for the playoffs.

Hey guys, did you hear me? You can still get six wins!

That’s more like it.

Next week brings Dexter to town. BEAT DEXTER.

Plenty about this football season has been unfamiliar for Chelsea fans, and the circumstances of week 6 were no exception: Chelsea came into the game under .500 to face a 4-1 Lincoln team.

Let’s all take a moment to fully appreciate how bizarre this was. First of all: the last time Chelsea started a season 0-3 was 1997. That also marked the last time Chelsea was under .500 through week 5. Oh, and that also marked the last time Lincoln beat Chelsea. And up until the Railsplitters’ surprising playoff berth in 2011, 1998 had been the last time Lincoln had started 4-1. (They started 4-1 in 1997 as well. What was up with 1997?) So this was like flashing back to when I was a teenager, and that’s just…strange.

In case you missed it in that fact-packed paragraph, Lincoln hadn’t managed to beat Chelsea since 1997. Worse yet, from 1999 through 2010, Lincoln didn’t manage more than two wins in any season. It’s been a rough stretch over there. But with the program’s remarkable resurgence and with Chelsea’s uncharacteristic struggles, 2012 presented Lincoln a prime opportunity to end its losing streak.

Where most schools have gone to reusable banners with velcro for the teams to run through, Lincoln has held on to the old-school custom of making a new paper banner every week.

You know what? I appreciate that effort. Well done, Lincoln.

(If you’re wondering, the flag was for holding, and it wiped out a pretty good gain for Chelsea.)

The above photo shows Lincoln’s second touchdown of the game, scored later in the second quarter. Lincoln held a 14-7 lead at that point. Chelsea answered with an impressive drive of its own to tie the game at 14 just before halftime. I’d prepared myself for a close, stressful game, and that’s exactly what it had been. But the second half was…absolutely nothing like the first. Chelsea ran the show in the second half.

One of the players who helped Chelsea take over the second half was Berkley Edwards, seen running free in the above photo. Edwards ended up with well over 200 yards and four touchdowns, one of which is pictured below.

Also to be commended is the Chelsea defense, which went up against an offense that excels at big scoring plays and limited it to a measly six points in the second half. It was an impressive effort.

The above run ended with Edwards’ fourth touchdown, this one late in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

While the Bulldogs celebrated the win with a gusto normally reserved for playoff games, the Railsplitters took the loss hard.

With the win, Chelsea improved to 3-3 and stayed in the hunt for a playoff berth.

This week the Bulldogs are back at home for a HUGE homecoming game against undefeated Tecumseh for the SEC White championship. The game is in Chelsea on Friday at 7pm. Be there!