JV: d. Ypsilanti 17-14; 1-0 (0-0 SEC)
Freshmen: d. Gibraltar Carlson 53-0; 1-0 (0-0 SEC)

Chelsea Varsity Football 2007 record: 1-0 (0-0 SEC)

For the third consecutive year, Chelsea opened its football season as a participant in the Big Day Prep Showdown at Eastern Michigan University. This year, on a mostly cloudy and thoroughly rainy Saturday morning, the Bulldogs faced head coach Brad Bush’s old school: Ypsilanti.

Early in the game, both teams struggled to gain yardage; Chelsea managed to come up with one big scoring play (a 68-yard run by Chris Schmelz), and shortly thereafter, Ypsilanti answered with a quick pass-dominated scoring drive of its own (capped by a 24-yard touchdown pass). But aside from those rare moments of offensive glory, defense reigned.

In fact, at one point, defense put a big scare into the Bulldogs. On a short-yardage play, Chelsea quarterback Jeff Adams ran a quarterback sneak. And it was going well until Adams’ midsection sneaked right into a big hit from Ypsi linebacker Quetzalcaoatl Carrasco, who regularly terrorizes not only opposing offensive players, but also stadium announcers and newspaper editors everywhere. Adams immediately crumpled to the ground and stopped moving; obviously, this caused significant concern among the Chelsea faithful.

Was I not sneaky enough, coach?

Fortunately, Adams was not injured; the collision with Carrasco only knocked the wind out of him. He walked off the field, and after sitting out one play, he returned with a steely determination never again to run upright into collisions with hard-hitting linebackers. Particularly those with names that would frighten spelling bee champions. But his steely determination did not immediately translate into more points, so Chelsea took an 8-7 deficit into halftime.

Chris Schmelz (left), here handing the ball to Nick Hill, started the scoring for Chelsea.

When the third quarter began, it looked to be more of the same; however, just a few minutes into the quarter, Ypsi’s Studly Stud McStuderson, Marvon Sanders — who, like a football Hank Azaria, plays a number of different positions (in Sanders’ case, five) — discovered that brushing twice a day with remarkable athletic talent does not prevent penalty flag decay. Thanks to a late hit on Chelsea’s Donny Riedel, Sanders received his second personal foul penalty of the game, and two such penalties is the limit. (He received his first for unnecessary post-whistle activities on Chelsea’s only kickoff of the first half.) So, not even halfway into the third quarter, Ypsi’s best player was done for the game.

Chelsea took immediate advantage of that gaping hole in the Purple Penalty Eaters’ lineup; two plays after Sanders’ premature exit, Adams lofted a 38-yard touchdown pass to Schmelz, who, it seems, had managed to recover from his previous touchdown enough to run past Ypsi’s abruptly Sandersless defensive secondary. (Normally, Sanders would have been on the field as a cornerback — one of his five positions — and with his level of talent, he almost certainly would have had a hand in that play.) One missed extra point later, Chelsea held a 13-8 lead.

Ah, but Sanders’ absence was not yet done toying with the Braves. He also happened to be the kick returner, and on the subsequent kickoff, his replacement committed a somewhat severe error in judgment: he caught the ball on the 1-yard line as his momentum was carrying him out of bounds. Had he let the ball go, there were two superior potential outcomes: either the ball would travel into the end zone, resulting in a touchback, or the ball would travel out of bounds, resulting in a Chelsea penalty. Instead, he caught it, and he gave his team the ball in a very difficult position.

When the Ypsi offense took the field in that difficult position, it, too, felt Sanders’ absence; he was their best receiver and their biggest offensive threat. And, given horrendous field position without its biggest weapon, the Ypsi offense failed to make a first down, thereby giving its punter the mildly stressful task of kicking from his own end zone.

Of course, even the punting unit went through Sanders withdrawal, and since he was the punter, the withdrawal was severe indeed. In an inexplicable move, the backup punter attempted to punt on the run; perhaps due to the three Chelsea defenders closely inspecting his wardrobe, his attempt morphed into innovative futility. The first half of his punt — dropping the ball — occurred without complication, but the second half of his punt — contacting the ball with his foot — never happened, and his punt turned into a fumble. As you might have guessed, the outcome didn’t favor the punter; Chelsea recovered the ball for another touchdown, and after another missed extra point, Chelsea held a 19-8 lead.

After that series of events, Ypsi lost all confidence and Chelsea lost all fear, and the game became a journey to an increasingly obvious outcome. Adams demonstrated a full recovery by running and throwing for a combined 158 yards; sophomore Nick Hill overcame a fairly quiet first half to accumulate 126 yards and a touchdown, as well as one thoroughly enjoyable leap over a fallen offensive lineman.

Jeff Adams (2), learning from his mistake, avoids a direct hit from Carrasco (11).

Nick Hill (32) runs like the wind. A short, powerful wind that cuts well and hits hard.

On the other side of the ball, Ypsi managed to make one more relevant threat, but the defense held them scoreless until garbage time late in the fourth quarter, giving Chelsea a 26-14 victory.

Taylor Hopkins (7), here defending the run, was on the receiving end of Sanders’ first penalty.

With the win, Chelsea improved to 2-1 in its three years of participating in the Showdown.

Leftovers:

• Sanders is, without a doubt, one of the best football players in the area, and when he was actually playing football, he was fun to watch. But it quickly became apparent that he has an attitude that is all too capable of overshadowing his outstanding physical talents, which is why he was fun to watch only when he was actually playing football. His (at least partially) attitude-driven ejection hurt his team in many ways, and if I am correctly informed, it will hurt his team again next week because the ejection will force him to sit out another game. (This is not unusual; soccer players who receive red cards must sit out a game, too.) He is a significant asset when he is simply playing football, but without changes in his attitude and behavior, he runs the risk of being just as much of a liability as he is an asset.

• Also on the inescapable subject of Sanders, attentive readers will note that I listed only four positions in the game narrative. His five positions are: wide receiver, cornerback, kick returner, punter, placekicker.

• For the first two years of the Showdown, Chelsea was given prime-time placement for its games against Novi; this year, Chelsea was given the 11:45 AM Saturday time slot. Having experienced both, I prefer the prime-time games.

• Nick Hill was named Chelsea’s MVP, and he accepted the award from former Detroit Lion Robert Porcher. I got the opportunity to shake Porcher’s hand after the game, and I can say without hesitation that Porcher is a lot bigger than I am. Also, he’s very pleasant.

• During the game, I made the enormously stupid mistake of climbing the stadium steps to get to the press box. Take it from me: there are a lot of steps. Just use the elevator.

• Full game photo gallery.

Next week:
Chelsea faces the Kicking Mules of Temperance Bedford; the game is in Chelsea on Friday at 7:00 PM.

The grass is always greener when it’s … um … not grass (17 August 2007).

After encountering a few durability problems with the existing natural grass football field, Chelsea decided to install artificial turf from ProGrass. Unfortunately, there have been delays in the installation process, and the field may not be ready for the first JV home football game this Thursday. (From afar, the turf looks like it is in place, but it is only laying on the ground. That is why you can see wrinkles in the turf in some of the pictures.)

Personal note: I strongly prefer to see football played on natural grass; from that perspective, the new turf isn’t the Best News Ever. But sadly, for some reason, the grass wasn’t holding up anymore, and turf was the obvious solution.

Scheduling note: if the turf isn’t ready by Thursday, the JV game will be moved to Ypsilanti. (Thanks to the rain we’ve been getting, this is becoming quite likely.) And if the turf isn’t ready for the varsity home opener a week from Friday … well, there would be some severely unhappy people over on Freer Road (and probably at ProGrass, too).

(Full turf gallery.)

Okay, next time it’s for real (16 August 2007).

Last Thursday, Chelsea had its preseason football scrimmage with Haslett, Monroe Jefferson and Pinckney; because of delays in the installation of the artificial turf at Chelsea’s Jerry Niehaus Field, the scrimmage was moved to Eastern Michigan University.

Chelsea’s regular season begins Saturday morning (11:45) against Ypsilanti, also at EMU.

(Full scrimmage gallery.)