After picking up its first win of the season, Chelsea headed down to Adrian to face one of its bigger football rivals: the Fightin’ Canadians of Adrian. Okay, fine, they’re the Adrian Maples. Whatever. I’m not really on board with using an inanimate object for a sports mascot — unless it’s meant to be charmingly humorous, like the Montgomery Biscuits — and the maple leaf is kind of the symbol OF AN ENTIRE COUNTRY, so…Fightin’ Canadians. (FC for short, which is probably going to make all you soccer fans think Football Club, and that’s hilarious because we’re talking about football here.)

Anyway. Chelsea’s rivalry with Adrian has been very tightly-contested since the FC joined the SEC. Last year was unpleasant for Bulldog fans: Chelsea defeated Adrian in the regular season but lost to the FC at home in the second round of the playoffs. Yuck. Let’s all forget about that forever. Please? Thank you. Think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. No political ads on tv…no spam in my email inbox…free Biggby coffee…happy thoughts.

This year’s game was a bit strange: where most years the teams meet with playoff berths almost certain, this year the teams met with 1-3 records and a desperate need to win simply to keep playoff hopes alive. The deeply overcast skies and steady drizzle were unpleasant for anyone who wasn’t in the press box laughing at all us suckers getting all wet, but they seemed appropriate for this game.

The first part of the game was a bit rough for the Bulldogs. There was lots of this:

And this:

Oh, and the first one of those got run back for a touchdown. It was every bit as fun as it sounds, which is to say NO FUN AT ALL. But the defense managed to keep Adrian under control for the most part.

Speaking of the press box, I’ve spent my fair share of time looking through the second window from the left:

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though. There was a touchdown run to brighten the evening. That was good because as you may notice in the next photo, Adrian’s lights aren’t all that great.

The field doesn’t look that dim when you’re just looking at it with your own two eyes because it ISN’T that dim…unless you’re a camera shooting photographs and you don’t match up with the pulses of the lights. Hooray.

Chelsea added a field goal before the end of the half, too.

Did I mention it was raining? Because it was.

One of the great things about being at Adrian on a rainy evening was the dirty uniforms. Artificial turf has its advantages, but sometimes I miss dirty uniforms.

At the end of the third quarter Chelsea was losing 18-9. There wasn’t a whole lot of optimism in the air. But then…another touchdown run! Suddenly it was 18-16 with plenty of time left.

And on the ensuing possession, the play of the game happened. The Adrian quarterback threw a pass that looked certain to be a completion…but somehow a Bulldog got his hand on the ball, tipped it up, and alchemized a RIDICULOUS interception out of what looked to be an easy Adrian first down. This picture does not do it justice because it’s just after he reeled in the ball:

That play brought the sideline and the crowd to life.

The Chelsea offense again moved down the field, but after getting in field goal range, it got itself into a third and long. Chelsea completed a pass for a first down…but oh wait, there was a flag, and things got weird. The penalty was illegal man downfield, which isn’t a particularly common penalty but which seemed to have been called about 62 times already in the game. (That may be an exaggeration, but it WAS called a lot more than usual.) In that situation, the possibilities were:

• Adrian could accept the penalty, move Chelsea back five yards, and replay third down
• Adrian could decline the penalty and give Chelsea the completed pass for a first down

It doesn’t take a great football mind to know what Adrian would want to do, but…somehow it ended up being fourth down at the previous line of scrimmage. After a few minutes the officials got the situation straightened out, and Chelsea ended up with another chance at third down, but from five yards farther back.

And the ball ended up in the end zone again.

Having taken a 22-18 lead, Chelsea decided to go for two. And the ball ended up in the end zone AGAIN:

Facing a six-point deficit with just under three minutes to play, Adrian returned the kickoff to Chelsea’s 45 and…um…threw a touchdown pass on the very next play. Whoops. BUT WAIT. There was a flag. Hey, guess what the penalty was? YOU GOT IT: illegal man downfield! I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I saw the signal. It seemed appropriate in the most absurd way possible.

On the next play Adrian’s quarterback heaved another long pass down the field, but this time a Bulldog was there to give it a good home. The Chelsea offense took the field needing only a first down or two to hold on for the win.

And yes, after three frustrating quarters and one surprisingly exhilarating quarter, the Bulldogs did hold on for the win over the Fightin’ Canadians.

They were a little happy.

Chelsea plays at Lincoln this Friday at 7pm. Lincoln is flying high and, as will be the case the rest of the season, Chelsea is in desperate win mode. You won’t want to miss this game.