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.
Next week:
Chelsea faces the Kicking Mules of Temperance Bedford; the game is in Chelsea on Friday at 7:00 PM.
For you to make comments about this kid ( means you do not know any thing about him) is kind of stupid on your part. If, you knews Marvon Sanders. you would know that he is honer student Ypsi high, he had college offers to attend Cornell ,Brown, Eastern, Western and Georgetown. If you were fair witht your assessment of the game or if you knew the game. It was clear that both penatlies were borderline calls by the rules of football. All coaches, including Brad Bushes teach thier players to plays until you hear the whistle. His attitude had nothing to do with his ejection. His ejection was caused by officials who have the same mind set as you. People who pass judgement only for what they see and not because of the rules of the game Just becuase he is a black player and aggressive on the football field (like he should be), you think he is that way all the time. How wrong are you for thinking like that. It problably does not matter to you that you feel that way, just like it does not matters to the officials (it just a black kid).
From his parents
Damn.
I couldn’t agree more with “his parents.” Any refs doing a home game for Chelsea will obviously take race into account when making their calls. It’s irrelevant that there were other non-pasty players on the field, yet Sanders was the only one able to get not just one, but two personal fouls (and that in barely over half a game). Since all players are taught the same way – play until the whistle – the refs should have been ejecting light-absorbing players left and right. That shows not only are the refs flaming racists, but they’re also inconsistent.
His parents get it exactly right when they expose the refs’ “mind set” as being exactly the same as yours: his only crime in your mind is “playing while black,” because you can’t possibly know the attitude of his mind. I don’t know how they are so sure of both the refs’ and your mind-sets based on two calls and one blog post, but it’s clear they are right. (I’d make some clever pun about the pot calling the kettle black here, but it would be inappropriate.)
Furthermore, shame on you for implying he is anything less than an honors student at Ypsilanti. I’m still trying to find where exactly you made that implication, but I know it’s there.
Finally, additional evidence that Chelsea refs are biased against people of color is my own humble experience. I am blazing white, and in five years of football I managed only one penalty that I recall (a mundane false start against Milan). In four years of basketball, I never once received a technical foul. That was clearly because the refs were awed by my borderline albino authority. And if you don’t believe I played aggressively, I can send you a few videos of my tackles (from basketball).
Out of all this, I can think we can be sure of two things: Absolutely no fault lies with (1) the player, or (2) the way he was raised.
Let us leave the land of pointed sarcasm, for one serious point: what’s up with his coaches? We had a guy get a personal foul once; I truly believe it was an accident, which the refs misinterpreted (and in a lovely irony here, he was of the non-white persuasion). Anyway, he paid for it the entire next week in practice. If anyone had managed to get two personal fouls in one game, I believe finishing high school out-of-state wouldn’t have been an entirely unreasonable option.
To Marvin Sanders parents,
Your son has an electrifying presence on the football field and I’m sure, from what you state, in the classroom also. I have only heard and read wonderful things about him. I’m not here to debate weather kicking a player in the face mask or tackling another player 3 steps after a pass is dropped is a “borderline call by the rules of football.”
I would like to give you my opinions on your attack of Burrill Strong. You stated that Burrill passed judgment on your son “because he is a black player and aggressive on the football field.” To quote you, “For you to make comments about this man ( means you do not know any thing about him) is kind of stupid on your part.”
Burrill doesn’t say anywhere in his writings that he thinks your son “is that way all the time” as you state. I personally am of the mind that anyone that thinks a football player is the same on and off the field is a little naive. Ray Nitschke is a perfect example of the duality of a player on and off the field and I am sure from your comments that your son is similar (Nitschke was a Teddy Bear off the field).
In your last two sentences you write: “How wrong are you for thinking like that. It problably does not matter to you that you feel that way, just like it does not matters to the officials (it just a black kid).” Unless you are capable of reading minds, you assume quite a bit and in this instance you are wrong.
Lastly I would like to wish Marvon Sanders an exciting, injury free season and I look forward to seeing him play on Saturdays.
Burrill, you are the best. I love, love, love your commentary. You have missed your calling. You should be writing for the Ann Arbor News. You would keep it fun, enlightening and unbiased. You rock.
Thanks! I will recommend this to all my friends.