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!