On a windy cold snowy Halloween, Chelsea football welcomed Grosse Ile to town for the first round of the playoffs.
What’s that? You don’t believe me? Come on, I wouldn’t lie about snow.
I wasn’t kidding about the wind, either. It was strong enough to run through the banner before the team could get to it.
The team didn’t seem to mind.
The game was streamed live on the Fox Sports Detroit website, so there was a tv cameraman roaming the Chelsea sidelines.
The coaches were bundled up for the cold.
The calendar said it was October, but there’s a chance we all made a HUGE mistake and it was actually December. This was the scene just before kickoff:
The wind didn’t end its shenanigans at running through the banner before the team did. It also blew over all the pylons.
(On at least one occasion it blew the football a few yards down the field after the referee spotted it, too, but I didn’t get a photo of that.)
With the combination of the temperature (just below freezing) and the wind (SO MANY MILES PER HOUR), the sideline heater was a popular destination.
Both offenses had some trouble sustaining drives in the first half. Grosse Ile’s biggest problem was turnovers. Chelsea got pretty excited about turnovers.
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It’s not often that Chelsea gets to play football in the snow, so I couldn’t resist getting photos whose sole purpose was to show the snow. (You may have already noticed that.) Here are a couple more.
Grosse Ile started to move the ball, but they couldn’t solve their turnover problem. Twice in the first half they had the ball inside Chelsea’s ten yard line, but the first such possession ended when the Chelsea defense forced a fumble.
Grosse Ile’s second trip inside the ten ended when the Chelsea defense made the stop on fourth down. Those two crucial stops kept the game scoreless, and that’s how it stayed through the end of the first half.
The snow tapered off a little bit by halftime, but the wind decided to stick around.
Just as some of us were beginning to ponder the prospect of a scoreless game going into overtime, the Chelsea defense came up with yet another turnover…
…and the Chelsea offense…
…made it count.
The extra point — never a certainty in high school football, and certainly not in high winds! — made it 7-0.
BANANA!
Chelsea carried that lead into the fourth quarter.
Grosse Ile punched in a touchdown of its own to tie the game, and some of us yet again began to ponder the prospect of an overtime game (and frostbite, and hypothermia, and…). But Jacob Scheese really wanted to go home and warm up.
That’s Jacob catching a short pass.
That’s Jacob turning a short pass into an 84-yard touchdown.
The Grosse Ile defense couldn’t believe it.
Grosse Ile couldn’t find a way to answer Chelsea’s go-ahead touchdown, and the Chelsea offense put an end to their hopes with a big drive…
…that ended with a Justice Staton touchdown.
The defense made another stop, and as Grosse Ile used up its timeouts…
…Chelsea worked on running out the clock.
That’s Trey Seitz carrying defenders on his way to a first down.
Grosse Ile never got another possession.
Was Jordan Haber excited about the playoff win?
I’m not sure.
I mean, it was hard to tell how anyone felt about the win.
The matchup in the other side of the bracket was played on Saturday, so as the team celebrated, nobody knew who the Bulldogs would be facing in the second round. If the favored team won, Chelsea would be going on the road. But because single-elimination playoffs can be wacky, the underdog Detroit Old Redford pulled off the 14-6 upset over Dearborn Heights Robichaud, giving Chelsea another home playoff game.
Are you going to come cheer on the Bulldogs as they play for a district title? Of course you are! Chelsea will be facing Detroit Old Redford at 7pm on Friday.