(Chelsea Update would like to thank Tanner Starkey, David Slusser, Larry Merx, Nathan Dawson and Dan Rhodes for the information in this story.)
7th grade blue
The Chelsea 7th grade blue team lost a tough game to the Dexter Drednaughts Tuesday afternoon, 48-0.
The Bulldogs had some successful runs behind the blocking of Trevor Ford and AJ Cobb but were unable to find the end zone.
They will look to bounce back against Monroe next week in their season finale.
7th grade gold
Seventh grade gold team traveled to Bedford and lost 36-0.
The Bulldogs were led on defense by Gabe Anstead and Gavin James. Kyle Otromke and Braden Watson each had a fumble recovery.
On offense, the Bulldogs struggled to move the ball but solid running by Andrew Stockton helped the Bulldogs greatly.
8th grade blue
The 8th grade blue football team hosted the Dexter Dreadnaughts Tuesday night. The Bulldogs held Dexter to six points in the first half, and ended the half with the score 6-0.
In the second half, the Dreads put up an additional 8 points. The Bulldogs scrapped back in the second half to put the ball in the end zone. Hunter Shaw at quarterback directed the Dogs’ offense. Offensive linemen, Colin Ledbetter, Matt Poulter, Dan Charnack, Connor Donajkowski and others provided solid blocking to allow running backs Cole Munson, Diego Medel, Jack Cavanaugh and Drew McGuire to consistently move the ball.
Medel put the ball in the end zone and followed with the points after TD, making the score 8 for the Dogs and 14 for the Dreads. That score held up giving Dexter the 14-8 win.
Defensively, the Chelsea squad played a tough game. Donajkowski, Peter Fredenberg and Andrew Hilbert recorded sacks. Robert Sutch and Tyler McIntosh both had tackles for substantial loss. Joey Formigan forced a fumble. Sutch blocked an extra point kick and several Bulldogs made big hits stopping Dexter for little or no gain with regularity.
The 8th grade blue team will finish the season next Tuesday with a road trip to Monroe, where they’ll work on improving their season record to 2 and 4.
8th grade gold
The Chelsea 8th grade Gold team took a very long road trip down to Bedford Tuesday night to face off against the Kicking Mules. If you love middle school football and were not in attendance, you missed one exciting football game.
In the first half, the Bulldogs opened the game with the ball on offense only to go three and out with a pretty large penalty.
They were, however, able to score twice before halftime. Once on a real nice pass from Woody to Gray, and again from Woody to Ben S. Both times the 2-point conversions failed. Bedford had different plans as they would score 4 times in the first half, and all on runs of 60 or more yards.
Bedford would lead the game at half 28-12.
The second half was a complete turnaround, and this is where those who were at the game got all of their money’s worth. Chelsea 8th grade Gold rose up to the challenge and faced adversity that would make any coach proud.
The defense was an absolute mountain of a wall, holding the Mules to less than 50 yards total and didn’t let up a single point. When the Kicking Mules started the 2nd half with the ball, Chelsea took them three and out to get their offence fired up and back on the field. They drove the ball down the field to score on a very well earned run by Vosters. Ben S. would take the ball in on the 2-point conversion making it 28-20, still in favor of the Mules.
As the 3rd quarter rolled to an end and the score board read 4th quarter, Chelsea once again called for their mountain of a defense with yet another 3 and out. The offence, with no surprise, again drove the ball down the length of the field to see Dunn find Ben S. in the end zone for his second TD reception of the night. Unfortunately, Chelsea fell a yard shy of the game tying 2-point conversion leaving Bedford ahead 28-26 with just over a minute to go in the game.
Chelsea gave their all, right down to the last seconds of the game, giving everything they could to rip the ball from the hands of the Mules running backs. Unfortunately, with no time outs remaining, the clock would roll to 0:00 before Chelsea was able to make it happen.
The final score left Bedford on top of the Bulldogs, 28-26.
Sadly, next Tuesday the 8th grade gold Chelsea Bulldogs will end their middle school football careers. The upside, they get to do it on their home field in Chelsea with an opportunity against none other than the Saline Hornets. We hope to see you all for another great Chelsea middle school football game.
