Story and photos by Allen Wright
On a beautiful Friday night under a colorful sky, the Chelsea football team travelled to Ypsilanti Lincoln to take on the Railsplitters, where they dominated them en route to a 38-16 victory.
Lincoln handled the ball first, but it didn’t take long for Chelsea to strike first as on a third down and long yardage situation, quarterback Jack Bush scrambled under pressure and jumped in the air as he threw a deep pass downfield to Cam Cooper. Cooper made a spectacular catch setting up Gus Reynolds, who ran it on the left side for a 3-yard touchdown on the very next play.
The Bulldogs defense was dominant again, as they put much pressure on Lincoln quarterback Cam Thompson. As Thompson threw down the left side of the field, Chelsea’s Patrick Bertoni jumped the receiver’s route and made a great interception with a good return, setting Chelsea up with good field position.
It didn’t take Chelsea long to take advantage of the turnover and move the ball quickly, and in 4 plays it was Bush keeping it for the 2-yard touchdown. It was just one of three Bush touchdowns on the night as he would score twice more from the one after big Chelsea drives. Bush was also 11-for-18 with 167 yards passing on the night.
Chelsea kept the pressure on Lincoln the whole first half, forcing punts and turnovers. Lincoln didn’t help its own cause on the night as they had 10 penalties for over 100 yards, many of them personal fouls.
With less than a minute to go in the first half, Chelsea forced a turnover which turned into a Chris Roush 27-yard field goal sending Chelsea into the half with a huge 31-0 lead.
Mikal Nelson took over for Bulldogs at quarterback after halftime and many of the younger players got their chance to play. Nelson made several big plays and went 2-for-3 in passing for 17 yards and had 10 yards rushing.
But the big play of the second half was when running back Jacob Grubbs took the ball leftside and broke from Lincoln’s defense and made many great moves as he jetted down the field for a 69-yard score.
Lincoln was kept off the board until late in the game when Jordan Roberson ran for a score and Thompson took it on a quarterback keeper sweep left and used his speed for a 13-yard score. Thompson finished the night for Lincoln with 65 yards on 16 attempts while throwing 23 times only completing 10 with 144 yards and 1 interception.
With time running out in the 4th and Chelsea backed up near it’s own end zone, Bulldog punter Quentin Beck took the ball into the end zone and ran around avoiding tackles taking time off the clock and finally going down to give Lincoln the safety, on a designed play. Lincoln then received the ball and with hardly any time left and took a knee.
The Bulldogs were led in rushing by Grubbs who had 73 yards on 2 attempts while Reynolds went 59 yards on 11 attempts. Cooper led the way with 107 receiving yards on 5 catches.
On defense, the Bulldogs were led by Evan Kucera with 7 tackles, Patrick Barnes with 6, and Cash Shegan with 5. Shegan had the lone sack for the Bulldogs on the night.
Chelsea will be hosting Tecumseh this week at home on Friday night at 7 p.m.
