(Chelsea Update would like to thank Dan Rhodes, David Slusser, Larry Merx, Nathan Dawson and Tanner Starkey for the information in this story.)
7th grade gold
The 7th grade gold team played Lincoln at home Tuesday night and lost 32-0.
Even though the score didn’t show it, the Bulldogs improved greatly from the previous week and grew on many levels.
The offense was led by Andrew Stockton who had several great rushes as well as Matt Blanton. Big hits on defense by Dorian Ciccone helped the Bulldogs.
Great improvement boys.
7th grade blue
The 7th grade blue team lost a tough one to the Bedford red team 22-0. Drew Sherwood led the Bulldogs on offense with a couple of hard-nosed runs behind the blocking of AJ Cobb and Matt Gietzen.
On defense, Carter Alexander helped lead the Bulldogs to multiple 4th down stops.
8th grade blue
The 8th grade blue football team made the long trip to Bedford yesterday to take on the Kicking Mules. The Bulldogs got behind early with two quick TD’s scored against them, but roared back with a kick-off return for a TD by Cole Munson. Munson then orchestrated a successful points after TD play with Diego Medel putting the ball into the end zone. That TD was followed shortly after with another TD coming as the result of great pass protection blocking by Ian Carter, Tyler McIntosh, John Piatt and Brandon Emmert, that gave QB Hunter Shaw time to complete the TD pass to Connor Donakowski.
Once again, Munson called the right play for the PAT giving the ball to Joey Formigan on an option toss. The dog’s final score came on a breakaway long run by Medel. The game ended with Caden Knight moving the ball decisively down the field with a number of passes, falling just short of the goal line with a Bedford interception in the end zone.
Good performances were turned in by several of the Bulldogs including several impressive open field tackles by defensive back, Robbie Tyson, hard runs and, once again, strong punting by Joey Formigan, and good up-front defensive play by tackles Robert Sutch, Carter, McIntosh and Dan Charnock.
The Dogs were better than last week. And were better yet in the second half but wound-up on the short end of the final score, Dogs 22, Mules 48. Next week, the blue team will host the Grizzlies from Ypsilanti in a 5:30 p.m. game.
8th grade gold
Tuesday night, the Chelsea 8th grade gold team hosted the Lincoln Railsplitters for a very exciting game down to the final seconds. Lincoln would take a very early lead returning the opening kickoff back for the first TD of the evening. Carson Grey made the big stop on the 2-point conversion, leaving the Dogs trailing by 6.
The Bulldogs defense played outside themselves all night long. Gray made two outstanding tackles with forced fumbles, both recovered by Chelsea.
Lucas Dunn came up huge with a blocked punt inside the 5-yard line to set Chelsea up on their first touchdown. Carter Yax also came up big on defense with a game-saving opportunity late in the fourth to help set the Bulldogs up for one last chance to come away with the victory.
The entire Chelsea defense had a slew of great plays all night long with many sacks and tackles for losses from all across the board.
While moving the ball well to start off, the Chelsea offence seemed to have trouble finding the end-zone until late in the 2nd half when none other than powerhouse Gray ran one in for the first touchdown for the dogs on the night. The toss from Ben Struzouski to Gray would add 2 more for the Dogs making it a 8-6 game in favor of Chelsea.
At half-time, the Dogs trailed 20-8.
The second half was where the excitement would start to build and reach its full potential. If you weren’t on the edge of your seat, or already standing, then you weren’t in the stadium. Gray would end up smashing his way to the endzone one more time to bring the Dogs within 6, still trailing 20-14.
The Chelsea defense proved to be the stopping force keeping Lincoln scoreless for the entire 2nd half. This is where, late in the game with just a couple minutes left, Yax would make his interception giving the Dogs offense one last go at victory. With time winding down quickly and one timeout left to go, Chelsea pounded the ball all the way down to the 10-yard line. Unfortunately, with 7 seconds left on the clock, 4th down, and no time outs left, quarterback Dunn’s pass would fall incomplete. The Railsplitters would then end the game taking a knee for the last play.
The 8th grade gold team will head to Pinkney next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. to face off with the Pirates.
