By Allen Wright
Slideshow by Alan Ashley
On a beautiful night tailor-made for high school football and homecoming festivities, the Chelsea Bulldogs returned home to Jerry Niehaus field to host the Ann Arbor Huron River Rats.
The winless River Rats were no match for a powerful Chelsea team who handed them their eighth loss on the season by a dominant 44-14 score.
The Bulldogs got the scoring started right away as they moved the ball 80 yards in only a minute and a half as Thomas Steele hit Alex Sanborn for a 40-yard touchdown pass. Huron was then driving the ball downfield on their first possession of the evening when their quarterback Ka Assane’s pass was intercepted by Patrick Bertoni who returned it 63 yards for the score and a quick 14-0 Bulldog lead.
After the Chelsea defense forced a Huron punt, Chelsea’s Quinn Starkey came in to play quarterback and started strong as he hit sophomore Kyle Knight for a 58-yard score. Chelsea would go into halftime with a huge 27-0 lead after Michael Tarasow added on two field goals from 24 and 37 yards out.
The homecoming ceremony was a beautiful one as always as senior Caroline Hirth was named the 2017 Chelsea homecoming queen before a packed crowd.
As the Bulldogs took the field for the third quarter, it was more of the same as they dominated on both sides of the ball. After a big defensive stand forcing Huron to turn the ball over on downs, Daniel Duran carried the ball into the end zone for the Bulldogs from 1-yard out to give the Bulldogs a 34-0 lead.
Huron was persistent though and finally got on the board late in the third quarter as Jaylen Matthews scored from 8 yards out. The Bulldogs would come back with another score as Knight found the end zone on a big running play from 47 yards out. He would finish the night with a team-leading 155 all-purpose yards.
Aaron Winston of Huron would get a 1-yard touchdown run before Chelsea would finish their scoring with a 32-yard field goal from kicker Drew Lewis.
The Bulldogs were led on offense by Steele who was again near perfect in the air going 8 for 9 with 136 yards and 1 touchdown. Knight, Sanborn, Hunter Neff, and Nick Christian would all be a few of the recipients of Steele and Starkey’s passes throughout the game.
The Chelsea defense was relentless and pressured the River Rats all night long only allowing a total of 191 total yards while forcing 3 fumbles and one interception. They finished with 1 sack and 10 tackles for loss. Evan Kucera and Ethan Corkin-Howell combined for the sack while each also getting 1 and a half tackles for loss. The Bulldogs were led in total tackles by Jake Seitz with 8, Andy Xiao with 5, and Kucera with 4.
The Bulldogs (7-1 overall, 5-1 conference) will finish their regular season at home on Friday night against the 2-6 Alpena Wildcats. It will be senior night for the Bulldogs and kickoff will be at 7 p.m.
