Chelsea’s Nic Brough gets air trying to defend a pass
On a beautiful, sunny evening at Jack Niehaus Football Stadium, the Chelsea Bulldog Lacrosse team donned their golden warrior helmets and prepared to face off against the Grosse Ile Red Devils. Scoring came early and often for the Bulldogs as they battled to a huge 17-1 victory.
Barely a minute in it was Senior Mikal Nelson who got the scoring started for the Bulldogs. A minute and a half later Sophomore Cam Breining took advantage of a miscue by the Devils goalie and easily blasted the ball into the net. The devil’s goalie had tried to play the body on Breining and when he did, he fell awkwardly to the ground injuring himself and had to leave the game. He had torn an acl earlier in the season and sat the rest of the game out with an ice bag on his leg.
Breining would go on to score the next 3 goals for Chelsea and would finish with 4 on the night with 1 assist. Nelson scored two more giving him the hat trick on the night while Senior Nate Bero picked up a hat trick also, giving props to his dad Jeff who was up in the press box on his third goal.
The Bulldogs cruised to a 10-0 halftime lead and at the half, they honored the 7 senior players who have helped make the team a success over the years. Nate Bero, Ryan Berry, Nick Childress, Josh Ciaccio, Aidan Kurth, Mikal Nelson, and Nick Whitesall were all honored as the walked down the 50-yard line with their parents and received gifts from the team in recognition of all they do and have done for the team. It was a very nice yet emotional ceremony for many of the parents and the players as they realize the end of their High School career is almost over but each player will move on to other things, many attending college while Whitesall has already committed to his country as he will be joining one of the finest fighting forces America has to offer, the United States Marine Corps.
After the ceremony, the players got right back down to business never losing focus as they wanted to defend their field and give netminder Josh Ciaccio another shot at a shutout. Spencer Gobba scored two quick goals off excellent cross field Doug Zarinnia passes to separate the score even more. Zarinnia would finish with 6 helpers on the night.
Sophomore Riley Sumner would chip in two late goals along with fellow sophomore Zach Cooley who picked up a goal late unassisted. Ryan Berry finished the scoring on the night for the Bulldogs off an Evan Kucera assist.
The lone bright spot for the Devils was when they broke up the shutout with about two minutes left to go on the night.
“It’s ok, it happens,” a very happy netminder Josh Ciaccio said after the game. “I’m just glad we won and I’m very happy, I’ve had two shutouts before so it’s all good.”
Chelsea will return home Friday night to take on Ann Arbor Pioneer in the last home game of the season.
Senior Ryan Berry
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