Chelsea, MI. – The sun beat down strongly on the field at Jerry Niehaus Stadium in Chelsea as the Bulldogs Junior Varsity field hockey team played host to the Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard team. The Irish of Gabriel Richard received the ball first but Chelsea dominated in the first quarter with many opportunities including two corners at the very end of the half but was unable to capitalize.
In the second quarter, the Irish came out strong and got their first corner on the game early on. After some great defensive play, the Bulldogs drove down the field with a great shot on goal by freshman Emily Heiss, which led to another Chelsea corner with about 8 minutes left in the second. Chelsea failed to capitalize successfully in the second in spite of having 4 corner attempts and much pressure on the Irish goalkeeper.
Chelsea kept the pressure on in spite of the heat and had several good opportunities in the third quarter including more corner attempts but after three the score still remained 0-0.
The Irish seemed to control the pace of the fourth corner but Bulldog freshman goalkeeper Lily Spiess made several outstanding stops to keep the game scoreless. About halfway through the final stanza freshman Abbie Nye, who had two goals in her last game, blasted a great shot on goal after cutting through the defense with her speed but missed out on the final mark.
Gabriel Richard would end the game with several corner opportunities but Heiss and her Bulldog teammates came up big with the stop and clear. Time would expire and both teams would exit the field with an exhausting hard fought 0-0 draw.
The Bulldogs varsity team fell to Gabriel Richard by a 2-1 score in a very tough hard-fought loss. The Bulldogs will hit the road Monday and face off against Ann Arbor Pioneer. Game time is 4:30 for the Junior Varsity, 6:00 for varsity.
