by Phil Lozen, for AnnArbor.com

On a crisp, fall-like night tailor-made for football, the Chelsea and Ypsilanti high school football teams made their Southeastern Conference White Division opener a black-and-blue affair.

Hitting was plentiful, yards were precious and points were sacred Friday night at Ypsilanti's Shadford Field as Chelsea tripped up the Phoenix, 10-6.

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While there was an average of 65.4 points scored in the five other SEC games being played Friday night, the Phoenix (1-3, 0-2) and Bulldogs (3-1, 2-0) allowed each other just a combined 355 total yards of offense.

“We couldn’t seem to get the ball in position to make the big play tonight,” Chelsea coach Brad Bush said. “But they’re good on defense. I think a lot of their defense. I told the team all week they’d be good on defense and they were.”

The game started on the wrong foot for Ypsilanti when the Phoenix fumbled on their first offensive play. Senior defensive end Kevin Watkins recovered for the Bulldogs at the Ypsilanti 28-yard-line.

The Phoenix survived that miscue when Chelsea’s Berkley Edwards put the ball on the ground just three minutes later on the Ypsilanti 16. Bryan Fortson, who led all players with 11 solo tackles, recovered for the Phoenix.

The teams traded punts before Ypsilanti fumbled for the second time in the opening quarter and Chelsea’s Truman Handley recovered on the Phoenix 8-yard line. The Bulldogs didn’t squander the opportunity this time, punching it in two plays later when Edwards, who carried 34 times for 105 yards, ran up the middle, bounced off a tackle and sprinted to the left side on a 5-yard scoring run to give Chelsea a 7-0 lead.

It would prove to be all the points the Bulldogs needed.

The next five drives resulted in punts as the teams combined for just 58 yards in the first quarter and 177 in the first half. Chelsea padded its lead with a 30-yard field goal from Zach Rabbitt with 26 seconds left in the half.

After Chelsea’s opening drive of the second half ran more than five minutes off the clock, Ypsilanti went 72 yards in 10 plays and scored on a 14-yard run by quarterback Daryl Tipton. Phoenix running back Brandon Jordan covered an Ypsilanti fumble on the previous play to keep the drive alive. The Phoenix had four fumbles in the game, losing two.

After the two-point conversion failed, Ypsilanti trailed 10-6 with two minutes left in the third quarter. The Phoenix would run just three more plays in the second half.

“You know last week, the offense picked us up,” Watkins said of Chelsea’s defensive unit. “This week, we kind of picked them up a bit. That’s how it works, we win as a team, we lose as a team.”

Time of possession was a big key to the game as Chelsea dominated, holding the ball 31 minutes to just 16 for Ypsilanti. Ypsilanti only ran 13 plays and had the ball for just 6 minutes and 29 seconds in the second half.

“Our guys are good, and when we play right we can play with anyone on defense,” Bush said. “I knew going into the year we’d have some 10-6 games. But to our offense’s credit, we got the ball at the end of the game and ran the clock out.”

“I think we showed the toughness of our kids tonight,” Phoenix coach Jason Malloy said of his defense. “When I set out to build this program, it starts with defense. I think there were some encouraging things as a head football coach in how we played against two of the premier teams in the league the last two weeks.”

Ypsilanti limited Pioneer to just 14 points in a 14-6 loss last week, but the Phoenix didn’t execute well enough on offense in either of the defeats.

The Phoenix take on Tecumseh next week while Chelsea hosts defending SEC White champions Adrian.