TECUMSEH - The Tecumseh High School football team hadn’t won a playoff game in more than 20 years, and Southeastern Conference rival Chelsea was primarily to blame.

The Indians had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs four times since reaching a Class BB state semifinal in 1991 with three of those losses coming against Chelsea.

Tecumseh coach Al Romano wasn’t around for any of those losses. But he was Friday night, when the Indians rallied from a 17-0 deficit to beat Chelsea 27-20 in a Division 3 pre-district game.

“Everybody here made me aware of that,” Romano said with a laugh after the game. “For us to beat a good program like that is special. It really is.”

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The Indians (8-2) will play a district title game at Milan (10-0) next Friday. The Big Reds beat Carleton Airport 14-7 in their first-round game.

Tecumseh senior running back Spencer Hite rushed for a game-high 114 yards and scored on three short-yardage runs, the last putting Tecumseh ahead 27-20 with 8:50 left in the fourth quarter.

It was the Indians’ first lead of the day after falling in deep first quarter hole.

On Tecumseh’s opening possession, Chelsea lineman Michael Steinhauer tipped a Ben Dreslinski pass, gathered in the rebound and ran 21 yards for a touchdown. After a three-and-out by Tecumseh, the Bulldogs answered with their only offensive touchdown, a 6-yard Colton Platt run.

When Zach Rabbitt kicked a 27-yard field goal with 2:23 left in the first quarter for a 17-0 lead, it looked like the Bulldogs were on their way to their 17th win in 20 games against Tecumseh during coach Brad Bush’s 16-year stint in Chelsea.

Tecumseh had other plans.

At the same time the Indians’ defense started clamping down on the Chelsea offense, Dreslinski and the Tecumseh offense found its rhythm, protected the ball and eventually outgained Chelsea 400-165.

“Where our game has developed over time is we’ve become a running football team. When you can’t run the football and that’s what you do, you’re going to get beat,” Bush said. “At the end of the day, they outplayed us in every facet. They were a little more disciplined, probably a little more composed, they had a better game plan. They just outplayed us.”

Tecumseh’s defense focused on taking away outside sweeps and pitches and forced the Bulldogs to seek their yards up the middle. There weren’t many there, either.

Chelsea running back Berkley Edwards - who ran for 232 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-28 win over Tecumseh in Week 7 of the regular season - was limited to 83 yards on 28 carries. In total, the Bulldogs averaged just 2.2 yards on 37 carries.

“(Tecumseh) got us out of what we like to do. I thought they did a great job in preparation,” Bush said. “There were some things we certainly weren’t prepared for and we tried to make some adjustments and just weren’t successful.”

After a slow start, Dreslinski completed 15-of-27 passes for 216 yards.

He hit Casey Hunt for a 23-yard touchdown that cut Chelsea’s lead to 17-6, then orchestrated scoring drives that ended in Hite scores in each of the final three quarters.

Chelsea’s only points of the second half came on a 38-yard field goal by Rabbitt.

Rich Rezler is freelance writer for AnnArbor.com.