News File Photo Alpena's players Austin Ritter (64), Zac Suszek (30) and Jordan Schultz (7) tackle Escanaba's Jared Nash during a game at Wildcat Stadium in August. Suszek and Ritter are among 14 seniors will play in their final high school game tonight for the Wildcats.

It has been a season full of ups and downs for the Alpena High School football team in 2018.

From a hopeful 2-0 start, to three heart-wrenching defeats by a combined eight points and now riding a six-game losing streak, the Wildcats are focused on finishing the season on a positive note at Wildcat Stadium when they host Chelsea (6-2) at 7 p.m. tonight on Senior Night.

“It’s definitely the end of the road. The focus is just on trying to put our guys in a position to be successful and send the seniors out on a high note.” Alpena coach Aaron Sims said. “Almost every single one of these guys have put in a ton of time and effort towards the program and I honestly believe that the seniors have definitely left the program in a better place than what they received it and I couldn’t ask for anything more from them. I’m really looking forward to working hard to put them in a position to go out on a high note.”

The Wildcats (2-6) will bid farewell to 14 seniors tonight. Bob Sheldon, Kayden Wisniewski, Zach Schaedig, Kody Bertrand, Nathan Slominski, Eric Troy, Zac Suszek, Logan Guthrie, Noah Connon, Brand Secrest, Austin Ritter, Marcus Amlotte and Zac Cramer will all play their final football game in the Green and White tonight.

“This is a great group. I’m pretty tight with a lot of these guys and it’s definitely emotional. I’m trying not to let the emotions run wild day in and day out, but I am tight with these guys and I love them,” Sims said. “We put in a lot time and effort and we all did it together. We spend hours together and you build bonds during those times and it’s definitely important to me and the rest of the underclassmen and coaches to put these seniors in a position to go out on a high note and have good feelings and memories.”

Nothing will come easy for the seniors or rest of the Wildcats and they welcome a Chelsea team that has been dominant for two decades. The Bulldogs come in on a three game winning streak, aiming to earn a better seed for the upcoming high school playoffs.

“It’s the last game and Chelsea is a good team. We see good teams week in and week out and good teams with good athletes. No week is ever harder or easier than the other and we have faced good players on the other side of the field each week,” Sims said. “We have to be prepared, we have to come out and play physical and I think the key for us right now for us as a program is really figuring out how to come out and just play with our hair on fire all of the time and let the passion and emotion run wild during games. That’s our next step as we move through developing this program is learning how to play with those kind of efforts and techniques.”

Alpena will hope to reverse its fortunes from last year’s inaugural meeting against the Bulldogs as they were on the receiving end of a 42-7 defeat.

Despite being out of the playoff picture, the Wildcats still enter tonight’s game with the added motivation of playing on Senior Night in front of a home crowd, while eyeing a signature win for the program heading into next season.

“A win would definitely add a bit of momentum for us going forward into the offseason and that’s what we want to do, that’s what we’re striving to do. We have been in almost every single game this season and in all honesty, if we could put the mental part together with all of our physical parts that I think are there, that’s when I think we’ll start to see some real good things and everyone is going to have a lot of fun. That’s going to be our challenge for the offseason,” Sims said. “Our message this week has been that you only get one chance and for our seniors, this is their last chance. There’s no reason to hold anything back and we’re just going to let it flow.