It’s with equal portions of anticipation and dread that Sal Lupoli approaches his final downs as a Chelmsford Lion. The two-way standout knows all too well a football odyssey that started when he was 7 filling water bottles and dragging tackling dummies on to the practice field under the watchful eye of his father, longtime Chelmsford defensive line coach Sal Lupoli Sr., finally has hit the two-minute warning.

“It’s just crazy because I have been playing Pop Warner here since second grade,” Lupoli said. “I’ve been in the maroon and white my whole life, and now I have only a couple of practices and one game left.” Lupoli said it seems like yesterday when he was watching his boyhood idols like Tim Joy and others take on archnemesis Billerica on Turkey Day while envisioning what it would be like to one day carry on that proud tradition.