Helena puts up fight, drops road battle to Moody
Published 11:24 pm Friday, September 19, 2025
The Helena Huskies dropped a close 31-28 battle with the Moody Blue Devils on Friday, Sept. 19 after battling the entire game with big plays keeping them in it the whole night. (For the Reporter/Neal Wagner)
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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer
MOODY – Under pressure with the lights flashing and the crowd bringing all the noise to distract them, the Helena Huskies were poised to fight as they did all game in a tough road environment in Moody.
Down 31-21 with just more than four minutes left in the game, quarterback Nate Ferguson took a snap at the Moody Blue Devils 49-yard line, and scanning the field found wide receiver Davis Kelley, who caught the ball, took a huge hit before breaking the contact and racing off to the end zone to make the score 31-28 with 4:13 left.
Leaning on the toughness of their defense though deep in Moody territory and needing just a couple of big stops on the ground, the Blue Devils held their own, and following a valiant effort from the visitors, the game ended in a close defeat.
Helena dropped a battle-tested game to Moody 31-28 on Friday, Sept. 19 at Bill Morris Stadium, marking back-to-back defeats for the squad, but in this instance, it was one of the most complete games it had played all season long.
“It’s just our effort,” said Helena head coach Richie Busby. “We knew we were outmanned and we came in here and gave it everything we had. We executed our gameplan, tried to use as much clock as we could on offense. We needed them to help us a little bit and they did with a couple of turnovers. I’m just really proud of the way our kids battled back. We didn’t play very hard last week, but they came back and laid it on the line. That’s a good football team and we’re very young, so I’m very proud of them.”
After a long opening drive for the Huskies resulted in a punt to kick the game off, DJ Williams picked off Blue Devils’ quarterback Jake Lowery deep in Moody territory and returned it back to the 2-yard line to give Helena an early burst.
Just two plays later, star running back Dom Santiago took things up the middle and scored a 1-yard touchdown to give his Huskies a momentous 7-0 lead.
However, a big return on the ensuing kick-off put the Blue Devils in solid field position, and just a few plays later, Lowery lofted a pass up to speedy receiver Aubrey Walker for a game-tying 32-yard score.
Helena did not let the quick score affect it though, as Ferguson and Santiago ate the next drive up on the ground, and just three plays after entering the red zone, Ferguson threw one up to Bradley Wainwright on third-and-9 from the 17-yard line and secured a touchdown to make it 14-7.
Walker had something to say about the score on the next kick-off though, using his quick feet to get the ball to the Huskies 24-yard line before Le’Kamren Meadows put up a powerful run on the first play of the drive around the left side to tie things back up.
The score sat at 14-14 at the half, with both teams heading into the break with energy and a lot to talk about before the closing two quarters.
Moody did not let the tie last long though.
A seven-play drive to open up the third quarter saw the Blue Devils hit a 46-yard field goal thanks to the leg of Ryan McPherson, and then on the first play of the ensuing Huskies drive, Kylan Baker picked off Ferguson and returned the ball to the Helena 18-yard line.
Two plays later, Lowery put a dart over the middle to Josiah Dozier and extended the lead to 10 points with a touchdown at 24-14.
Despite the big gut punch, the fight was not finished from the Huskies.
After Moody later got the ball back and was putting together a long drive, the game headed into the fourth quarter, and on the first play of the final period, Jonathan Roberto intercepted Lowery and returned it more than 60 yards to cut the score to 24-21 with the snap of a finger.
On the next drive, the Blue Devils did the exact same thing, driving down into the red zone, but as Lowery tried to lob one up along the sideline, Khai Coleman jumped up and intercepted the ball at the Helena 6-yard line, making it three turnovers on the night for Lowery.
Moody did not let Helena move the ball from there though, and just a few plays after a punt, Meadows ran it back to pay dirt from the 3-yard line to make the score 31-21 late.
Having to dig out of a big hole, the Huskies went back to work, and thanks to a pass interference call that got them to midfield, Ferguson was able to put a ball up to Kelley, who raced off to the end zone to close things to 31-28 with more than four minutes left.
However, needing some big stops, the Blue Devils relied on their ground game and ran the clock out thanks to Meadows and Kevin James, pulling out a statement 31-28 win at home.
Busby was proud of the way his quarterback played just a couple of weeks after an injury sidelined him, being impressed by his toughness.
“(Ferguson) played his guts out tonight,” Busby said. “We ran him a lot tonight and he made some things happen with his legs, but that goes to our o-line. That’s probably the best they’ve played all year and we needed them to play. We had four new starters up there tonight… I’m super proud of them—losing, I know they’re not going to be happy with that, but I’m proud of them the way they played. If we can build on this, we’re going to be okay.”
With the loss, Helena drops to 1-3 on the year with a 1-1 region record. The Huskies hit the road for the second game of a four-week trip, with this game being at Oxford on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.
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