By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— The Pelham Panthers beat the Helena Huskies 31-22 at the first rivalry game between the teams Aug. 21. The Panthers started out the game ahead and won after a 50-yard run and a touchdown by quarterback Matthew Rye.

“I’m really proud of how hard our kids played,” said head football coach Tom Causey. “They made a lot of mistakes, but they played extremely hard. Every man on the roster got to play, and that’s always important to us. I’m pleased with the way we played tonight, but we still have a long way to go.”

Pelham was first to score capitalizing on a turnover by the Huskies. Helena was quick to strike back with a field goal of their own, tying the game at three points. Pelham immediately answered with an 80-yard kickoff return by Jalen Smith.

Helena was able to put together a good drive and score, and a missed field goal by Pelham tied the game up at 10 points before the end of the first half.

“Obviously we had way too many penalties tonight,” Causey said. “A lot of our inexperience came through in the penalties. I thought our defense played really, really hard in the first half. Created turnovers gave us the opportunity to score, and we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties.”

The Huskies scored first during the second half by kicking a field goal, but Pelham answered with a 35-yard touchdown pass to Kasey Clark to give the Panthers a 17-13 lead.

They held the lead until the end of the third quarter when Helena kicked another field goal shortening Pelham’s lead to one point, 17-16.

Pelham went to seal the victory by putting together a sustained drive and scoring a touchdown off a 22-yard catch by Brandon Sledge. Helena would not be taken down so easily and scored off a 75-yard touchdown reception to put the game at 24-22, but Helena was unable to score on the two-point conversion.

Pelham wrapped the game up with the next drive with Rye’s touchdown run to leave the score at 31-22.

“In football, you probably make your greatest improvement between game one and game two, and we’ve got to,” Causey said. “We are going to play Thompson. Coach (Mark) Freeman and his staff do such a good job.”