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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Publisher 

CHELSEA – The Chelsea Hornets struck first, but it was the Helena Huskies who answered, scoring 24 unanswered points to close out the first half of a county battle on the road on Friday night, Oct. 18 en route to a 38-28 win.

The victory not only gave the Huskies their third in a row, but they locked up a home playoff game in the process by officially earning the two seed out of the region.

“I’m really proud of our team and how they fought back,” Helena head coach Richie Busby said after the win. “We told them at halftime, they’re a much-improved team, they believe and have had a really good year, so we knew they would come at us with all they had, and they did. But, those games in the middle of the season where we came out on the wrong end three times, there were a bunch of situations where we came up short, but tonight, we made those plays.”

For the Huskies, it was a big response in the first half that set the tone and ultimately decided the outcome, as they were forced to hold on down the stretch.

After Chelsea struck first with a quick opening drive thanks to a 67-yard pass from Miller Bauman to CJ Durbin, Helena responded by settling into their prototypical physical approach.

Early, it led to explosive plays, as Jeremy Spratling reeled off a big run on the opening drive for the Huskies. After a personal foul moved the ball even closer, Helena eventually capitalized when Nate Ferguson hit Gavin Franks for a 10-yard touchdown pass to even the score.

That became the first seven of 24 unanswered in the opening half for Helena.

Following that first score, the defense forced a Chelsea turnover on downs, which led to another quick drive as the Huskies marched 68 yards behind more big runs from Spratling, another big pass to Franks of 20 yards and an eventual 15-yard touchdown run from Spratling.

Now up 14-7, Helena forced a punt on Chelsea’s ensuing drive, which setup the drive of the night.

The Huskies used 13 plays to go 76 yards with a physical approach to go right after the Hornets’ defense behind power runs and quick passes.

Helena eventually ended the drive with back-to-back runs of 10 and 3 yards from Spratling to make it 21-7 and eat up half of the second quarter.

Chelsea neared midfield on the ensuing drive, but the Hornets ultimately had to punt again after failing to convert a third-and-10.

Helena went right back down the field, but started to back up with a couple of negative plays. Then, on third-and-long, it looked like another tackle for loss was going to force a really long field goal or punt in the final minute of the half.

Instead, a personal foul moved the ball up 15 yards and setup a manageable field goal for Austin Lewis, who nailed it for a 24-7 lead going into the halftime break.

Helena then came out in the second half and did the best thing you can do in football by scoring to start the second half after closing the first half with a score.

This time, it was Domynyck Santiago who got in on the action. Taking over for an injured Spratling, he reeled off a 67-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage to start the half, putting Helena on top 31-7.

“I’ve said this over and over. Ever since I’ve been here, we’ve had two starting running backs, sometimes three, and that’s the good Lord looking down on us, because if we didn’t have Dom tonight, we would have been in trouble tonight,” Busby said of Santiago’s performance following Spratling’s injury. “They had a really good game plan, but our offensive line did what you have to do late in the year and helped us run the football.”

Chelsea, however, didn’t roll over as the Hornets kept the pressure on the Huskies the rest of the night.

Largely due to a big second half from Chase Stracener, the Hornets answered in a big way after a long screen play to the running back then setup a 17-yard touchdown run to make it 31-14.

Chelsea then forced a stop on the ensuing drive to get the ball right back.

The Hornets capitalized with a steady 18-play drive that was capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run from Stracener to trim the deficit to 10.

Helena, however, had an answer every time Chelsea seemed to claw back to within striking distance.

After an onside-kick scare, the Huskies got the ball back and went right back to Santiago, who carried the ball several times before plunging into the end zone to make it 38-21 with 8:10 remaining.

Helena the forced a three-and-out, but also quickly punted it back to the Hornets, who capitalized.

Chelsea drew back within 10 points when Stracener added his third touchdown of the half on another short run.

The Hornets then got the ball back, but time was limited with less than two minutes to play.

Chelsea drove deep into Helena territory with 45 seconds left, but a pass into the end zone was jumped by Kevin Pinkard to ultimately ice the game.

Busby said he was not only proud of the team’s response in the game, but is proud of how they have responded the past three weeks to earn the two seed in the region.

“I was worried about their demeanor after the Oxford game, but our kids have showed a lot of resiliency here in the last three games,” Busby said.

Helena was led by Spratling with 162 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries in the first half, while Santiago finished the game with 130 yards and two TDs on 13 carries. Santiago also added two receptions for 16 yards, while Franks led the Huskies in receiving with two receptions for 32 yards and a touchdown.

Ferguson finished 7-11 for 74 yards and a touchdown passing.

Chelsea was led by Durbin with 210 receiving yards in the loss with a touchdown on 12 receptions. Stracener finished with 123 rushing yards on 29 carries with three touchdowns, while he added 41 receiving yards. Bauman put together a 316-yard passing night at the quarterback position.

Helena will travel to Calera next week to close region play and the regular season, while Chelsea will hit the road to take on Benjamin Russell in a game that will determine the three seed out of the region.

Chelsea stats provided by Mark McLaughlin.