Cougars outslug Raiders for 43-21 win
Published 2:51 pm Saturday, October 24, 2026
1/6
Swipe or click to see more
Logan County’s Christian Helle (6) is tackled while attempting to score a touchdown during Logan County’s 43-21 win over Warren East at Warren East High School in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
(Caleb Lowndes)
2/6
Swipe or click to see more
Logan County’s Christian Helle (6) attempts to avoid a tackle by Warren East’s Xavier “Cane” Roberts (10) during Logan County’s 43-21 win over Warren East at Warren East High School in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
(Caleb Lowndes)
3/6
Swipe or click to see more
Warren East’s Mario Serna (22) runs during Logan County’s 43-21 win over Warren East at Warren East High School in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
(Caleb Lowndes)
4/6
Swipe or click to see more
Logan County’s Tysean Thomeczek (1) runs for extra yards during Logan County’s 43-21 win over Warren East at Warren East High School in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
(Caleb Lowndes)
5/6
Swipe or click to see more
Logan County’s Luke Rogers makes a pass during Logan County’s 43-21 win over Warren East at Warren East High School in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
(Caleb Lowndes)
6/6
Swipe or click to see more
Warren East’s Brandon McCluskey (12) attempts to evade Logan County’s Elijah Sells (4) during Logan County’s 43-21 win over Warren East at Warren East High School in Bowling Green, Ky. (Caleb Lowndes/Daily News)
(Caleb Lowndes)
All the puzzle pieces snapped firmly into place for Logan County on Friday night.
Senior Christian Helle, the Cougars’ standout running back who last season ran for a team-high 1,489 yards and 22 touchdowns, finally got rolling after dealing with first a position change and then a nagging injury. Helle, who stepped in to play quarterback for the first half of the season when Luke Rogers was out with an injury, delivered his best rushing total of the season back at his natural position with a game-high 225 yards and a pair of touchdowns to help Logan County pull away for a 43-21 road win against Class 4A, District 1 rival Warren East on Friday night.
“It’s been a roller coaster, I’d say that,” Helle said. “At the beginning of the year playing quarterback, then kind of being set back with a little groin injury. And then I had a little problem with the shoulder, but that’s not really a big thing. To be able to come out here tonight and feel like myself again, like I was last year, it really means a lot to me.”
Rogers, back now for a few weeks at quarterback, connected on a pair of touchdown strikes to Joseph McTire. And in the second half, the Cougars unlimbered a still fairly new weapon out of the backfield — 6-foot-3, 250-pound part-time running back Maliq Ford, who scored on a pair of short touchdown runs, plus a two-point conversion run. The touchdowns and the conversion were all firsts for Ford, normally a two-way starting lineman.
Friday’s game had big implications for both teams, with the winner guaranteed at least one home game to start the state playoffs.
Logan County (7-2 overall, 5-1 district) got off to a dreadful start after fumbling away the opening kickoff at its own 35-yard line. Warren East (6-3, 3-3 district) failed to cash in despite reaching the Cougars’ 9 before fumbling the possession right back to Logan.
Email newsletter signup
It didn’t get much better for the Cougars the next time they touched the ball, going three-and-out before trying to punt — Warren East’s Mario Serna stuffed the attempt and Ian Gunn recovered the loose ball at the Logan 35.
This time the Raiders capitalized as Za’Trayvion McMillian-Cofer’s 11-yard touchdown run staked his team to an early 7-0 lead.
The Cougars answered with a 73-yard scoring drive finished off by Rogers’ 18-yard touchdown pass to McTire.
East slugged right back despite losing a potential touchdown when Azzarious Douglas returned the ensuing kickoff 82 yards to the end zone — a holding penalty negated that at stuck the Raiders at their own 10. East quarterback Brandon McCluskey’s 35-yard scramble got the offense moving and he eventually ended the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run that put his team back up 14-7 with 10:48 left in the first half.
Logan County pulled even again on its next possession as Helle bounced outside and turned the corner for a 28-yard touchdown run.
Carson Carlock’s interception of a McCluskey pass got the ball back to Logan’s offense, and two runs covering 20 yards by Helle ended with his 8-yard touchdown run that put the Cougars up for the first time at 21-14 with 2:56 left in the half.
Another long Douglas kickoff return — 42 yards — set up the Raiders to open the second half. McCluskey’s 2-yard touchdown run finished off a 13-play, 38-yard drive that knotted the score again at 21-all with 4:36 left in the third.
Just more than two minutes later, Rogers found McTire for a short pass on the sideline and the sophomore wide receiver took it the rest of the way for a 32-yard touchdown reception as the Cougars pushed back out to a 28-21 lead.
The Raiders lost the next possession on a fourth-and-3 attempt on an errant snap to turn the ball over on downs. Helle’s 37-yard run sparked the Cougars’ seven-play, 55-yard scoring drive ended by Ford’s 1-yard touchdown run on a direct snap — Ford got the call again for a two-point conversion and barreled in for the score.
“He’s a big guy that can move,” Logan County coach Todd Adler said of Ford. “He’s not just a big, slow guy. He plays basketball, he runs up and down the court. We wanted to reward him a little bit and we’re also pretty good in that package. We had it for a short-yardage package and were able to capitalize on it a couple times tonight. I was really proud of him and hopefully that’s a memory he’ll never forget.”
East gave the ball right back after Ford’s first score after a collision between two kickoff returners resulted in a fumble picked up by the Cougars at the Raiders’ 26. Ford finished off the short drive with his second 1-yard touchdown run that capped the scoring at 43-21 with 7:31 to play.
“Turnovers was the turning point,” Warren East coach Jason Foley said. “Too many turnovers and a miscue with the snap, so that definitely hurt. Two or three things back-to-back there and we just lost momentum. I thought for 2 1/2 quarters we battled, but just didn’t finish like we wanted to. Credit to Logan — they’re one of the better teams in Class 4A and I thought for 2 1/2 we played right with them. We’ve just got to finish.”
Rogers was 9-of-15 passing for 96 yards and a pair of touchdowns, with McTire tallying four catches for 65 yard and two scores.
McCluskey led the Raiders with 57 rushing yards and two touchdowns, plus passed for 60 yards.
“I think we’re a pretty good football team, especially when we can create some turnovers,” Adler said. “I think our offense is finding its rhythm and able to move the ball. We were able to get Christian Helle going tonight, which we haven’t been able to do that all year due to injuries. And I was really, really proud of our defense and our offense for finding a way to fight through adversity. This is a really, really good Warren East team. Foley has done an awesome job of turning that culture around.”
Warren East will close out the regular season on the road Oct. 30 at North Hardin. Logan County will host South Warren the same night, but the Cougars know they’ll have another chance to play on their home turf after that.
“Being able to play at home, having the fans there and the environment at Logan County is great,” Helle said. “It gives us a little bit of momentum, so playing at home is a big perk for us.”
LCHS 7 14 7 15 — 43
WEHS 7 7 7 0 — 21
First quarter
WEHS — Za’Trayvion McMillian-Cofer 11 run (Merci Floribert kick), 5:41
LCHS — Joseph McTire 18 pass from Luke Rogers (Ethan Scarbrough kick), 2:53
Second quarter
WEHS — Brandon McCluskey 5 run (Floribert kick), 10:48
LCHS — Christian Helle 28 run (Scarbrough kick), 6:22
LCHS — Helle 8 run (Scarbrough kick), 2:56
Third quarter
WEHS — McCluskey 2 run (Floribert kick), 4:36
LCHS — McTire 32 pass from Rogers (Scarbrough kick), 2:32
Fourth quarter
LCHS — Maliq Ford 1 run (Ford run), 8:49
LCHS — Ford 1 run (Scarbrough kick), 7:31
About Jeff Nations
Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News
More by Jeff
