Turk Eclipses 150 Career Wins, Hawks Close Season With Win At Belhaven

JACKSON, Miss.- Hitting the road for their final matchup of the 2025 season, Huntingdon Football pieced together one of their strongest performances of the year en route to a 30-13 victory over the Belhaven University Blazers. With today's victory, the Hawks locked in their share of the  second place finish in the USA South conference standings, climbing two places from their fourth place finish a year ago. 

Deferring to the second half, Huntingdon's defense took the field for the opening possession following Andrew Ginsberg's touchback on the kickoff. Belhaven began to piece together a solid opening drive offensively, but the Hawks secondary came up big, causing an incompletion on third down before Gus Johnson's pass break-up forced a turnover on downs. Two three-and-out drives and punts between the two teams made way for the first score of the game at the 3:19 mark, as Ginsberg capped off a 8 play, 48-yard drive with a 22-yard field goal to put the Hawks ahead 3-0 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter proved to be a defensive masterclass for both teams, as each squad held the opposing offense to 0 points in the quarter to bring the halftime score to 3-0. Huntingdon's defense was dominant, limiting the Blazers to just two first downs in the quarter, picking up 3 sacks(courtesy of Rashad Walker and Robert Vickers), two turnover on downs, and a Nate Jones interception just before halftime to close things out. 

Coming out of the halftime break, Belhaven struck first to take the lead, intercepting a Knox Roberts pass and returning it 30 yards to put the Blazers in front 7-3 at the 14:14 mark. Their lead proved to be short-lived however, as De'Roderick Hepburn found the endzone from 1-yard out at the 6:21 mark to give Huntingdon back the lead, 10-7. After another Belhaven punt that Tim McReynolds returned 40 yards, Knox Roberts made up for his earlier interception, connecting with Brody Covington from 8-yards out to extend the Hawks lead to 17-7 entering the final quarter of play. 

With the defense still controlling the game, Huntingdon built further upon their lead following Kenyon Watkins' two-yard touchdown rush at the 9:25 mark, bringing the score to 23-7 coming down the stretch. Belhaven scored late to cut into the lead, but Eric Jones Jr.'s touchdown run at the 4:24 mark iced things away, giving Huntingdon the 30-13 lead. 

Today's victory brings the Hawks record to 6-4 on the season with a 5-2 record in USA South action. In doing so, Head Coach Mike Turk has surpassed the 150 win mark for his career as the head football coach at Huntingdon. When asked about today's victory and the milestone, Coach Turk shared that "I am very thankful for all the players and coaches that had a hand in each of these wins. This win today is special for a lot of reasons, and I can't think of a better group to share it with than this group of players and coaches. This team came a long way, and that is a credit to the leadership on the team, and to the coaches on our staff."

Stay tuned for news to come surrounding the USA South's all-conference selections and information about the Hawks 2026 season.