Bitten Again: Bulldogs beat Ponies

For the third year in a row, Whitefish proved to be too much for the Havre High football team to handle. The Ponies had no answer for the Bulldog's physical brand of football, and fell in the annual season-opening game 27-14 Saturday at Blue Pony Stadium.

The win allows the Bulldogs to retain the BNSF Trophy for the third consecutive season after defeating the Ponies in each of the two previous seasons.

"I think conditioning was a key thing for us. I felt like we had a little more depth than they did and I thought that was a key factor," Whitefish head coach Chad Ross said. "Havre lost a couple of key guys and that hurt them."

In a battle of two of the top quarterbacks in Class A football, it was Whitefish's Luke May who stole the show and out-did Havre quarterback Dane Warp, a junior, who was an All-State selection last season.

Havre struggled to contain May, who torched the Pony defense for 405 total yards and three touchdowns, two passing and one rushing. As a passer, he completed 14-of-22 attempts for 253 yards, while also adding 153 yards rushing on 18 carries.

"I thought it was a great first outing for Luke," Ross said. "He ran the ball really well and had some really nice completions for us. He did a great job of relaxing after the first quarter and played really well after that."

The Bulldogs, who never trailed in the game, struck first when May connected with Jed Negler on a 30-yard touchdown pass to cap a three-play, 45-yard drive that gave Whitefish a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.

The Ponies answered quickly as Warp led a 10-play, 70-yard drive to tie the game at 7-7. Warp hit on a number of key throws, converting a third-and-10 and also connecting with Parker Filius on a 25-yard reception that set up a first-and-goal for Havre. Three plays later, HHS cashed in on third and goal when Warp found Kody Pribyl in the end zone with 37 seconds left in the first quarter.

Following an exchange of punts to open the second quarter, Whitefish recovered a Havre fumble and quickly converted it into points. The Bulldogs took just two plays to cover 47 yards. First, May found Negler for 35 yards and finished the drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Chris Park. The score gave Whitefish a 14-7 advantage at the half.

Havre answered on its opening possession of the third quarter, when Warp engineered a four-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that evened things up at 14-14. The drive started with a 17-yard pass to Filius. Then, after a personal foul on the Bulldogs and another 15-yard completion to Filius, Warp found Nate Rismon for a 36-yard touchdown pass with 11 minutes left in the third.

But once again, May and the Bulldog offense answered the bell. The junior quarterback found Negler for 58 yards, setting up a three-yard touchdown run by Brian FauntLeRoy with 4:49 left in the third that gave Whitefish a 21-14 lead it would not relinquish.

Early in the fourth quarter, Havre had an opportunity to tie the game but couldn't convert.The Ponies dropped what looked like an apparent touchdown on a drive that reached the Whitefish 27 yard-line before stalling. On a critical fourth-and-four with 8:27 left in the game, the Ponies tried to surprise Whitefish by running it with Tyrell Pierece, who was stopped shy of the first down.

"I made some dumb calls," HHS head coach Jason Christenson said. "On that fourth down we tried running it and catching them in something but it didn't work out."

After the turnover on downs by HHS, the Bulldogs put the game on ice. In a dominating display of offensive football, Whitefish marched 73 yards in nine plays without facing a third down, and when May found pay dirt with 5:17 left in the game, it put the nail in the coffin.

"I take this one on my shoulders," Christenson said. "The offense wasn't clicking and just wasn't going as smooth as it should have and that's on me. We did make some mistakes but I thought for the most part we executed on both sides of the ball. We just have to smooth out the edges a bit and I think we will get rolling."

May tormented the Pony defense and, in doing so, controlled the clock, keeping Warp and the explosive Havre offense on the sideline for much of the day.

The Ponies were also their own worst enemy, giving up the game's only turnover, getting penalized in key situations and suffering untimely drops.

"We did make some mistakes with penalties and turnovers but that is the norm this early in the season," Christenson said. "But, overall, I thought the kids played really hard for four quarters and showed a lot of leadership."

One reason Havre was able to hang around with the Bulldogs was penalties. Whitefish racked up 95 yards in penalties, compared to 65 for the Ponies. But in the end, the running game was the difference.

Whitefish was able to effectively mix run and pass, racking up over 200 yards on the ground and through the air. Havre on the other hand, finished with just 19 rushing yards on 22 carries. That led to the Bulldogs possessing the ball for over 28 minutes compared to just over 19 for the Ponies.

Despite the loss, Warp was solid, completing 17-of-26 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns. Filius made a number of big plays and finished with five receptions for 75 yards, while Rismon also added two for 49 yards and a score.

Defensively, Tyrell Pierce, an All-Conference defender in 2013, led the Ponies with five tackles and two sacks. Jase Stokes notched a team-high 12 tackles before leaving the game due to injury and Gunnar Aageson pitched in with four tackles and a sack.

Havre (0-1) will look to even its record when it travels to Miles City for the first road game of the season. Kickoff is set for Friday at 6 p.m.