Ponies crush Red Devils for first win

Leading up to the fourth game of the season, the Havre High football team had played some good football, but for some reason the team had yet to put it all together. That changed Friday night as the Blue Ponies rediscovered their big-play offense and earned their first win of the season.

In a nonconference tilt with Eastern A rival Glendive, the Ponies played well for four quarters and routed the Red Devils in Glendive by the score of 40-12. The win was the first of the season for HHS, which improved to 1-3. Glendive fell to 0-4.

“It felt good to get that monkey off our back,” HHS head coach Jason Christenson said. “It was good for the kids to get a win and get some confidence as we head into conference play.”

Parker Filius led the way for the Ponies and helped them get off to a fast start when he caught a 47-yard pass from Dane Warp, which set up a Warp touchdown run that put HHS ahead 7-0. Then, later in the first quarter after catching another long pass from Warp, Filius hit pay dirt on a three-yard rushing touchdown to put Havre ahead 14-0.

Glendive answered with a touchdown to trim the deficit to 14-6 but again before the half, Warp found Filius on a 20-yard touchdown pass and the Ponies carried a 20-6 lead into intermission.

In the second half it was more of the same as the Warp-Filius connection continued to torment the Red Devils. Warp hit Filius for another touchdown in the third quarter to push the Havre lead to 27-6 and by the time the two connected on their third touchdown of the game it was 33-12 in favor of the Ponies.

Warp, an All-State quarterback a year ago, was exceptional. He threw a total of four touchdowns in the win for the Ponies, the last of which came when he connected with Jase Stokes to give HHS a 40-12 lead in the fourth quarter.

The win will provide a much-needed boost of confidence to a Havre team that is not the ordinary 1-3 team after losing close games to Whitefish, Sidney and No. 3 Miles City, all of which made the Class A state playoffs a year ago.

“I think we are much better than a 1-3 team,” Christenson said. “This first part of the season is always a learning experience. We tried some different things on offense and that has taken some time to adjust to but I like where we are at and hopefully we can get into conference play and make some noise.”

Another good sign for the Ponies is the return of the big play. Filius, who had been mostly bottled up in the first three games of the season, finally exploded as a result of some adjustments that were made on the offensive side of the ball.

“We wanted to try and get some more big plays,” Christenson said. “So we moved him around and put him on the outside a little more and because of that we were able to get some more big plays. At first, he wasn’t too happy about it but after he started making some big plays and got some more confidence, he like it more.”

Warp had by far his best game of the season against Glendive, completing 27-of-40 passes for 409 yards and five total touchdowns. He also gained 24 yards rushing.

Filius’ banner day included 12 receptions for 196 yards and three touchdowns. He also carried the ball four times for 17 yards and one touchdown. Stokes also had a big day for the Blue Pony offense picking up 73 rushing yards on six carries, while also notching five receptions for 80 yards and a touchdown.

Defensively, Stokes had a solid game with nine tackles and a forced fumble. Filius also had five tackles and a fumble recovery. As a team, the Pony defense was stellar, surrendering just 242 total yards.

“Our goal has always been to do well in the conference and get into the playoffs,” Christenson said. “So the kids are excited to get into these games that means something, they all mean something but these conference games are just more important.”

The Ponies will begin Central A conference play this Friday when they hit the road to take on Livingston.

Havre 40, Glendive 12

Havre 14 6 6 14 – 40

Glendive 0 6 0 6 – 12

Havre Statistics

Passing - Warp 27-40-409

Rushing - Stokes 6-73, Warp 7-24, Filius 4-17, Kody Pribyl 2-8.

Receiving - Filius 12-196, Issac Warp 5-85, Stokes 6-80, Nate Korb 3-35.