Class A playoff field is set, and it's wide open

After nine weeks of excitement, the regular season is over for Montana high school football teams and the playoffs, which is what we’ve all been waiting for, are set to begin.

The Havre Blue Ponies will be among the 12 teams that qualified for the Class A state playoffs, and after back-to-back wins over Polson and Browning, by the scores of 39-21 and 62-0, it’s safe to say the Ponies are playing as well as they have all season.

Their 4-5 overall record and 2-2 record in Central A conference play was good for third in the final Central A standings, which sets up a showdown this Saturday in Miles City in a rematch of the second game of the season, when the Cowboys upended HHS 27-19.

Havre and Miles City also went head-to-head in the opening round of the playoffs last season, with Havre rallying for a dramatic 21-20 win at Blue Pony Stadium.

The Ponies and Cowboys (7-2, 4-1) will do battle again at noon Saturday and the winner will travel to Whitefish Nov. 8. The Bulldogs (7-2, 4-1) earned a bye for the opening round after finishing first in the Northwest A.

The rest of the first-round byes will go to Butte Central (8-1, 5-0) of the Southwest A, Billings Central (6-2, 4-1) of the Eastern A and Belgrade (8-1, 4-0) of the Central A.

In other first-round action in Class A, the Dillon Beavers (6-2, 4-1), who were the second-place team from the Southwest A, will open their state title defense at home against Frenchtown (3-6, 2-2), which finished third in the Northwest A. The winner will go on the road against Belgrade.

The second-place team from the Central A, Lewistown (6-2, 3-1), will play host to the Laurel Locomotives (6-3, 3-2), who finished third in the Eastern A, with Butte Central awaiting the winner in Butte.

And in the final matchup, Hamilton (6-3, 3-2), the third-place team from the Southwest A will travel to Columbia Falls (7-1, 3-1), which finished second in the Northwest A. The victor in that matchup will face the difficult task of knocking off the Class A runner-up from a season ago, Billings Central in Billings. All first-round playoff games will be Nov. 1 at either noon or 1 p.m. All quarterfinal games will be played Nov. 8.