Ponies stunned in overtime

For a brief moment, the Havre Blue Ponies appeared on their way to the quarterfinals of the Class A state football playoffs, with an upset win over the Miles City Cowboys just seconds away. Then, seemingly in an instant, the game was lost and the season over.

The Ponies led Miles City for much of the fourth quarter but couldn’t finish in crunch time and let an eight-point advantage slip away in the final 31 seconds of regulation as the Cowboys upended Havre 48-47 in an overtime thriller in Miles City Saturday.

With the win, the Cowboys will move on to the quarterfinals, where they will travel to face Whitefish this Saturday. Havre on the other hand, will go home, wondering what might have been.

Despite falling behind 20-6 in the first half, the Ponies played inspired football, and thanks to the outstanding play of running back Jase Stokes and quarterback Dane Warp, HHS grabbed a 34-27 lead late in the fourth quarter on a five-yard rushing touchdown by Stokes, his fifth of the day.

Yet there was no quit in the Cowboys and on a fourth-and-seven from the Havre 35-yard line, quarterback Terry Blunt found Alec Haughian in the end zone to make the score 34-33 with just over two minutes to play. However, a botched snap on the PAT led to a missed conversion, allowing the Ponies to cling to a one-point lead.

On Havre’s ensuing possession, Stokes ran for eight yards on a third-and-seven to give the Ponies a key first down, leaving just 1:35 left on the clock and Miles City out of timeouts. At that point, the game seemed over but thanks to some brilliant strategy from the Cowboys, it was far from.

Instead of taking a knee to run out the clock, Havre continued handing the ball to Stokes. And with 35 seconds to go and no means of stopping the clock, the Cowboys defense allowed Havre to score as Stokes raced 42 yards for his sixth rushing touchdown of the game, to give the Ponies A 41-33 lead.

Needing a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie with 31 seconds remaining, Miles City went to work and after a two long pass plays, the Cowboys were deep in Havre territory with just seconds remaining. Then, Blunt hit Brett Keith in the end zone with 1.5 seconds to play to trim the HHS lead to 41-39.

Blunt and Keith hooked up again on the two-point conversion and just like that, the Ponies and Cowboys were headed to overtime.

Havre possessed the ball first in the extra session and scored on its second play as Dane Warp found Issac Warp for an eight-yard touchdown. Gunner Aageson missed the extra point and Havre led 47-41.

The Pony defense held firm for three plays and forced Miles City into a fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line. But, with the game hanging in the balance, Haughian fought his way into the end zone to tie the score at 47-47. Blunt converted the extra point and sealed the improbable 48-47 win for the Cowboys.

“The kids played outstanding and in hindsight, I should have just downed the ball and got out of the game,” HHS head coach Jason Christenson said. “But I just kind of got caught up in the moment, it’s my job to keep a level head, but we handed the ball off and they kind of let us score. Then, we didn’t do a great job on defense stopping them coming back down.”

Early on it appeared as though the Cowboys would cruise into next weekend after building a 20-6 lead but the Ponies got touchdown runs of eight and two yards from Stokes to tie the score at 20-20.

Miles City would reclaim the lead before intermission, when Keith caught the second of his three touchdowns, this one coming from Haughian to put the Cowboys up 27-20 at halftime.

In the third quarter, the Ponies took the opening drive of the second half and scored courtesy of a 26-yard run by Stokes, which trimmed the Cowboy lead to 27-26 and set the stage for the drama filled fourth quarter.

Even though he threw just one touchdown pass Warp was stellar for the Ponies throwing for 287 yards and no interceptions. Stokes also had the game of his life with 120 yards rushing and six touchdowns.

“The kids really played outstanding,” Christenson said. “Stokes, a sophomore had six touchdowns. He was just tremendous. But I am proud of all the kids, they played so hard and they played really well. I’m really proud of the seniors, I am going to miss those guys.”

Haughian led the way for the Cowboys accounting for five touchdowns, three rushing, one receiving and one throwing. Keith caught three touchdowns and Blunt also tossed three touchdowns in the win.

This was the second straight year that Havre and Miles City played a classic in the first-round of the Class A playoffs as the Ponies rallied from 19 points down to knock off the Cowboys 21-19 at Blue Pony Stadium.

With the loss, the Ponies finished the 2014 season with an overall record of 4-6. But, with a number of key players set to return including Dane Warp and Stokes, there is optimism about the future of Havre football.

“From top to bottom we are a very young team,” Christenson said. “We have a junior quarterback, who will be back and we will have one of the best receivers in the state in Nate Rismon coming back, and all these sophomore receivers that are now game savvy. Next year, whatever happens, we have a very powerful team coming back. It doesn’t make me feel any better right now, but I do think this next year will be a very powerful Pony team.”

Miles City 48, Havre 47 (OT)

Havre 6 14 6 15 6 - 47

Miles City 13 14 0 14 7 - 48

MC: Alec Haughian 42 run (pass failed)

H: Jase Stokes 1 run (kick failed)

MC: Haughian 19 run (Matt Blunt kick)

MC: Brett Keith 37 pass from Blunt (Blunt kick)

H: Stokes 8 run (Jacob Labrie pass from Dane Warp)

H: Stokes 2 run (kick failed)

MC: Keith 25 pass from Haughian (Blunt kick)

H: Stokes 26 run (pass failed)

H: Stokes 5 run (Jase Kato pass from Warp)

MC: Haughian 35 pass from Blunt (run failed)

H: Stokes 42 run (Gunner Aageson kick)

MC: Keith 15 pass from Blunt (Keith pass from Blunt)

H: Isaac Warp 8 pass from Dane Warp (kick failed)

MC: Haughian 1 run (Blunt kick)