Cowboys break Ponies in Miles City

The Havre High football team went to Miles City looking to make amends for a slow start to the 2015 season. Yet, what ensued after the opening kickoff, is the exact opposite of what the Blue Ponies had intended.

The game between the two long time non-conference rivals was competitive for a quarter, then the Cowboys showed their superiority in a 54-28 rout last Friday night at Denton Stadium in Miles City.

“Miles City played very well. They were well-coached and sound fundamentally,” HHS head coach Mark Samson said. “We played well in the first and fourth quarters, however the second and third quarters were very poor on both sides of the ball. We need to get tougher up front and both our players and coaches have to acquire a better understanding of the overall game plan we are trying to accomplish this week.”

Early on, it looked like the two teams, which had gone into overtime in two of their last four meetings, were getting set for another barn burner as they exchanged first-quarter touchdown runs, one from Miles City quarterback Matthew Blunt and one from Havre running back Jase Stokes, which left the Cowboys in front 8-7 at the end of the first quarter.

But in the second quarter, Miles City, and Blunt in particular, blew things wide open. Blunt would score three rushing touchdowns in the quarter, as well as move the ball down the field almost at will with a good mix of both run and pass. By halftime, Havre found itself trailing 32-7.

When the third quarter opened, the Ponies had the ball to start the half and, unfortunately, as bad as things were for HHS, they were about to get worse, as Miles City intercepted a Dane Warp pass and returned it more than 60 yards for a touchdown to make the score 40-7.

After another Cowboys touchdown, the Ponies found themselves trailing 46-7 before they were finally able to find some consistency on offense. Midway through the third quarter, Warp found Parker Filius for a 27-yard touchdown pass, which made the score 46-14, but also made Warp the all-time MHSA leader for touchdown passes in 11-man football.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop the Cowboy onslaught as Blunt connected with Matthew Lesh on a 32-yard touchdown pass to push the advantage to 54-14. With nothing other than pride to play for, the Ponies kept battling. Warp fired a touchdown pass to Nate Korb in the fourth quarter, and later in the final stanza, Jase Stokes finished a lengthy Havre drive with a touchdown run, making the final 54-28. Warp threw for 188 yards in the game along with a pair of touchdowns and the one interception. Filius had another solid outing for Havre, finishing with eight catches for 83 yards. Korb added two for 61 and Nate Rismon pitched in with five for 32. Stokes also led Havre in rushing with 65 yards on 18 carries.

Stokes led the way on defense with nine tackles and a forced fumble. Rismon added nine tackles, Filius had seven and Dane Flammond also saw tackles and a forced fumble as well as a fumble recovery.

But it was Blunt who stole the show with five total touchdowns, four rushing and one passing, to lead the Cowboys (3-0) to the win.

For the third week in a row, Havre struggled to contain the running game as the Cowboys racked up well over 200 yards on the ground, while the Ponies failed to get any traction with the ground game.

The loss drops Havre to 1-2 on the season. The Ponies will be back in action this Friday night when they will host Eastern A rival Sidney. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. The Eagles knocked off HHS 14-13 in a thriller a season ago at Blue Pony Stadium.

Miles City 54, Havre 28

MC – Matthew Blunt run (Conversion good)

HAV – Jase Stokes 4 Rush (PAT good)

MC - Blunt run (Conversion good)

MC – Blunt run (Conversion good)

MC – Blunt run (Conversion good)

MC – Miles City interception return (Conversion good)

HAV – Parker Filius 27 pass from Dane Warp (PAT good)

MC – Jared Bartlett run (Conversion no good)

MC – Matthew Lesh pass from Blunt (Conversion good)

HAV – Nate Korb 43 pass from Warp (PAT good)

HAV – Stokes 1 run (PAT Good)

Havre Individual Stats

Passing – Dane Warp 16-23-188

Rushing – Jase Stokes 18-65, Schroeder 3-25, Filius 1-1, Warp 8-(minus 25)