Blue Ponies seize control

Playing Belgrade has been a nightmare for the Havre High football team the past few seasons. But on a special night in Belgrade the Blue Ponies were finally able to exercise their demons.

In quite possibly the most important game in the Central A Conference this season, the Blue Ponies grabbed control of the championship race with a decisive 40-27 win over the Panthers in Belgrade. Friday night.

The win pushes Havre’s record to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in the Central A. Belgrade, meanwhile, is 1-5 overall and 1-1 in league play.

“After a crazy first half that just about anything and everything happened,” HHS head coach Mark Samson said. “We settled down in the third and fourth quarters and dominated Belgrade.”

In the opening stanza, both offenses came out firing. Havre grabbed a 7-0 lead when Parker Filius scored on a one-yard touchdown run, but HHS didn’t have the lead for long as Panthers’ quarterback Evan Luhrsen scampered 69 yards to tie the score at 7-7.

Then, following a defensive stop by the Panthers, Belgrade took its only lead of the game when Hayden Van Winkle ran 45 yards for a touchdown to make the score 14-7.

Yet, Havre wouldn’t trail for long thanks to Dane Warp and Nate Rismon. First, Warp and Rismon connected on a 93-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 14-14, which was the score at the end of the first quarter.

Then, in the second quarter, Warp found Rismon for another score, this time from 23 yards out to put HHS back in front 20-14. It appeared the Panthers had no answer for the Pony offense. But, before the first half was over, the Belgrade defense did manage to make a big play as Tanner Campbell intercepted a Warp pass and returned it 26 yards to send the game into the intermission tied at 20-20.

With the game tied, the Ponies took the ball to start the third quarter and put together one of their best drives of the season. Havre ran 12 plays and took more than six minutes off the clock before Warp found Filius for a 23-yard touchdown pass to reclaim the lead for Havre at 26-20.

Then after a defensive stand, the Havre offense once again went to work and capped another long, time-consuming drive with a one-yard touchdown run by Filius, which gave the Ponies a 33-20 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

In the final stanza, the Havre defense stood tall again, getting the ball back to the offense after stopping the Panthers on their second possession of the half. On the ensuing drive, Havre drove to the 15-yard line, where the Ponies faced a fourth-and-long. Yet, as they did numerous times on the night, the Ponies converted as Rismon took a reverse and ran 15 yards for a score to make it 40-20 in favor of HHS.

The Panthers finally found the end zone on their third drive of the second half as Luhrsen hit Derrick Marks for a 38-yard score to trim the lead to 40-27 with just under three minutes to play. Belgrade attempted an onside kick, but Havre recovered. Then, Jase Stokes and Jazz Schroeder each churned out some tough yards to run out the clock and salt away the crucial win.

Throughout the game, the Havre offense simply prove to be unstoppable. Warp threw three touchdown passes, while Rismon and Filius both found the end zone on three separate occasions.

Warp finished the game with 292 yards passing. Rismon had five catches for 157 yards and Filius registered 93 total yards from scrimmage.

The Havre defense also played well and after allowing two touchdowns in the first quarter, it didn’t allow Belgrade to score again until garbage time and limited the Panthers to just seven second-half points.

The defensive was spurred on by Jase Stokes, who had a herculean 17-tackle game that also included a sack, three forced fumbles and two tackles for loss. Filius also contributed with 10 tackles, a tackle for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

“I felt that all four of our captains (Warp, Rismon, Stokes and Filius) had great games,” Samson said. “Offensively, we are getting better each week. Belgrade blitzed about 80 percent of all downs and we were able to take advantage of that. Defensively, we played very well except for two plays early on. From the second quarter on, we only gave up around 10 yards rushing and 120 passing. It was a good win for us and now we have to be ready for a tough with Fergus this Friday.”

The win over Belgrade puts Havre in control of the Central A conference race and the Ponies can wrap up their first Central A conference title since 2011 with a win over arch-rival Lewistown at Blue Pony Stadium on Friday night. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Havre 40. Belgrade 27

Havre 14 6 13 7 – 40

Belgrade 14 6 0 7 – 27

Hav - Parker Filius 1 run (Jase Stokes kick)

Bel - Evan Luhrsen 69 run (Spencer Gordon kick)

Bel - Hayden Van Winkle 45 run (Gordon kick)

Hav - Nate Rismon 92 pass from Dane Warp (Stokes kick)

Hav - Rismon 21 pass from Warp (kick failed)

Bel - Tanner Campbell 24 interception return (run failed)

Hav - Filius 23 pass from Warp (Stokes kick)

Hav - Filius 1 run (kick blocked)

Hav - Rismon 15 run (Stokes kick)

Bel - Derek Marks 38 pass from Luhrsen (Gordon kick)

Havre Individual Stats

Passing – Dane Warp 14-24 292.

Rushing – Warp 15-40, Jase Stokes 4-24. Parker Filius 14-24, Jazz Schroeder 16-32, Nate Rismon 1-14.

Receiving – Rismon 5-157, Filius 4-69, Isaac Warp 2-31, Nate Korb 2-28, Stokes 1-6.