Eagles soar past Blue Ponies

The Havre High football team was hoping to use its home-field advantage and the excitement of its home opener at Blue Pony Stadium to help avoid an 0-2 start.

But Lewistown, Havre's Eastern A rival, was going to have none of it, as the Eagles dominated the game from start to finish in an impressive 39-12 victory Friday night.

The victory allowed Lewistown to improve to 1-1, while the Blue Ponies dropped to 0-2. They will play host to Laurel Friday night at Blue Pony Stadium.

"(Lewistown) has a very physical football team," HHS head coach Ryan Gatch said. "They have a lot of junior and seniors and a lot of seasoned guys. We have a lot of guys that are still learning how to be physical and how to play. But I was glad to see our guys battle to the end, we could have not have done that, so I was pretty happy to see that."

In the Ponies' season-opening loss to Hardin, they allowed more than 200 yards rushing, and Lewistown, looking to exploit that weakness, wasted no time in running the ball right at the Havre defense. When it was all said and done, the Eagles would rack up 323 rushing yards, with 188 of those coming from Wesley Jameson, who scored twice in the first quarter on four-yard and three-yard touchdown runs, which gave Lewistown a 14-0 lead after the opening stanza.

In the second quarter, quarterback Mitchell Norslien got in on the act, scoring on an 18-yard touchdown run to make it 20-0, before connecting with Tanner Trafton on a 24-yard touchdown pass, which put the Eagles up 26-0 just a few minutes before halftime.

In the final minute of the half, the Havre offense finally managed to get something going as a 21-yard pass to Jacob Irvin pushed the ball down the field and set up a 28-yard scoring strike from Trey Murphy to Ethan Roberts, which made the score 26-6 at halftime.

"We had a tough time getting things going," Gatch said. "We made some mistakes and shot ourselves in the foot a few times. But right before the half, we did have that nice drive and got the touchdown pass there to Ethan, which got us a little momentum."

The Ponies did have momentum to start the third quarter, but after being forced to punt, the momentum was soon taken back by the Eagles, who quickly extended the lead to 33-6 after Norslien found Bridger Grover for a 17-yard touchdown on fourth down. Then, early in the fourth quarter, Matt Welsh hit paydirt on an 11-yard run, giving Lewistown a commanding 39-6 advantage.

With the game out of reach, Havre was able to add another touchdown late in the game as Murphy connected with Ivar Aageson on a 16-yard touchdown pass.

Murphy was sacked a total of six times in the loss, but did complete 16-of-30 passes for 143 yards. He also threw two touchdown passes compared to one interception. Aageson had another solid game receiving for HHS, hauling in seven passes for 72 yards. Roberts also contributed with three receptions for 41 yards. Mason Dionne led the way on the ground with 30 yards on 11 carries. Jeremiah Hughes also pitched in with two runs for 25 yards, while Jazz Schroeder had one rush for 17 yards.

On the defensive side of the ball for the Ponies, Dionne led the way with 11 tackles. Hughes also had a big game, finishing with six tackles, one tackle for loss and getting one interception.

Jameson finished with 188 yards on the ground and also had 18 receiving to finish with 206 total yards and two touchdowns for the Eagles. Norslien was 9-of-17 for 135 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. He also ran seven times for 72 yards and had one rushing touchdown.

Lewistown finished the game with 458 yards of total offense, while the Ponies managed just 181 and totaled just 38 yards on the ground. In two games, Havre has 45 rush attempts for just 36 yards.

"We are going to have to continue to learn and get better," Gatch said. "We have a good team (Laurel) coming to town next week. So we really need to make sure that we are staying focused and sticking together as a team. That is going to be a big key. We also have to cut back on the unforced errors. We have had too many penalties and turnovers, we need to get that stuff cleaned up."

Havre (0-2) will look for its first win of the season Friday night at home against Laurel (2-0).

Lewistown 39, Havre 12

Lewistown 14 12 7 6 - 39

Havre 0 6 0 6 - 12

Lewistown - Wesley Jameson 4 run (two-point good)

Lewistown- Wesley Jameson 3 run (two-point failed)

Lewistown - Mitchell Norslien 18 run (two-point failed)

Lewistown - Tanner Trafton 24 pass from Norslien (two-point failed)

Havre - Ethan Roberts 29 pass from Trey Murphy (PAT no good)

Lewistown - Bridger Grover 17 pass from Mitchell Norslien (PAT good)

Lewistown - Matt Welsh 11 run (PAT no good)

Havre - Ivar Aageson 16 pass from Murphy (PAT no good)

Havre individual stats

Passing - Trey Murphy 16-30 143.

Rushing - Mason Dionne 11-30, Jeremiah Hughes 2-25, Jazz Schroeder 1-17, Ethan Roberts 1 (-2), Trey Murphy 6 (-32).

Receiving - Ivar Aageson 7-72, Ethan Roberts 3-41, Jacob Irvin 1-21, Tanner Parsons 1-12, Mason Dionne 3 - (-3).