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Havre High's Kellen Detrick carries the ball during Friday night's Eastern A regular season finale between the Blue Ponies and Miles City at Blue Pony Stadium. The Cowboys brought Havre's season to an end with a 40-14 win.
Mason Dionne runs during Friday night's game at Blue Pony Stadium.
Reese Bulkley runs during Friday night's game at Blue Pony Stadium.
The Havre defense sacks the Miles City quarterback during Friday night's game at Blue Pony Stadium.
Orion Thivierge runs with the ball during Friday night's game at Blue Pony Stadium.
The Havre student section cheers during Friday night's game at Blue Pony Stadium.
The Havre High football team was hoping it could spring an upset on Miles City last Friday night at Blue Pony Stadium, but the Cowboys, who have been on a roll of late, would have no part of it.
Miles City, who will head into the playoffs to take on Belgrade this week, cemented a 6-3 record in the regular season with a 40-14 win over the Blue Ponies on senior night last Friday. The win means Havre closed the year out with a 2-7 overall record. HHS missed the playoffs for a third straight season.
“It came down to turnovers,” HHS head coach Ryan Gatch said. “We lost the turnover battle and some of those things cost us again. But the kids played hard. They gave a great effort.”
Turnovers hurt the Ponies, but so did Carson Hunter, the Miles City quarterback who finished the game with four total touchdowns, throwing for two and rushing for two more. He also wound up with 241 yards through the air.
In the first quarter, Hunter connected with Jake Bellows for a touchdown to open the scoring and give the Cowboys a 6-0 lead. Then, following an interception by Miles City, Aidan Bellows scored on a 13-yard run, making the score 12-0.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Ponies finally found a spark. Mason Dionne, who got the ball after a reverse handoff from Ethan Roberts, broke a few tackles and raced 95 yards for a touchdown, getting Havre right back in it down 12-7 late in the first quarter.
“We used our reverse return on that one,” Gatch said. “We knew they kind of has us pegged on that one and we were able to take advantage of that. It was a fun play to be able to do that.”
Soon after making it a one-score game, Orion Thivierge notched an interception on defense, giving Havre the ball back with a chance to take the lead. Yet the Ponies punted on their next possession, and Miles City closed the half with two touchdown runs from Hunter to go up 26-7 at the break.
Miles City added another touchdown run in the third quarter and pushed the lead to 33 points when Hunter found Jake Bellows for a second scoring strike, giving the Cowboys a 40-17 lead.
Late in the game, Havre was able to put another touchdown up on the board as Dionne connected with Roberts, a senior, on a one-yard touchdown pass. That made the final margin 40-14.
“We kept trying a lot of different things and they tightened up,” Gatch said. “They brought the house on us a lot. We were able to run the ball decently at times, but we had a good play call for the situation and it was cool that Ethan was able to get it.”
When the game was over, Miles City racked up 409 yards of total offense compared to 182 for the Ponies. Havre did manage 140 rushing yards, though, which was a positive. The majority of the yards on the ground came from Dionne, who ran the ball 27 times for 92 yards. Dionne did throw a touchdown pass also, but in addition to that, threw two interceptions, one coming on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half. He also caught two passes for 19 yards, putting him over 100 total yards for the second straight week. Kellen Detrick also added 34 yards on the ground on nine carries.
Starting quarterback Reese Bulkley completed 4-of-8 passes for 41 yards. He also threw an interception in the loss. Thivierge had a solid night defensively, notching a team-high five tackles and an interception. Brady Winchell also finished with five tackles and recovered a fumble. Caleb Allestad also contributed with four tackles and Tony Antley had three.
Miles City 40, Blue Ponies 14
Miles City 12 14 6 8 - 40
Havre 7 0 0 7 - `14
MC - Jake Bellows 36 pass from Carson Hunter (Conversion no good)
MC - Aidan Bellows 19 run (Conversion no good)
HAV - Mason Dionne 95 kickoff return (PAT good)
MC - Hunter 10 run (Conversion no good)
MC - Hunter 2 run (Conversion good)
MC - 1 yard run (Conversion no good)
MC - Jake Bellows 33 pass from Hunter (Conversion good)
HAV - Roberts 1 pass from Dionne (PAT good)
Havre Individual stats
Passing - Reese Bulkley 4-8 41, Mason Dionne 1-3 1.
Rushing - Mason Dionne 27-92, Kellen Detrick 9-34, Reese Bulkley 5-9, Ethan Roberts 1-5.
Receiving - Mason Dionne 2-19, Orion Thivierge 1-16, Kellen Detrick 1-6, Ethan Roberts 1-1.
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