Ponies can't quite ground Eagles in season-opener

The Havre Blue Ponies have been working hard to impress in their season opener and despite the loss, they presented a lot of promise going into the rest of the season.

Havre opened its season last Friday night with a difficult 18-14 loss to the Sidney Eagles.

Losing a season-opener is always tough, but head coach Ryan Gatch was still proud of his team and the effort he saw on the field.

“They played a great game,” Gatch said of his Ponies. “Our players fought hard, hard and tough the whole way. They played real well at times. It’s one of those games that, unfortunately, someone has to come out on the losing side because both teams played very well.”

Gatch’s assessment on the game is very accurate. The Blue Ponies were a tough competitor for Sidney.

Sidney had some struggles opening the game. The Eagles only managed one first down and ended the drive on a false start penalty, resulting in a punt.

On its first possession of the 2019 season, the Ponies marched down the field 60 yards in just five plays, a good portion of them being great passes to Orion Thivierge, capping their first score of the season with a 20-yard run by Mason Dionne into the endzone, putting the Ponies up 7-0 in a 1:32 drive. Dionne would end up having a good game, having 18 carries for 107 yards.

Sidney responded right away, pushing down the field on a 75-yard drive and a touchdown run by Jett Jones. Sidney would miss its extra point kick, putting the Eagles down 7-6.

The rest of the first quarter would prove fruitless for both teams, as they never found the endzone, but the teams would find their way in the second quarter.

Havre would once again strike first, moving downfield on a 76-yard drive, resulting in a Trenton Maloughney 13-yard pass to Reese Bulkley, then a successful extra point kick to put the Ponies up 14-6 in an 3:50 drive. Bulkley and Maloughney would both get multiple snaps throughout the game. Bulkley would end up also catching three passes for 25 yards for the night. Maloughney would end the night with 7-of-9 in passing.

Gatch was very pleased with what he saw from his two quarterbacks.

“They both did a good job of doing that,” stated Gatch.

Gatch was excited to see Maloughney throw a touchdown pass, as it would be a highlight for Maloughney’s first time playing a varsity game.

Sidney, with time on the clock, wouldn’t let the first half end without a score of their own. The Eagles would end up going on a 90-yard march, ending with a Cooper McGloughlin 33-yard pass to Jaxson Franklin, but would fail the two-point conversion, putting the Eagles right behind the Ponies 14-12 at the end of the half.

The second half didn’t go as planned for Havre, as Sidney would get another touchdown run by Jett Jones, and again a failed two-point conversion, to put them ahead of Havre 18-14. The rest of the half would be a struggle for the Ponies, in the end, turning the ball over on a pivotal down in the home stretch of the competition.

Even with the game over, the Ponies had some great things to take away. The offense would end the night with a total of 237 yards of offense and 14 first downs. Havre’s offensive line would also have a good night guarding the two quarterbacks, giving Bulkley many opportunities to run the ball when needed.

“We had a lot of good, positive things on the offense,” Gatch said. “There were a lot of things that stood out.”

The Pony defense had a good game, as well. A big fumble hit by Dionne would be scooped up by Joey Byrd giving the Pony offense another chance. Thivierge would have six solo tackles, three assists, and two sacks and Kellen Detrick would have five tackles, three assists, and one sack. Bradyn Winchell added five tackles and three assists and Quinn Springer totaled five tackles and two assists.

“We had a lot of guys doing a lot of real positive things back there,” said Gatch. “We’ve been outscored greatly to those guys (Eagles). To hold them to 18 points … with the number of good players they have, I thought our defense played fairly well.”

The loss to Sidney is a hard one for the Blue Ponies, but the game they put on to open the season shows that the team has lots of positive things to look forward to for the rest of the season.

“We saw a lot of real positive things out of our players, so we’re real happy with the things we can build on for this week,” Gatch said.

The Blue Ponies (0-1) will play the Glendive Red Devils (0-1) this Friday at 7 p.m. in Blue Pony Stadium and look to secure their first home win of the season.

Sidney 18, Blue Ponies 14

HAV – Mason Dionne 20 run (PAT good)

SID – Jett Jones 1 run (PAT no good)

HAV – Trenton Maloughney 13 pass to Reese Bulkley (PAT good)

SID – Cooper McGloughlin 33 pass to Jaxson Franklin (Conversion no good)

SID – Jones 9 run (Conversion no good)

Havre Individual Stats

Passing – Trenton Maloughney 7-9

Rushing – Mason Dionne 18-107, Kellen Detrick 6-32

Receiving – Orion Thivierge 4-47, Reese Bulkley 3-25, Brock Nystrom 2-16, Kellen Detrick 2-11.