Eagles soar past Blue Ponies in Lewistown

After a tough loss to the Glendive Red Devils last weekend, the Havre High football team looked to find its first win of the 2020 season over long-time rival, the Lewistown Golden Eagles, on the road Friday.

Unfortunately, the Blue Ponies were faced with another difficult result in week three of the season.

Down in Lewistown, Havre was met with its second shutout loss of the year, as the Golden Eagles routed the Ponies 21-0, leaving Havre with a 0-3 overall record. Another loss is a pain for the Ponies, especially when it is handed to them from an old rival.

Even so, Havre head coach Ryan Gatch saw another game where his team gave it their all.

"It was a good, hard-fought football game," Gatch said. "Lot of fun to watch our players compete for four quarters out there. We got down 6-0 at the end of the first half and were battling. We got a lot of work to do, but we've made a lot of improvements and strides on our game offensively and defensively. It's been a lot of fun to watch us progress and guys have gotten better over these first three weeks."

The rivalry game started off with a stalemate in the first quarter, as both defenses kept the opposing offense from finding the endzone. It would take some time for one of the teams to find the endzone, but the first score went to the Golden Eagles, as Keaton Potter made his way to a touchdown on a 12-yard run. Lewistown ended up missing the extra point, but without any other scores in the first half, the Eagles led 6-0 at halftime.

Havre came out to a stalwart battle against Lewistown, which Gatch was glad to see.

"We're fighters," Gatch said. "We competed the whole time, for all four quarters and played some good football. It was fun to watch."

Despite the close bout before the intermission, the Ponies would fall victim to a tough second half. The Eagles pulled further ahead when Seth Norslein completed a short six-yard pass to Luke Clinton, as well as a successful two-point conversion, leaving Havre in a rough spot.

With the Blue Pony offense unable to get momentum going to find the endzone, Norslein kept it himself in the fourth quarter for a three-yard quarterback keeper to seal the deal for Lewistown and send Havre home with another difficult loss to a long-time rival in the Eastern A.

But, Gatch did see some positive things come out of the week three battle.

"Each week, we see improvement and them getting better each and every day," Gatch said. "Brock Nystrom played lights out. He played one of the best games that I've seen from a high school kid at corner. He was active, all over the place, knocking balls away, getting interceptions and he really stymied their passing-game."

The Ponies still put up some great performances from players, though. Defensively, Orion Thivierge had 11 tackles, five assists and two tackles-for-loss to lead Havre. Offensively, Crawford Terry racked up 44 yards in 13 attempts as a running back and Kellen Detrick tallied 58 yards on four receptions as a reciever.

The Havre Blue Ponies (0-3) will be back at Blue Pony Stadium Friday for a 7 p.m. game against the Class A defending state champs in the Miles City Cowboys (3-0). The Ponies are still looking for their first win of the 2020 season.

Lewistown 21, Blue Ponies 0

Lewistown 0 6 8 7 – 21

Havre 0 0 0 0 – 0

LWST – Keaton Potter 12 run (PAT no good)

LWST – Luke Clinton 6 pass from Seth Norslein (CNV good)

LWST – Norslein 3 run (PAT good)

Havre Individual Stats

Passing – Trenton Maloughney 9-18 for 72

Rushing – Crawford Terry 13-44, Kellen Detrick 10-22, Orion Thivierge 2-7, Bradyn Winchell 1-(-2), Trenton Maloughney 2-(-14)

Receiving – Kellen Detrick 4-58, Orion Thivierge 4-12, Brock Nystrom 1-2.