Blue Ponies compete in Blue/White games

Throughout August, both the Havre High football and volleyball teams have used their training camps to get ready for the upcoming season that is now less than a week away. While they have done their best to get their teams ready in practice, it was hard to simulate game speed. But with the Blue/White games this past weekend, both programs have now given their players the chance to experience game speed before the season.

The HHS football team got the weekend started with their Blue/White game on Friday night at Blue Pony Stadium. At the scrimmage, the Blue Ponies' no. 1 one offense went against their no. 2 defense. With their season opener set for this Friday against Sidney, HHS head coach Ryan Gatch thought the offense's performance showed promise.

"Getting continuity on the offensive line has been a critical thing we've been working on since we started camp and I thought we grew a little bit stronger in that group today," Gatch said. "We were able to play a ton of reps that we traditionally haven't been able to do during the scrimmage. So it was a lot of fun to be able to do that today and that was great to see."

Returning quarterback Trenton Maloughney started the scrimmage for the Ponies. Through the night, he was efficient throwing the football as he completed many screen passes. His receivers then made plays after the catch to get the offense down the field. Once the Ponies got to the redzone, they leaned on their run game to finish drives. Junior runningback Crawford Terry continued to be a workhorse for the Ponies as he scored two touchdowns in the redzone.

"He was a very good tailback for us last year as he came into his own as a sophomore," Gatch said. "He has been a fantastic leader for us and he's going to continue to grow and get better and better and I expect big things out of him this year."

After the starting offense got their reps for the night, Gatch let his no. 2 offense get some game-like experience. One backup who took advantage of his reps was backup quarterback Ciaran Courtnage. Throughout the night, he connected with some of his receivers down the field for big plays. He even hit one of his receivers for a touchdown.

"He had a great offseason. He had a ton of camps. Came to all of our strength and conditioning stuff to work on his agility, speed and strength and it's really paying off for him," Gatch said.

With just one scrimmage before their season starts, the Ponies needed to immediately show something for Gatch to work with. After Friday night, Gatch believes the offensive chemistry he saw can be what leads his team to success this fall.

"What we got to build off was that offensive line continuity," Gatch said. "That was one of the biggest things that we talked about this morning and as we're meeting as a group in our walkthrough about chemistry, about keeping everybody safe and playing for one another that I thought that really transpired with everybody and how hard they played."

The HHS volleyball team held their Blue/White game on Saturday morning at the Blue Pony Gymnasium. The team's c-squad got the day started with a scrimmage of their own before the varsity team scrimmaged against the junior varsity team. The varsity team defeated the junior varsity team, 3-0, and showed what they got to HHS head coach Stephanie Huse.

"I saw a lot of good things with our varsity team. I thought our seniors did a great job with the ball control which is what I expected out of them," Huse said. "The things that were running within the system we have in place, they did a good job of executing that."

The first set was the closest set between the two groups. The junior varsity team came out competitive and only allowed varsity to build a 13-10 lead. However, the varsity team took control of the set as they scored nine straight points to take a 22-10 lead and they eventually won the first set, 25-15.

The Ponies varsity team continued to dominate through the next two sets as they won the second set, 25-10, and the third set, 25-9. While Huse saw many promising things from her team such as serving, she believes they still need to improve in some aspects of the game before they start their season with a tournament in Sidney this Friday.

"We're going to continue to work on our serve receive and our defense. Those are the two things that we take pride in and we need to work a little bit hard on cleaning that up a little bit more," Huse said. "I felt our serving was very good. The girls are making it hard on me to decide who's going to serve. We only got six serves which is nice. It's nice for a coach to have options."

The HHS football team will begin its season at home against Sidney this Friday at 7 p.m. at Blue Pony Stadium. The HHS volleyball team will begin the season with a tournament in Sidney this Friday and Saturday.