THE LAST STAND

After a slow start to the season opener, the Havre High football team finally got their offense rolling in the second half of the game Friday night at Blue Pony Stadium. But heading into the final quarter, they still trailed Sidney 7-6. In the final minutes of the game, the Blue Ponies got the ball around midfield with a chance to take the lead.

After they moved the ball into the red zone, they let running back Orion Thivierge carry them the rest of the way. On the last five plays of the drive, Thivierge carried the rock including the two-yard touchdown run up the middle to take a 12-7 lead with 2:26 left in the game.

"I just put my head down and ran," Thivierge said. "I ignored the couple things that were bugging me early in the game and I knew we could get it done. We had the momentum and I knew we were going to punch it in."

The Ponies missed the extra point before giving the ball back to the Eagles. Starting from their own 43-yard line, Sidney got several runs to get down the field. The game came down to a fourth and one at Havre's 20-yard line with just four seconds left on the clock. As time expired, Sidney quarterback Zander Dean's last pass to the end zone went incomplete to give Havre the 12-7 win to open the season. After their slow start to the game on offense, HHS head coach Ryan Gatch was proud of his team for figuring it out to pull out the victory.

"We settled in and we were able to move the ball pretty well," Gatch said. "We figured out what some of our strengths were and we figured out some of their weaknesses, and we were able to take advantage of it. We knew who was able to drive the ball in the second half was going to have a chance to win and so the fact that we were able to do that showed a lot of courage from our players to dig down and be able to make those plays."

The first half saw both teams fail to score. Through the first quarter and half, fans at Blue Pony Stadium saw the teams exchange punts and failed fourth-down conversions. Late in the second quarter, both teams had solid opportunities to score. The Eagles even scored a touchdown on a throw from Dean on fourth down, but a holding penalty nullified the score. Sidney then failed to convert the fourth down.

Havre got the ball back and drove down to Sidney's 36-yard line. However, a personal foul put the Ponies at first and 21 at Sidney's 46-yard line, which they failed to convert. While the Ponies did not score in the first half, neither did Sidney, which is a far cry from last year's game where the Eagles put up 23 points in the first half.

"What a great performance by our defense. That was a testament to all the players playing so hard," Gatch said. "We rotate a lot of guys. We had a good game plan against it and we were able to find a way to get the job done."

The second half opened with both teams failing to score in their first chance of the half. The Eagles finally broke the scoreless tie with a 22-yard touchdown strike from Dean to Reece Graves for a 7-0 lead with 4:33 left in the third quarter.

The Ponies quickly struck back when they got the ball. The Havre offense got it going on third and three when quarterback Trenton Maloughney tossed a quick toss pass to Jason Wold in motion who, then carried the ball for 41 yards down to the Sidney 28-yard line. On the next play, Thivierge got the ball and rumbled down the field for the touchdown.

"Orion's a great player for us. He's a great team leader," Gatch said. "He's one of our captains, and anytime you got a player like that, you need to find a way to get it to him."

The Ponies' extra point was blocked, leaving them trailing 7-6 with 23 seconds left in the third. Havre forced a three-and-out from Sidney on the ensuing drive and got the ball back. The Ponies got the ball at their own 46-yard line and slowly marched down the field. Their drive ended with five straight runs from Thivierge including a fourth-down conversion as well as the go-ahead touchdown.

Trailing 12-7 with just under two and a half minutes left in the game, the Eagles got the ball on their own 43-yard line. While they had little time left, they still used their running game to get down the field. Many of those runs came on scrambles from Dean when he initially dropped back to pass. The Eagles eventually got to Havre's 20-yard line, but Dean threw three straight incompletions. With four seconds left in the game and on fourth down, Dean overthrew a pass to Graves in the end zone.

"We were just all locked in and we weren't getting beat this game," said HHS cornerback Carson Harris.

Along with opening the season 1-0, the win also served as revenge against Sidney after Havre lost to them, 37-14, last season. The Ponies will look to avenge another loss from last season when they head on the road to play Lewistown next week. While Gatch is already looking forward to next week, he wants to let his team enjoy the hard-fought victory for a little while.

"We get 24 hours to celebrate it," Gatch said. "We're going to have a nice road trip down to Lewistown next week and those guys, there's a lot of rivalry in that so it's going to be enjoying the next 24 hours and then it's back to work on Sunday."

The HHS football team will continue their season on the road at Lewistown Friday at 7 p.m.

Blue Ponies 12, Sidney 7

SIDNEY 0 0 7 0 - 7

HAVRE 0 0 6 6 - 12

SID - Reece Graves 22 pass from Zander Dean (Kick good)

HAV - Orion Thivierge 28 run (Kick blocked)

HAV - Thivierge 2 run (Kick missed)

Havre Individual Stats

PASSING - Trenton Maloughney 6-10-41

RECEIVING - Hunter Sawdy 2-6, Kale VanCampen 1-7, Jason Wold 1-8, Orion Thivierge 2-20.

RUSHING - Trenton Maloughney 4-31, Crawford Terry 9-20, Kale VanCampen 2-7, Jason Wold 1-41, Orion Thivierge 17-102.

Defense - Orion Thivierge 13 Tackles 1 Sack 1 Tackle For Loss, Crawford Terry 8 Tackles 1 Tackle for Loss, Kale VanCampen 9 Tackles.