Ponies collar Bulldogs

Heading into their Friday night matchup with the Hardin Bulldogs at Blue Pony Stadium, the Havre High football team was looking to rebound from their shutout loss to Lewistown last week. Not only did the Blue Ponies get on the scoreboard against Hardin, but they put up 18 in the first half en route to a 25-14 win over Hardin.

"Our kids played hard and came out. They were able to put a couple drives together real nice, moved the ball real well," HHS head coach Ryan Gatch said. "A lot of good, positive things in the game. Some guys have made a lot of plays all year, made a lot of plays tonight so that was fun to see."

In their loss to Lewistown, the Ponies lost the turnover battle so Gatch was hoping to change that against Hardin. It did not take long for the Ponies to take a lead in the turnover battle when they recovered a Hardin muffed punt at the Hardin 39-yard line early in the first quarter.

"We got the ball out a number of times from them. It makes a big difference in the game," Gatch said. "Those are great plays for the Ponies and so anytime that we can force those to happen, that's a real positive thing for us and that was a great thing to see today."

Later in the drive on a third and long, the Ponies converted when quarterback Trenton Maloughney scrambled to find Kale VanCampen who carried the ball 30 yards down to the Hardin three-yard line. Three plays later, Orion Thivierge scored from eight yards out for the touchdown. On the two-point conversion, Maloughney ran it in himself to make the score 8-0 with 4:54 left in the first quarter.

Over the next three drives, the teams exchanged failed fourth-down conversions. Halfway through the second quarter, the Bulldogs had fourth and five at their own 30-yard line. Instead of punting, they decided to run it up the middle but failed to pick up the first down. After allowing 33 points to Lewistown in their last game, Gatch was happy with his defensive effort against Hardin.

"We did a good job, we settled in. Defensive game plan was solid," Gatch said. "Obviously, we want to stop the run and that's what the critical thing is when we play in the east and so we did a good job with that."

The Ponies capitalized on the second Hardin mistake of the game with a touchdown a few plays later. It was Thivierge again who scored as he ran it in from seven yards out to make Havre's lead 15-0 with 2:05 left in the first half.

After forcing a Hardin punt, the Ponies got the ball at their own 32-yard line with 43.4 seconds left in the half. With the help of a completed pass to Thivierge, a couple Maloughney runs and a defensive personal foul, the Ponies got to the Hardin 13-yard line with 3.3 seconds left on the clock. In his first field-goal attempt for Havre, foreign exchange student Lukas Fahl made a 28-yard attempt to give Havre an 18-0 lead as time expired.

"I feel good. I did my best," Fahl said about his kicking debut for the Ponies.

On their opening play of the second half, Hardin fumbled and lost the ball at their own 40-yard line. However, the Ponies did not capitalize this time. Halfway through the third, it looked like Havre was about to put it away when Thivierge ran a punt all the way back for the touchdown. However, a block in the back negated the touchdown. While Havre was looking to cut down penalties coming into the game, they still made mistakes on defense and special teams.

"We still got a lot to learn," Gatch said about his team's penalties. "We got a lot of work to do but it's always a lot more fun to correct a victory than a loss."

The Bulldogs finally scored near the end of the third quarter when Derek Blankenship ran for a one-yard touchdown and Hardin converted their two-point attempt. But Havre responded when they got the ball back. With 10:44 left in the game, Thivierge ran it in from eight yards out for his third touchdown of the game. Thivierge credits his young offensive line as well as his other blockers for his success on the ground against Hardin.

"I ran behind Crawford Terry and Kale VanCampen and they're good blockers," Thivierge said. "So I just ran behind them and they paved the way and it was a great grind."

The Bulldogs scored another touchdown but were not able to make their way back into the game. With the rebound win, Havre is now 2-1 on the season while Hardin fell to 0-3. With three games in the books, Havre is now a third of the way through the season. While Gatch is happy to have a winning record, he knows the Ponies have plenty to work on if they are going to keep winning.

"We're going to have to work on the penalties, some critical ones. We got to get off the field on fourth down, had some critical missed assignments," Gatch said. "We've got a lot of work to do but I'd rather work when we win than work when we lose and it's a lot better to be 2-1 than 1-2."

HHS football will try to make it two in a row when they head on the road to face Billings Central Friday at 6 p.m.

Havre 25, Hardin 14

HAR - 0 0 8 6 - 14

HAV - 8 10 0 7 - 25

HAV - Orion Thivierge 8 run (Maloughney run)

HAV - Thivierge 7 run (Lukas Fahl kick)

HAV - Fahl 28 FG

HAR - Derek Blankenship 1 run (Keyon Braided Hair-Fisher run)

HAV - Thivierge 8 run (Fahl kick)

HAR - Blankenship 22 pass from Sean Mehling (Run failed)

Individual Stats

Passing - Trenton Maloughney 5-11-79-0-0.

Rushing - Orion Thivierge 19-119, Trenton Maloughney 12-53, Jason Wold 5-41, Crawford Terry 1-3.

Receiving - Orion Thivierge 2-40, Kale VanCampen 1-22, Jason Wold 1-9, Mike Emge 1-4.