Stampeding Blue Ponies head to winless Livingston

The Havre High football team has been riding high the past few weeks. The Blue Ponies have won three straight games, making their record 5-2 on the season. Now tonight, the Ponies look to keep it rolling as they head on the road to face Livingston. While the Rangers have not had the best season, HHS head coach Jake Eldridge expects a challenge for the Ponies tonight.

"They're really competitive on both sides of the ball, especially up front," Eldridge said. "We expect another competitive ballgame on the road where we've actually been playing pretty good so I would expect that to continue."

The Livingston Rangers enter the game with an 0-7 record this season. While they have some talent on their team, the Rangers have struggled as they lost their games by an average of 49.4 points a game. They are coming off a 48-6 loss against Glendive last week, a team that Havre just defeated, 26-12, a few weeks ago.

Regardless of the Rangers' record, the Ponies will need to execute to come away with the win. Leading the Havre offense will be quarterback Kale Van Campen who has had a strong year for the Ponies.

So far this season, Van Campen has completed 56.8 percent of his passes for 875 yards, 11 touchdowns and three interceptions. He has also used his legs to move the ball as he has 370 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns on 5.3 yards a carry.

Van Campen will not be alone trying to move the ball for the Ponies this weekend. Running back Tate Nelson has been strong on the ground with 354 yards and three scores on 4.4 yards a carry. He is coming off his best game of the year against Lockwood where he ran for 157 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.

Van Campen will have plenty of options in the passing game. Wide receiver Tre Gary leads the Ponies with 20 catches, 350 receiving yards and three touchdowns this year. Jacob Herring has also been good with 19 catches for 227 yards and two touchdowns this fall.

Over the past three weeks, the Havre offense has found its stride. During their three-game winning streak, the Ponies have averaged 327 yards of offense a game, including an average of 188 rushing yards a contest. But if the Ponies are going to keep rolling, their execution will need to be on point.

"At the end of the day, it's really just us executing our individual assignments and doing our job and going out there and just playing hard," Eldridge said. "I think if we can just focus on ourselves and execute our jobs and do them to the best of our ability and play hard, I expect us to have some success."

The Ponies have played at home the past two weeks where they have had most of their recent success. But the Ponies have been stellar on the road this year as they are 3-0 away from Blue Pony Stadium. With this being the last road game of the regular season, Eldridge looks forward to seeing how his players handle the road trip.

"I think it's good for us to get on the road. I like the idea of us being together on the bus and just spending time with each other," Eldridge said. "It's going to be another good opportunity for us to be able to play together and stay together and overcome some adversity and continue to move forward and continue to get better as a team."

With their recent success, the Ponies are having their best season in several years. But if the Ponies want to continue to roll and achieve their ultimate goals this season, Eldridge knows that the Ponies will need to stay hungry and motivated against Livingston tonight.

"It's a new week. Just because we've won a couple games doesn't mean that we've really done anything of worth yet," Eldridge said. "We've got a lot of season ahead of us here and goals and aspirations for this team that we have to go accomplish. In order to do that, we have to continue to work hard day in and day out."

The HHS football team will kick off against Livingston tonight at 6 p.m. in Livingston.