Panthers roar past Blue Ponies

There isn’t a whole lot the Havre High football team can, or wants to take away from Friday’s night’s showdown in Belgrade. And the Blue Ponies know they don’t have much time to dwell on it.

Instead, the Central A Ponies will look to move on and get ready for the remainder of the regular season schedule.

Friday night in Belgrade, the Ponies faced the league leading Belgrade Panthers. It is still early in the conference season, but Friday’s results may have settled who will end up a No. 1 seed and who could end up a No. 2 seed. Belgrade defeated Havre 37-7, pushing the Panthers to a 2-0 record in the conference while dropping the Ponies to 1-1.

“We didn’t travel very well,” Havre High head coach Jason Christenson said. “We are going to change up how we travel to keep more focused and to keep the kids minds on the task at hand. We are changing a few things, so we did learn something from that, but you just kind of want to throw this game out. We don’t want to dwell on it because it wasn’t a good performance by anybody. We don’t’ want to rehash it to the kids, they are already down about it, so we will just move forward.

“This game could impact the top finish in the conference,” Christenson added. “But we still have a tough task in Lewistown and Browning. We have to see how we will finish and we aren’t going to look past those teams by any stretch. I think this kind of set the table for who will finish first, and Belgrade is a pretty tough football team. This might be a fight for second now.”

It was a tight matchup to start as the score was locked at 7-7 through the majority of the first half, but the Panthers would take advantage of the Ponies not quite being ready to play.

Tristan Manuel got the Ponies on the board first with a short scoring run. But not being able to put a lid on the Belgrade ground game, quarterback Brayden Konkol exploded with a 78-yard scoring run to tie the ballgame in the first quarter. AndBut with just 15 seconds left to play in the first half the Panthers struck again, this time causing an unstoppable avalanche. Konkol hit Koby Ruff on a 24-yard touchdown pass, giving the Panthers a 14-7 lead at the break.

“I don’t know if that changed the momentum,” Christenson said. “The kids just have to deal with adversity. We weren’t out of the game by any means at that point, and it was pretty unfortunate that they scored at that time, but it is one of those things that as a player you deal with it and get over it and move on."

Belgrade added four scores in the second half. Garret Fowler scored on a three-yard run, while Grady Blewett scored on a 24-yard run. Tristan Walker also scored on a 25-yard pass from Konkol, while Belgrade scored a safety as well. It wasn’t that the Panthers were doing anything the Ponies couldn’t handle, Christenson knows his team just didn’t play well from the get go, allowing the Panthers to run away with the game.

HHS totaled just 240 yard in the air. Dane Warp finished 18-31-199 and Parker Filius finished 1-1-41. Thomas Gruber caught five passes for 87 yards, while Nate Rismon caught five passes for 59. Kody Pribyl also caught four passes for 21 yards while Manuel caught two for 29. Filius also caught four passes for another 56-yards. The Ponies’ top rusher was Manuel, carrying the ball eight times for 29 yards and the one score. Pribyl had three carries for 11 yards.

“The kids didn’t perform very well,” Christenson said. “And they weren’t executing their assignments. It was a snowball effect, and once we had one breakdown, everybody had a breakdown. It just kept going and kept going, and it just wasn’t good second half of football for us.”

Defensively, the Ponies were led by Tyrell Pierce who finished with four tackles, two sacks, and one caused fumble. Trevor Jensen had six tackles, but Jordan Schroeder and Pribyl also finished with four tackles each. The defense also allowed just four competed passes for 78 yards, as well as 39 rushes for 281 yards.

Friday the Ponies will look to get back on track hosting the Lewistown Golden Eagles at the Blue Pony Stadium in Havre. Friday night’s game is the regular season home finale for the Ponies.

Belgrade 37, Blue Ponies 7

Havre 7 0 0 0 - 7

Belgrade 7 7 14 9 - 37

Hav – Kody Pribyl 1 run (Gunnar Aageson kick)

Bel - Brayden Konkol 78 run (Shane Huntsman kick)

Bel - Koby Ruff 24 pass from Brayden Konkol (Huntsman kick)

Bel - Garet Fowler 3 run (Huntsman kick)

Bel - Grady Blewett 24 run (kick blocked)

Bel - Tristan Walker 25 pass from Brayden Konkol (Brayden Konkol run)

Bel - Safety, Thomas Gruber tackled in end zone

Havre Individual Statistics

Passing – Dane Warp 18-31-199, Parker FIlius 1-1-41

Receiving – Thomas Gruber 5-87, Nate Rismon 5-59, Kody Pribyl 4-21, Tristan Manuel 2-29

Rushing – Kody Pribyl 3-11, Tristan Manuel 8-29.