Showdown at the Blue Pony Corral

The Havre High Blue Pony football team is eager to get their season started — Again.

The Central A Blue Ponies (1-0, 1-0) opened their season with a dominating 66-21 win over Whitefish nearly two long weeks ago. And after a week-two bye the Ponies will finally retake the gridiron.

Tonight at Blue Pony Stadium in Havre the Ponies will host the Miles City Cowboys at 6 in a Class A nonconference matchup.

And after a long bye week after only the first game of the season, there are some mixed feelings.

"It almost felt like were back in two-a-days." Havre High head coach Jason Christenson said. "The kids are tired of hitting each other, and now they are geared up, focused up and excited to hit a different colored jersey.

"But I like momentum," Christenson added. "When you come off a win like that (defeating Whitefish) the kids get excited and their confidence goes up. I would have liked to have kept rolling with it, but it's something we have to deal with."

HHS would have preferred a bye week later in the season when injuries and tired legs are more of an issue. But coming out of their game against Whitefish, the Ponies were fortunate enough to come away injury free. And while there were no bodies to heal, Christenson did say they took advantage of the time, learning a lot about Miles City as well as adding more of their own offense and defensive schemes to the playbook.

The Blue Ponies are comfortable with their knowledge of the Cowboys, and confident in their own game plan.

"We have a good idea of what they are going to do and what they are going to run," Christenson said. "We know they are very confident so we just have to go out and execute and play our style of football. We have to get after them a little bit."

The Cowboy defense is very aggressive and very sound. They will attempt to apply a lot of pressure and rush Pony quarterback Justin Jensen as much as possible.

And on the offensive side of the ball, the Cowboys are even more dangerous.

From what game film HHS was able to watch, Miles City loves to run the ball and is very good at it. They have a huge offensive line that overshadows most defenses they will face, and are anchored by two very big offensive threats.

Miles Ciyt's 6-3, 215-pound fullback Kyle Stanton is a workhorse for the Cowboy offense. And quarterback Shane Cooley can cause trouble with both his legs and his arm.

"I think they favor the run," Christenson said. "But we are expecting a combination of both run and pass. I am sure they try to keep it even and not too one dimensional."

The HHS defenders have their work cut out for them.

The defensive line has to get off their blocks and stop the run. And in the secondary, the linebackers (Casey Schaub, Eli Hinebauch and Brandon Brostrom) have to fill the gaps and help with the run support.

"One thing they do have on us is size," Christenson said. "And they like to run the trap game. Our defensive tackles are fairly quick and we have been working hard on trying to eliminate that trap. And we have been working with our linebackers trying to get them to key what they are supposed to and get to their proper fits. We need to play aggressive and play fast, and if we do that I think we will be ok."

The Havre offense will also have to execute well to come out on top.

And after the success found in week one, fans can expect a similar game plan.

The Ponies want to run and pass the ball successfully. But if one seems to work over the other they will take what the Cowboy defense gives them. And controlling the tempo of the game will also be a key factor as will be protecting Jensen and giving him time to run the offense adequately.

Last time out Schaub, Logan Conor, Corderro Strickland, Jensen and Ryan Brandt all had dominating performances to say the least. But to do so tonight, Christenson is putting the offensive line to the test.

"I think all of them (Joey DeVries, Evan Flathers, Drew Kafka, Danny Roe, Josh Salapich and Brandon Smith) need to step up and really play well," Christenson said. "And if they are able to play well, open up some holes and execute the pass block we will be fine. The receivers will go out and do what they do, so I am going to put it on the offensive line this week. If they execute we will have pretty good success."

The Ponies will play tonight at 6 p.m. at Blue Pony Stadium as they play host to Miles City. The last time HHS faced Miles in Havre was the 2002 Class A state playoffs.