Trophy Time: Blue Ponies bully Bulldogs

If there was any question about what the bread-and-butter of Blue Pony football would be in 2016, Jase Stokes answered it Saturday in Whitefish. It’s him and a devastating ground game.

Stokes, an All-State player a season ago, put the Havre High football team on his back, on the road, against the defending Class A state champs, rushing for 281 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Ponies to an impressive 18-6 season-opening win over Whitefish.

The win for Havre puts an end to a four-game losing streak to the Bulldogs, who beat HHS 44-12 last season and returns the BNSF traveling trophy to the Ponies for the first time since 2011.

“It feels great,” HHS head coach Ryan Gatch said. “It was exciting to see the kids play the way that they did. And they don’t get excited a whole lot, but I saw them get real excited when they brought the trophy out, so that was fun to see.”

After both teams struggled to move the ball in the first quarter of play, Havre turned to Stokes to get its offense going and he responded. The senior opened the second quarter with a 27-yard yard run, but the offense stalled.

However, on the next Havre possession, the Ponies rode Stokes all the way to paydirt and a three-yard touchdown run, put HHS in front 6-0 midway through the second quarter.

Stokes made another big run after a Bulldog punt, breaking off a 46-yard run that gave Havre a first-and-goal. However, a fumble at the goalline squandered the scoring chance and at the half, the lead for HHS was still 6-0.

“One big key is that we were in better condition than they were,” Gatch said. “When I saw them bent over in the second quarter, I thought we were in good shape.”

Early in the third quarter and in need of spark, Whitefish reached into its bag of tricks. Yet, Havre thwarted a fake punt by the Bulldogs, giving it the ball at the Bulldog 22-yard line. From there, Stokes did the rest, taking two carries to find the end zone, which gave the Ponies a 12-0 lead.

The score stayed that way until early in the fourth quarter, when following an interception by Havre’s Nate Korb, Stokes struck again, scoring his second one-yard touchdown of the second half to put the Ponies ahead 18-0.

Whitefish would answer and with just over five minutes remaining, the Bulldogs finally got on the board, as Derek Kastella connected with running back Tyler Cote on a 39-yard touchdown pass, which trimmed the deficit to 18-6. It would also be the last time the Bulldogs touched the football.

After coming up short on an onside kick attempt, the Whitefish defense was faced with a heavy dose of Stokes and it proved to be no match for the bruising runner, who rushed for 40 yards on consecutive plays to convert a 3rd-and-23, then ran for six on a 3-and-2 minutes later.

Those runs allowed Havre to take a final knee inside the Whitefish five-yard line to end the game. It also capped off a second half, in which the Ponies maintained possession of the ball for 18:09 of 24 minutes.

“We ran a lot of plays in the third and fourth quarter,” Gatch said. “And I think that was just team grit. We had a lot of runs on the inside where the offensive line did a great job and we had some runs on the outside, where our receivers really did a great job. All those guys, Nate Korb, Jacob LaBrie and Isaac Warp, they had some nice blocks downfield that turned four or five yards gain into 20 or 30.”

In all, Stokes' 281 rushing yards came on 31 carries, which equates to a ridiculous 9.1 yards per attempt. It also ended just yards short of setting a new school record. The three-way player also caught a pass for 25 yards, which gave him 305 total yards from scrimmage, and, he also notched a sack in an all-around, herculean effort.

“He had a heck of a game,” Gatch said. “That means his offensive line had a heck of a game too, but he was all over the place. He was all over on defense and got in on a couple sacks. He does a lot of things for us and he’s a talented, talented football player.”

While the running game was firing on all cylinders, the passing showed it’s still a work in progress. Trey Murphy, who made his first career start for Havre, completed 6-of-16 passes for 78 yards and an interception.

“I am sure that Trey was nervous starting the game,” Gatch said. “But I was happy with him. I thought he made some nice throws and he managed the game really well.”

Freshman Mason Dionne was the only Pony with more than one catch, as he had two for nine yards. Yet, Jazz Schroeder, Ivar Aageson and Isaac Warp all had one for 19, 16 and nine yards, respectively.

The Bulldogs, who are known for their strong rushing attack, saw Cote held to just 43 yards rushing. He also finished with 53 receiving. Kastella, also making his first career start, finished 16-of-26 for 121 yards. He threw one touchdown and one interception.

“Our defense did a great job,” Gatch said. “I don’t think they had much more than 150 total yards. We were able to rotate a lot of guys and that helped. We also just had guys hustling and flying to the football. It seemed like we had seven or eight guys swarming to the ball on every play.”

The Ponies (1-0) will be back in action Friday, when they pay a visit to Hardin of the Eastern A, in a non-conference tilt that will start at 7 p.m.

“Looking at Hardin, we are going to have our work cut out for us,” Gatch said. “They have some big kids, and you wouldn’t know much difference between them and the defending state champs. It’s like we told the kids, we have 24 hours, win or lose and then it’s time to get back to work. We are 1-0 this week and that’s the goal every week, to be 1-0.”

Havre 18, Whitefish 6

Havre 0 6 6 6 - 18

Whitefish 0 0 0 6 - 6

First quarter

No scoring

Second quarter

Havre-Jase Stokes 3 run (kick failed)

Third quarter

Havre-Stokes 1 run (pass failed)

Fourth quarter

Havre-Stokes 1 run (kick blocked)

Whitefish-Tyler Cote 39 pass from Derek Kastella (pass failed)

Havre Individual Stats

Passing - Trey Murphy, 6-16 78.

Rushing - Jase Stokes, 31-281.

Receiving - Jase Stokes, 1-25; Jazz Schroeder, 1-19; Ivar Aageson, 1-16; Isaac Warp, 1-9; Mason Dionne, 2-9.