Ponies, Panthers collide tonight

For six weeks, the Havre High football team has been building its brand, its identity as a team and tonight, in the biggest game of the season, the Blue Ponies’ style of football will be put to the test by the Belgrade Panthers.

The result of that test, which starts at 7 inside Blue Pony Stadium, may well determine the champion of the Central A conference, on what is homecoming at HHS.

“This is a huge game for us,” HHS head coach Ryan Gatch said. “For one, because it’s the next on our schedule. But also, they (Panthers) have a good conference record, and we have a good conference record, so yeah, it’s really important.”

When trying to figure the importance of the game between Havre and Belgrade, one just has to look at the Central A standings to determine that with each team coming in at 2-0, it’s pretty significant. A win for Belgrade puts the Panthers within one victory, over either Livingston or Browning, from reclaiming the league championship. Havre, the defending champ, wouldn’t clinch with a win tonight, but would wrap up the title with one in Lewistown, the Ponies’ opponent next week.

“Honestly, I haven't even had a chance to think about that,” Gatch said. “My focus has been on our students and trying to get them ready for this game. We certainly have some distractions and things with homecoming, but it’s up to us to show up and take care of our business (tonight).”

One of the big keys for Havre against Belgrade, will be the play of the Pony defense. Through six games, HHS has been stout defensively, allowing just 10.1 points per game and holding teams to 14 points or less in five of six games. Yet, this week, the Pony defense may see its biggest challenge since taking on Sidney, which scored 28 points in what was Havre’s only loss.

“In terms of the number of athletes, we haven’t seen a team like this since Sidney,” Gatch said. “They have some guys that can make some big plays and last week, they hit on a number of them. So our secondary is going to be important this week.”

The Panthers offense, which is averaging 28 points a game, scored 41 last week against Lewistown, thanks to five touchdown passes from quarterback Zack Spady, who recently returned from injury. Aiding Spady is a talented group of receivers that includes Jemal Williams, Easton Page, Trey Mounts and running back Hayden Van Winkle.

“They are a big—play offense,” Gatch said, “so that’s why we are going to stick to our zone concepts and why you won’t see us play a lot of man-to-man, which we don’t do much anyway.”

Thankfully for Gatch, the secondary has been a strength of the defense all season. Isaac Warp and Nate Korb have combined for five interceptions, while Brady Ophus also has one. Ophus has played well at corner, as have Ivar Aageson and Jacob LaBrie, the normal starters at the position. Yet, the secondary isn’t the only group that has gotten its hands on the football. Linebackers Jase Stokes and Dane Flammond have each had interceptions this season. Both players are also among the team leaders in tackles and contribute to Havre’s outstanding run defense along with defensive lineman Chris Gabrielsen and Jared Sienkowski.

“The past few weeks, we have been watching the film, and we have realized that at linebacker, Dane Flammond is playing lights out,” Gatch said. “He has been one of our best players.”

Offensively, the Ponies will rely on running the football. The ground game starts with Stokes, who has 793 yards on 117 carries, as well as 10 touchdowns. Stokes has been the workhorse, but Flammond, who has 14 carries for 149 yards and Mason Dionne, who was 38 for 190, have also been contributing to an offense that is averaging 190 rushing yards per game.

“We have to come in with that mindset that we need to run the football,” Gatch said. “I like to be around 60/40 run-pass, but if we run it 80 percent of the time, that means we were successful early and ran a lot in the fourth quarter. So I’m OK with that, too.”

When the Ponies throw the ball, they will rely on quarterback Trey Murphy, who has thrown for 722 yards this season to go along with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. Murphy has completed 53 percent of his passes so far and is averaging 123 yards per game. Although Havre may not throw as much as other teams, the Ponies still have plenty of receiving weapons led by Warp, who has 16 receptions for 236 yards and three touchdowns, all team highs. Aageson is next with nine receptions for 120 yards and two touchdowns. Korb also has nine receptions for 83 yards.

“Our offense is a little bit different, we put drives together, we don’t make a lot of big plays or score touchdowns from outside the 20,” Gatch said. “But our goal is to control the ball and control the game and give ourselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter. We have done that in every game, even against Sidney, it was 14-7 in the fourth quarter and we just didn’t finish. So that’s what we want to do, just give ourselves a chance, against a good football team, to win in the fourth quarter.”

Havre and Belgrade will kickoff tonight’s homecoming game at 7 inside Blue Pony Stadium. The Ponies travel to Lewistown next Friday.

Week Six: Central A up for grabs

Tonight at 7 p.m.

at Blue Pony Stadium

Radio: 610 KOJM AM