Blue Ponies shut down on homecoming

It was an exciting week at Havre High School as students celebrated homecoming week. The festivities lasted through the week and culminated Friday night when the HHS football team hosted Miles City at Blue Pony Stadium. However, homecoming week ended on a bitter note as Miles City defeated the Blue Ponies, 40-0.

"Miles City is a good football team," HHS head coach Ryan Gatch said. "Coach Jeff Regan does a nice job with this program. They got some good athletes. Didn't go the Blue Pony way today."

The Cowboys set the tone early as they drove down the field on their opening possession. The Ponies forced the Cowboys to third and 12 on their first set of downs, but Miles City quarterback Dalton Polesky completed a pass for a first down. Later on the drive on third and eight, Polesky again converted as he connected with Aidan Cline down the left side for a 45-yard gain.

"They've got some good playmakers on their side," Gatch said. "They do a nice job executing their offense and got guys around them. They made some really nice plays."

The drive ended with Miles City running back Dalton Tvedt running the ball in from two yards out for the score. However, Miles City missed the extra point to lead 6-0 with 8:46 left in the first quarter.

Miles City began the game strong on defense as well as they forced Havre to punt after a three-and-out. The Cowboys got the ball at Havre's 43-yard run and they used the good field position to their advantage. After they got to the Havre five-yard line, Polesky kept the ball to run for the score himself. Tvedt then ran for the two-point conversion to give Miles City a 14-0 lead with 4:51 left in the first.

After Havre got the ball back, they continued to struggle gaining traction. Their most promising drive of the first half got them to the Miles City 40-yard line. However, Trenton Maloughney's pass got tipped by his receiver and was intercepted by Cline.

"Our guys played hard but they got a really good defensive front and they're a good football team," Gatch said about his team's offensive performance.

The Cowboys capitalized on the turnover as Polesky continued to complete deep passes to his receivers. Miles City ended the drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Polesky to Jackson Whicker to make the score 20-0 with 3:44 left in the half.

After Miles City forced a Havre three-and-out, the Cowboys started their next drive at the Havre 35-yard line. On their first play of the drive, Polesky connected with Cline deep right for a touchdown and a 26-0 lead with 1:41 left in the half.

"He's played really well this year and is getting better every game and he's just a good leader," Miles City head coach Jeff Regan said about his quarterback.

With little time left in the half, the HHS offense tried to put a quick drive together. However, Maloughney was sacked at midfield to end the half. Coming out the second half, the Pony offense tried to get back in the game. Their best chance came at the end of the third quarter when they got to the Miles City 2-yard line. However, they went backward three straight plays and failed to score on fourth down.

Miles City continued to push their lead in the fourth quarter thanks to a couple of interceptions by their defense. Even with the game out of reach, the Ponies still made some plays such as a blocked field goal.

With their win, Miles City is now 3-1 on the season. After they qualified for the State A playoffs last season, they hope their early success this season can carry them to another postseason berth. Regan hopes the Cowboys can build off their win over Havre as they move forward with the rest of the season.

"That was probably our best game of the season," Regan said. "Just really proud of how hard we worked and how hard we played and just got to get back to work next week."

On the other sideline, Havre is now 2-3 this season and are on a two-game losing streak. After back-to-back games where they were outscored by an average of 35 points, Gatch knows he and his team will need to do better if they are going to be more competitive moving forward.

"We got a lot of work to do, we're far from perfect, but our kids work hard and they're a fun group of guys to be around," Gatch said. "We look forward to the challenges of next week and going out and playing ball together as the Blue Ponies."

HHS football will next play on the road at Glendive next Friday at 6 p.m.

Miles City 40, Havre 0

MC - 14 12 0 14 - 40

HAV - 0 0 0 0 - 0

MC - Dalton Tvedt 2 run (Kick failed)

MC - Dalton Polesky 5 run (Tvedt run)

MC - Jackson Whicker 17 pass from Polesky (Kick failed)

MC - Aidan Cline 35 pass from Polesky (Run failed)

MC - Ben Glasscock 5 pass from Polesky (Kick good)

MC - Jay Pluhar interception return (Kick good)

Individual Stats

Passing - Trenton Maloughney 3-7-19-0-1, Tre Gary 2-3-37-0-1, Ciaran Courtnage 2-6-16-0-1.

Rushing - Orion Thivierge 7-52, Tre Gary 5-50, Crawford Terry 9-9.

Receiving - Kale VanCampen 4-35, Jason Wold 1-26, Brody Nanini 1-11.