Blue Ponies look to get back on track against Hardin

After a tough loss in the home opener, the Havre High football team is back on the road tonight. The Blue Ponies will face Hardin tonight in a game they need to win in order to get their record above .500. While they will have a long bus ride ahead of them, HHS head coach Jake Eldridge expects the Ponies to play well tonight.

"It's another long road trip for us but I expect us to go down there and compete really hard," Eldridge said. "Hopefully, we can correct some of the mistakes from last week and take the next step forward."

The Ponies head into the game with a 1-1 record early in the season. After defeating Sidney on the road to open the year, Havre lost, 24-7, to Lewistown in the Ponies' home opener last weekend. But even after a tough loss, Eldridge expects the Ponies to be just fine.

"You just get back on the practice field, look at the tape, make your corrections and move forward," Eldridge said. "Just go back to work and put it behind you."

The Hardin Bulldogs are 0-2 to start the year. They opened the year with a 58-14 loss to Miles City at home before suffering a 36-6 road loss to Glendive last weekend. While they have a losing record, Eldridge believes the Bulldogs have the athletes and schemes on offense to give Havre some trouble.

"Offensively, they do some double wing and triple option looks that you've got to be really good at with alignment and assignment on defense," Eldridge said. "We've got to be fundamentally sound with those things on defense and then be able to tackle really well."

The Bulldogs also have some playmakers on defense. Sean Mehling returns for his senior year after earning second-team all-conference honors as a cornerback last fall. Outside linebacker Landon Walks Over Ice returns for the Bulldogs after an honorable mention all-conference season last year.

One focus for the Ponies tonight will be getting the offense going against Hardin. In their first two games, the Ponies have averaged 260.5 yards a game on offense. So far this year, starting quarterback Kale Van Campen has completed 48.8 percent of his passes for 314 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He also leads the team rushing with 140 yards and a touchdown on five yards a carry. If the Ponies want to get back on track tonight, they will need to get the offense rolling.

"On the offensive side of the ball, we just got to be better with understanding our assignments and using the correct techniques," Eldridge said. "For us, it's just execution from top to bottom and execution at a high level position by position. That will give us an opportunity to be successful as a unit."

Last season, the Ponies defeated Hardin, 25-14, at Blue Pony Stadium so they will be looking for a repeat of that result tonight. But if the Ponies are going to do that and improve to 2-1, they will need to execute.

"We just got to play well in all three phases of the game," Eldridge said. "We just got to make sure that if we take care of that kind of stuff and it'll give us an opportunity to be successful so I think if we just execute, we'll be alright."

The HHS football team will play Hardin tonight at 7 p.m.