Last Friday night, Havre high school’s football team took its first loss since the 2023 state playoff second round contest at Dillon. New Media Broadcasters talked with head coach Jake Eldridge, who reminisced about the most recent defeat at home to Billings Central Catholic. He said what went wrong for his squad, but also praised them for the work ethic shown on the field in front of the home crowd for its opener.
“I think it’s a culmination of a couple things,” Eldridge said. “Turnovers never help your cause when you’re in a tight ballgame, but the turnovers definitely hurt a little bit.”
“But, I think it was a really good effort by our team,” Eldridge continued. “The kids worked really hard.”
“They were fighting their butts off all the way to the end there,” Eldridge continued. “It was just a couple of bounces this way or that way.”
What does a bounce back week look like for Ponies football? Coach Eldridge shared how watching all parts of the film will translate to the on-field work for the week as the team gets set to go down to play Custer County.
“We told the kids that you can’t wait for failure,” Eldridge said. “We’re going to look at this film and look at the things that we did well, but also we’re going to have to look inside and see the things that we didn’t do so well.”
“If we can learn from those (mistakes) and we can correct them, then I think this loss will end up helping us bounce back and get ourselves going in the right direction,” Eldridge continued.
“We’re doing a heck of a job,” Eldridge said. “I think we just learn from our mistakes and we’ll get better because of it and it will obviously help us down the road.”
Havre (1-1) will take on Custer County (2-0) down in Miles City on Friday night. Kickoff is schedule for 7pm and can be heard on KOJM-610AM, 98.3-FM and 92.5 Digital Channel 3, as well as HiLineToday.com.
