The Havre high football team dropped its first home game since 2022, losing to Billings Central Catholic, (35-20) on Friday night. Both teams kept it competitive in the first half, but the Rams forced the lone turnover of the game in the fourth quarter up by eight points to preserve the victory.
Billings Central got the game rolling as quarterback Howie Martin found William Snell on a 31-yard touchdown pass on the game’s opening drive. The Blue Ponies answered right back, scoring on a Griffin Terry 8-yard touchdown pass to Colter Solomon to tie the game at 7.
Havre took its lone lead of the game as Terry found Tre Gary sneaking behind the secondary to score from 69 yards out in the second quarter. The Rams would find the tying touchdown with 2:23 left in the half on a Martin 2-yard rush.
The third quarter was explosive to start as Martin and Snell connected again, this time for 82 yards as the latter broke tackle after tackle. Havre secured the momentum back with Tate Nelson scampering into the end zone for a 56-yard run, but the extra point was no good and the score was (21-20), Rams. Ayden Salter showed why he is one of the best junior running backs in the state after scoring from 44 yards out to make it (28-20).
The critical juncture occurred at 7:20 to go in the game as Terry couldn’t hold onto the football in BC territory and gave the Rams an ensuing 11-yard touchdown rush from Layne Alexander to seal the contest for the visitors.
The Ponies fell to (1-1), while Billings Central went to (2-0). Havre will now take a long road trip down to Miles City to face Custer County on Sep. 13 with kickoff scheduled for 7pm.
