The Havre Blue Ponies football team has made it to its first state semifinal since 2015. In order to get to that point, they had to pull an upset on the road of recently unbeaten Frenchtown. The Ponies put up a fight and outlasted the Broncs, (47-30). New Media Broadcasters caught up with head coach Jake Eldridge this week to reminisce about how his team was able to get it done and advance in this field.
“It’s just coming together (and) the work that (the players) put in,” Eldridge said. “We’re executing a little bit better at everything every week, which is kind of what we expect.”
“Although, not everything went our way,” Eldridge continued. “The ball bounced our way a little bit more, so it was nice.”
All four Eastern ‘A’ schools make up the semifinal matchups as Billings Central hosts Lewistown and Havre travels down to Laurel. The rarity this late in the football season to match up again with a common opponent is something that Eldridge and crew don’t take lightly as he explained.
“Two things: first, they’re very well coached,” Eldridge said. “Fundamentally, they’re very sound. Their schemes are very good.”
“And then, their players,” Eldridge continued. “They’re great competitors. They’re very physical. They’re fast and they execute at a very high level.”
“You watch (Laurel) on film and they’ve continued to get better since the last time we saw them, which is expected from a great program like they are,” Eldridge said. “Hopefully we have as well. We’re just going to go to work here, put together our schemes, and hopefully execute at a high level on Saturday down there against a very good opponent.”
The Blue Ponies (8-3) and Locomotives (8-2) will lock horns in Laurel on Saturday afternoon. Kickoff is at 1pm and there will be a feed provided on KOJM-610AM, 98.3FM, and HiLineToday.com.
