LAUREL - Facing their first halftime deficit this season, the Laurel Locomotives didn't take much time in rectifying the situation. Dylan Kramer threw a bomb to Brian Flotkoetter and the Locomotives ran off 28 straight points in beating Havre 38-21 in a first-round Class A playoff game.

The Locomotives (9-1) advance to a quarterfinal game at Frenchtown (8-1) Saturday.

Havre used an effective running game and some pin-point passing by C.J. Evans to seize a 13-10 lead at intermission. Even in their lone loss, the Locomotives led Billings Central 6-0 at the half, before losing 15-6.

"We didn't come out ready to play in that first half,'' Sean Condon said. "The coaches got after us at halftime. We just came out and got after them on offense and defense. We didn't change anything. They weren't running anything new. Counter was killing us.''

The Locomotives began to clamp down on that play and also came up with two interceptions - one of them returned for a touchdown by Condon.

Kramer ran for two touchdowns, passed for two more and accounted for 158 yards total offense. The sophomore quarterback ran for 103 yards on 13 carries and completed 4 of 9 passes for 55 yards. The biggest completion, of course, was a 48-yarder to Flotkoetter on the sixth play of the second half as Laurel grabbed a 17-13 lead. The Locomotives broke it open with three touchdowns in the fourth quarter that came less than two minutes apart.

An interception by Jake Miller put the Locomotives at the Havre 34. Ten plays later, Flotkoetter dove over from the one with 6:39 remaining. On the kickoff, Ethan Albrecht, trying to keep the ball low in the wind, hit a line drive that bounced off a Havre player and Laurel recovered. On the second play of the possession, Kramer ran up the middle for 47 yards and a 31-13 lead.

"They just weren't ready for it,'' Kramer said. "They didn't have a noseguard or a middle linebacker. I just got up the field.''

On the next series, Condon swiped an Evans' pass and ran 56 yards to make it 38-13 with 4:57 remaining.

"The turning point, to me, was the interceptions,'' said Havre coach Kevin Sukut. "We got into a situation, they did a good job of stopping us on the run. Then we had to open it up a little bit and we had a couple breakdowns and a couple turnovers, and you just can't do that.

"Once that happened, momentum swung big time their direction. And then the big scores. They're an explosive offense and we knew that all along.''

Havre's leading rusher Kent Pattison, who was averaging 139 yards on the ground, finished with 64 on 17 carries. The Blue Ponies had only 89 yards rushing and just 13 in the second half. Evans went 18 of 28 for 159 yard and threw two touchdown passes.

Havre sandwiched two touchdowns around a one-yard plunge by Albrecht.

The Blue Ponies marched 67 yards, all on the ground, and took the lead on a four-yard run by Pattison with 3:21 left in the first quarter. They missed the extra point, but on the next series produced a 14-play, 80-yard drive. Evans completed seven straight passes, including a 14-yard TD strike to Cordiero Strickland in the left corner of the end zone with 40 seconds remaining until halftime.

Havre's unraveling actually began when Laurel got an 18-yard run by Miller and a 31-yard jaunt by Jordan Adams to get within field goal range. Albrecht's 35-yard kick as time expired made it 13-10.

The Locomotives then dominated the rest of the way to get their first postseason victory since 2002, the last year they won the championship.

Havre finishes the season at 5-4

Laurel 38, Havre 21

Scoring plays

First quarter

Havre - Kent Pattison 4 run (kick failed) 3:21

Second quarter

Laurel - Ethan Albrecht 1 run (Albrecht kick) 7:59

Havre - Cordeiro Strickland 14 pass from C.J. Evans (Evans kick) 40.0

Laurel - Albrecht 35 FG 0:00

Third quarter

Laurel - Brian Flotkoetter 48 pass from Dylan Kramer (Albrecht kick) 9:07

Fourth quarter

Laurel - Kramer 1 run (Albrecht kick) 6:39

Laurel - Karmer 47 run (Albrecht kick) 6:01

Laurel - Sean Condon 56 interception (Albrecht kick) 4:57

Havre - Layne Waid 4 pass from Evans (Waid pass from Evans) 3:14

Team statistics

Rushing - Havre: Pattison 17-64, John Perrodin 6-16, Evans 5-7, Casey Schaub 1-2. Laurel: Jordan Adams Kramer 13-103, 10-65, Jake Miller 9-32, Flotkoetter 4-21, Joe Barta 3-13, Albrecht 3-11.

Passing - Havre: Evans 18-28-2-159. Laurel: Kramer 4-9-0-55, Barta 2-8-0-19.

Receiving - Havre: Strickland 8-66, Perrodin 3-33, Pattison 3-29, Waid 2-18, Jake Myers 1-16, Justin Jensen 1-minus 3. Laurel: Flotkoetter 4-56, Corey Bummer 2-18.

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• Prep football playoff roundup: Class A