It may have been the first high school football playoff game in St. Regis history, but it surely will not be the last. Not if this year’s team has anything to say about it.

Hosting St. Regis’ first home playoff game ever, coach Jesse Allan and his Tigers made it count with an emotional 28-0 shutout win over the visiting Sheridan Panthers on a rainy Saturday afternoon at St. Regis High School.

Now 8-2 overall and the No. 2 seed out of the Western division, the Tigers hit the road this week for a Montana 8-Man quarterfinal contest with the Scobey Spartans Saturday in Scobey. The No. 1 seed out of the Eastern conference, Scobey opened the playoffs with a 48-20 win over Choteau, the No. 4 from the Northern conference.

Sheridan came into St. Regis as the No. 3 team from the Southern division.

It didn’t rain much in St. Regis Saturday until right before kickoff. Then the heavens opened up and it rained, sometimes a lot, throughout the game.

“It didn’t bother us,” Allan said. “That’s football and it might have actually made it more memorable for the kids – that playoff game in the mud they can always talk about. We certainly enjoyed it, will carry the memory of it forward with us, a big win in the history of St. Regis football.”

The Tigers and Panthers, who have an interesting history of playoff football with each other (see column for more), started out the game with a bunch of back and forth action which ended with stalled drives by both sides until early in the second quarter.

On the second play of the second period, Regis quarterback Conner Lulis hit Nathan Bohn with a short pass and the speedy Bohn took care of the rest, first heading down the right sideline before reversing field, outracing everyone and speeding down the left for an exciting 73-yard touchdown play with 11:43 left in the first half. After the conversion pass attempt fell incomplete, the Tigers led 6-0.

After Bohn picked off a pass to halt the next Sheridan drive at the St. Regis 24, Lulis then guided the Tigers down to the Panthers’ five-yard line before that drive stalled out there in the closing minutes of the half. Another long touchdown by Bohn was called back during an earlier sequence, robbing the Tigers of that apparent TD.

Not to worry, Barrett Bessette came up with perhaps the biggest defensive play of the game at that point, ripping the ball away from the Sheridan ballcarrier on a running play and giving St. Regis the ball with the impressive forced fumble and recovery, and a fresh set of downs at Sheridan’s 24-yard line.

A few plays later, Bessette took a short pass from Lulis and went 20 yards down the left sideline for the touchdown with 1:04 left in the half. With Lulis connecting with Tucker Desoto for the two-point conversion pass, St. Regis had quickly extended the lead to 14-0 heading into intermission.

After more back and forth but scoreless action through most of the third period, Bessette went all the way again from 40 yards out for another touchdown after taking a short pass from Lulis and motoring through heavy Sheridan defensive traffic, reversing field and stiff-arming his way to the end zone to make the score 20-0 heading into the final 12 minutes.

The Tigers scored their final touchdown of the day with about five and a-half minutes of game time remaining, on a nine-yard pass play from Lulis to Bohn, and Bohn ran in the subsequent two-point conversion for the final scoring in St. Regis’ historic 28-0 win.

It was a hard-hitting game where the Tigers’ bend but don’t break resolve on defense may have been the difference. Bessette in particular waged his own physical war with some well-delivered, timely hits of a quite violent nature.

Allan praised the efforts of his own, as well as those of the Panthers. “They are a good team and were missing one of their better players Saturday,” Allan said of Sheridan. “And they had a good game plan. We really had to battle to get past them.”

Looking ahead to this week’s long road trip to Scobey, Allan sees a challenging game with the powerful Spartans. “They kind of got it rolling last year, made the semifinals as a No. 4 seed from the east,” he said. “And have picked up right where they left off last year this year. They will be a challenge, that’s for sure.”

Regardless of the eventual outcome, the Tigers are right where they want to be, still in the hunt at this late stage of the season. “We are excited to play Scobey,” Allan said. “We will go over there and give it our best shot.”

    HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN? St. Regis junior Nathan Bohn runs the ball as teammate Chet Hill follows the play during 8-Man playoff game action St. Regis Saturday. (John Hamilon/vp-mi)
  

    MEETING THE CHALLENGE – Tiger senior Barrett Bessette fights through a tackle attempt by Erik Reedy of Sheridan in Montana 8-Man playoff action in St. Regis Saturday. (John Hamilon/vp-mi)