Spartans take out Tigers in 8-man playoffs
JOHN HAMILTON | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 months, 1 week AGO
The St. Regis Tigers’ magical 2025 football season came to an end in Scobey Saturday against the unbeaten Spartans. The hometown Spartans ran out to a big early lead and went on to post a 66-24 win in the Montana 8-Man quarterfinal contest.
Now 10-0, Scobey will now face 10-0 Fort Benton, 44-6 winners over Ennis, in the 6-Man semifinals this week.
Completing season play with a fine 8-3 season record and the first Montana playoff win in school history (remember St. Regis’ 28-0 win over Sheridan in St. Regis Nov. 1), the Tigers can finally sit back and appreciate what they have accomplished.
“It was a great year for St. Regis football,” coach Jesse Allan said. “Sure, we would have liked it to go a little longer, but we accomplished a lot. And my hat’s off to Scobey, that’s a good football team.”
Allan said that the Scobey roster features an enviable total of 29 players, with seven seniors, six juniors and only one underclassman starting.
“They are a big, experienced team that was able to expose us a little up front,” Allan offered, adding that big game jitters also presented some early game problems.
“We gave up a kick return for a touchdown to start the game,” he said. “Then we had a couple bad snaps and threw an interception. The momentum kind of got away from us a little there.”
Barrett Bessette, Conner Lulis and Nathan Bohn got St. Regis on the scoreboard in the second half. Bessette scored on a 47-yard catch-and-run pass from Lulis, Lulis also connected on an 18-yard scoring toss to Bohn, and Lulis scored the final Tiger touchdown on a 15-yard scoring jaunt.
Allan and company look ahead to more good gridiron times in the future. “We’re excited, we have a good group coming back,” he said, pointing to Bessette, Isaac Kelly and Denver Thomas as the only three seniors St. Regis will lose to graduation. “We will miss all three, but will pick up and move on regardless.”
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