With mission Mission accomplished, the St. Regis Tigers now set their sights on the Darby Tigers.

Fresh off a 28-0 shutout of the previously ranked Mission Bulldogs in St. Regis Friday, coach Jesse Allan and his 4-1 Tigers head to the Bitterroot Valley this Friday to face the likewise 4-1 Darby Tigers.

Ranked No. 10 in the latest 8-Man power poll, Darby fell 34-32 to Superior last week (see other story), putting added importance on this week’s game between Tigers of a different color.

Like any coach, Allan always thinks his team could play a little better than they did last time. “We came out aggressive on both sides of the ball and jumped out to a 22-0 lead,” he said. “Unfortunately, we had too many penalties to give ourselves a legitimate chance to be successful on offense.”

Fortunately, the Tigers had it working on the other side of the ball. “Our defense played lights out,” Allan said, “and we were able to keep Mission out of the end zone.”

The usual cast of characters led the Tigers against Mission.

Offensively, quarterback Conner Lulis completed nine of 18 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns, double-B bad Barrett Bessette rushed for two touchdowns and caught a Lulis pass for another TD in addition to pulling down a team-high 15 tackles on defense, Nate Bohn added 12 tackles and an interception, and Isaac Kelly scored a touchdown and also grabbed an interception.

Allan said Mission’s defense stiffened from the second quarter on but that Bessette proved to be the Tigers’ ace in the hole. “Barrett proved once again that he is one of the best players in the league,” Allan offered, “and was able to dominate both sides of the ball.”