The St. Regis Tigers stayed in the Western C 8-Man football conference race with a crucial 58-26 win over the Mission Bulldogs in St. Ignatius Friday.

Now 5-1 overall and in conference play, the Tigers are at Arlee this week with three games remaining in the regular season. After Arlee, the Tigers will host Plains Oct. 15 and finish up regular season play at Superior Oct. 23.

If form holds, and both teams win out to that point, the game with Superior could be for the Western C regular season conference title. That’s what St. Regis coach Jesse Allan is thinking and hoping for anyway.

Superior currently sits atop conference standings with a 6-0 record and scored a key conference win over now 5-1 Darby last week (see other story). Darby defeated slightly injury depleted St. Regis in St. Regis two weeks ago.

“We're getting a little closer to full strength each week, still have some things to clean up, but are excited for the next three weeks,” Allan said. “And what I believe could be a heck of game to finish the regular season.”

Currently Allan’s favorite Tiger sophomore, Tucker “TD” Desoto had one heck of a game against Mission last week, carrying the ball 17 times for 226 yards and four touchdowns, besides catching a pass from Conner Lulis for another TD and pulling down 12 tackles on defense. “This young man had a day,” Allan offered, “a great all-around game.”

Allan said fullback Cameron Bolen and the Tiger offensive line led the way from the point of contact on the line of scrimmage in Mission. “We challenged these guys all week to set the tone and help us establish a run game,” Allan said, “they met it head on, literally.”

Alberton’s Evan Fehlings also turned in vital contributions with two quarterback strip sacks for turnovers to basically seal the game’s outcome early in the fourth quarter, Allan added.

For the game, Lulis completed 12 of 18 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown, and ran the ball 10 times for another 42 yards and two more TDs.

Nate Bohn caught eight of Lulis’ passes for 84 yards and led the Tiger defense with 13 total tackles and two pass interceptions.