St. Regis looks to rebound for homecoming

LIMA – Coming off a strong showing against cross county rival Alberton two weeks ago, the St. Regis Tigers were handed their first loss of the season against Lima on the road, dropping the game 56-13.

Despite the tough loss, Head Coach Rob LaBrie said he did see some things on the field to be encouraged about with his young team. He said the way his team responded, even when they were down in the game, was a positive sign of things to come later on in the season.

“We still made some big plays on offense even when things broke down,” LaBrie said. “There were a lot of promising signs for us on offense.”

LaBrie said one of the things he wanted his team to focus on in practice this week was cutting down on the number of turnovers committed during their games.

“We need to work on handling the snaps, not fumbling the ball and avoiding other miscues,” LaBrie said. “We had some dropped passes and some dropped snaps from the shotgun. Those were the major things. We also need to be able to recover when mental mistakes are made.”

The team will next face Alberton once again during the annual homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 19. The Tigers defeated the Panthers on the road during their season opener but Alberton is coming off their first win of the season last week against West Yellowstone.

LaBrie is very familiar with what Alberton can do on the gridiron having seen them in action. He also is familiar with many of the players after last year’s co-op between the two teams. The team from Alberton is known for playing an aggressive form of the game but LaBrie said he will have his players ready for the challenge against a team that is likely out for a little payback.

“That should be a good game,” LaBrie said. “The first time we played them, they were very physical and disciplined. On our end, we need to be more disciplined and cut down on mistakes. We might have gotten away with some things during the first game.”

LaBrie said while some of the mistakes his team made may not have been capitalized on by Alberton during the first match up, he is not expecting the Panthers to make the same mistake twice. He said, if the same things happen again, Alberton will likely make the Tigers pay for them.

“Alberton is a good team,” LaBrie said. “They will not let us get away with mistakes a second time. We are looking forward to a great game and it’s a team that we have a lot of respect for.”

The last cross county match up of the season between Alberton and St. Regis will take place in St. Regis on Friday, Sept. 19 with kickoff at 7 p.m.