Alberton and St. Regis play epic game

ST. REGIS – The St. Regis Tigers took on the Alberton Panthers in a much anticipated cross county rematch on Friday, Sept. 19 during the Tiger’s homecoming celebration.

The celebrating came to an end in St. Regis as the Tigers were defeated 91-58 to even the score against the Panthers who were defeated in the first pairing of the teams earlier in the season.

The game was close for the first three quarters but Tiger injuries would eventually do them in as Alberton ran away with the game in the fourth quarter. In what turned out to be an offensive onslaught, both teams traded touchdowns for much of the game.

With just under seven minutes to play, Alberton would strike first on a rushing play from starting quarterback Jack Lehl. The extra point attempt was unsuccessful and the Tigers took over control of the ball. After a strong drive down the field, a miscue resulted in a Tiger turnover and Alberton was again poised to strike.

Lehl would put his team in scoring position on a long rushing play and would eventually rush for his second touchdown of the game making the score 12-0 with six minutes to play in the first quarter.

The Tiger offense would put the team back into scoring position on a long run from Dakota Wickham and on the very next play, Andrew Managhan would put the team on the score board with the first Tiger touchdown of the game. With a little over five minutes left in the quarter, the score was 12-6.

The Tiger defense was on the verge of a big stop against the powerful Panther offense but the opposing team was able to advance the ball on fourth down and continue the drive. The Panthers would score again on another rushing play making the score 18-6 with just minutes to play in the first quarter.

With two minutes to go, the Tiger offense was driving and would eventually score again after some solid blocking allowed Managhan to run the ball into the end zone to make the score 18-12.

It appeared the quarter would end with that score but Lehl had other plans. With just seconds to go, the starting quarterback for the Panthers would run the ball in for his third score of the quarter making it 24-12.

The Tigers decided they weren’t done scoring in the first quarter either as Dillion Morales pulled in a long pass from quarterback Gibson Lowry to put the Tigers back in scoring position. Lowry would run the ball in on the ensuing play making the score 25-18.

On the next drive, Alberton recovered the onside kick from St. Regis and promptly ran the ball back for yet another touchdown making it 31-18 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter would begin much the way the first quarter ended with more scoring. Just seconds into the second quarter, Managhan would score again making it 31-24. Alberton would answer right back with a touchdown of their own driving the score up to 37-24.

After a nice return on the ensuing kickoff, Brandon Managhan would cut the Alberton lead down to 38-30 after scoring his first touchdown of the game. St. Regis would recover an Alberton fumble on the next drive and were in position to potentially tie the game.

The Alberton defense stopped the Tigers however and the Panthers took over the ball. Freshman Clancy Gout scored the next Alberton touchdown on a long run and the score was 44-31. St. Regis stayed with the Panthers and after a long bomb from Lowry to his receiver, the score was 45-37 with six minutes to go in the half.

Late in the half, Alberton would score again and with the point after attempt good, the score was 52-37. The half would end with that score and both teams would take halftime to recover from the first half offensive onslaught.

St. Regis would start the second half the way Alberton ended the first, by scoring yet another touchdown to cut the lead to 52-43.

On the ensuing drive, the Tigers recovered a Panther fumble and yet again were in position to score. The Panther defense would stop the Tigers who took over and answered right back with another touchdown.

In the second half, injuries would plague the Tigers. At one point, four St. Regis players were down with some degree of injury.

Alberton would take over on downs after stopping the next Tiger drive and would subsequently score making it 64-43 and the Panthers began to run away with the game.

The Panthers would score two more times in the third quarter which ended with the scoreboard reading 79-43. Managhan scored again after returning to the game from a leg cramp making it 79-49.

Alberton would score several more times in the fourth quarter and the game ended at 91-58 in a tough loss for the Tigers for their homecoming game. St. Regis Head Coach Rob LaBrie said, while he didn’t want to appear to be making excuses, the injuries did hamper the team’s ability to execute on the field.

“We did get bit by the injury bug,” LaBrie said. “We still need to work on tackling. There was definitely a lot of effort on our part. We were trading blow for blow there for a while. The tackling is the biggest thing we need to fix.”

Alberton Head Coach Nick Weller said he was pleased with how his team played but there was still more they were capable of accomplishing.

“We showed a lot of improvement,” Weller said. “But there’s still more we can do. Our guys were doing a good job of blocking. They were focusing on their jobs.”

The next game for Alberton is against Lima this Friday at 7 p.m. The Tigers next face Mullan on Sept. 29 on the road at 4 p.m.