The streak is over.

Unfortunately for the St. James High School football squad, it’s Owensville’s; not the Tigers’.

The frustrations continued for banged-up St. James last week, as the Owensville Dutchmen snapped a 28-game losing streak at the expense of the Tigers, posting a 26-12 Four Rivers Conference victory on Dutchman Senior Night at Owensville Friday, Oct. 16.

St. James was trying to snap a five-game losing skid. Instead, the Tigers are now 2-6 overall and 0-5 in the conference.

Owensville got its first victory since the 2023 season and improves to 1-7 and 1-4.

Now the Tigers have just one game remaining to use as a positive dress rehearsal before Class 3 District 5 competition begins. St. James will travel to Pacific to end its regular-season and FRC schedule Friday, Oct. 23. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Based on the current District 5 standings, St. James would play at Buffalo in the opening round of the district playoffs Oct. 30. Of course, that could change depending on this week’s results.

Mountain Grove leads the District 5 standings with a 6-2 record and 41.93 points while Cuba is No. 2 at 4-4 with 30.16 points, Strafford No. 3 at 4-4 with 30.14, Buffalo No. 4 at 3-5 with 25.56, St. James No. 5 at 2-6 with 24.71, Salem No. 6 at 1-7 with 17.11 and Pleasant Hope No. 7 at 0-8 with 12.89.

“Right now we’re at Buffalo,” St. James head coach Dusty Craft said of the Tigers’ first-round district opponent. “It could be Cuba, but I don’t know if Salem can get enough points, though.

“We just need to go to Pacific and play well. Our secondary has got to play well and we’ve got to generate pressure on their quarterback.”

Even when the Tigers got a key piece of the lineup back, another went down, which has often been the case. St. James’ starting quarterback Owen Spurgeon returned to the lineup Friday after missing two games. However, junior lineman Anthony Ferguson went down with injury during practice last week and was sidelined.

“That’s the way it’s been all season,” Craft said. “It’s been unreal. We’ve had six starters who have missed time, and four of the six are two-way guys. Injuries have kind of piled up on us.”

St. James had a slight edge with seconds left in the first half. Then the momentum turned to the Dutchmen sideline, and the Tigers would not score again.

Owensville opened the scoring, as a 48-yard run by senior running back Liam Rasmussen set up a two-yard TD run by Dutchmen senior quarterback Chase Crosby. The PAT attempt failed.

On the next play from scrimmage St. James got going with a successful trick play. Spurgeon handed off to senior fullback Gavyn King, who turned around and pitched the ball back to Spurgeon, who heaved a long pass to junior Patrick Lonning, who completed the perfectly executed flea-flicker with a 63-yard touchdown reception at the 9:43 mark of the first period. The conversion pass attempt failed, leaving it 6-6.

“Owen being back helps a lot, with the leadership he brings,” Craft said. “On our first play we wanted to give the kids something to look forward to; to start the game off with.”

The Tigers would take their only lead with a 67-yard, 16-play time-consuming drive. Spurgeon capped the drive with a three-yard touchdown run at the 7:00 mark of the second period. The conversion run attempt failed, leaving it 12-6.

In the final seconds of the first half St. James was forced to punt from its own eight yardline, and Crosby returned the kick 17 yards to the Tiger 33 yardline with three seconds remaining. After a St. James illegal procedure penalty, Crosby fired a pass in the right corner of the endzone, where tight end Max Hetsch, a German foreign exchange student, made the catch for a 28-yard TD reception with no time remaining in the half. The PAT attempt failed and it was tied 12-12 at intermission.

St. James would be shut out over the final two quarters.

“I thought the first half we were doing some things well. But that last play of the half, it was back to our Achilles heel - big plays. They took all the momentum into halftime.”

Neither team would score again until the final seconds of the third quarter, when the Tigers were burned with another Dutchman big play, as Crosby hit junior wideout Khai Krupp with a short pass, and Krupp got to the right sidelines and went the distance for a 65-yard TD reception. The conversion attempt failed.

Crosby helped produce yet another big play to close out the scoring late in the fourth quarter, hitting sophomore running back Cohen Dare over the middle with a pass, and Dare broke some tackles and was off for a 68-yard TD reception.

Owensville finished with 316 yards of total offense compared to 225 for St. James. Lonning rushed for 53 yards and caught two passes for 69 yards. Crosby rushed for 68 yards and hit on 5-of-7 passes for 175 yards.

Now St. James takes on a Pacific Indian squad that is 1-7 overall and 1-4 in the FRC. Last week the Indians lost at Hermann 33-12. Pacific’s one league win was a 61-22 homecoming blowout of Owensville.

“They are a bigger school than us but they are not a team our kids should shy away from,” Craft said. “They’re coming off a loss at Hermann. Our goal is to host a playoff game in Week 10, so we need to go to Pacific and play well.”

The box score:

Oct. 16 at Owensville

Owensville 26, St. James 12

Team Statistics

First Downs: STJ 11, OHS 9

Yards Rushing: STJ 143, OHS 141

Yards Passing: STJ 82, OHS 175

Total Yards: STJ 225, OHS 316

Passing: STJ 3-15, OHS 5-7

Int. Thrown: STJ 0, OHS 0

Fumbles Lost: STJ 0, OHS 0

Penalties: STJ 6-46, OHS 7-50

Punting: STJ 4-38.5, OHS 5-33.6

The score by periods:

St. James     6   6   0   0-12

Owensville   6   6   6   8-26

The scoring plays:

Owensville: Crosby two-yard run, conversion fails (9:55).

St. James: Lonning 63-yard pass from Spurgeon, conversion fails (9:43).

St. James: Spurgeon three-yard run, conversion fails (7:00).

Owensville: Hetsch 28-yard pass from Crosby, kick fails (:00).

Owensville: Krupp 65-yard pass from Crosby, conversion fails (:24).

Owensville: Dare 68-yard pass from Crosby, Crosby passes to Krupp for conversion (4:17).

Individual Statistics

Rushing - St. James: Lonning 12 for 53, King 11 for 35, Spurgeon 9 for 26, Holt 5 for 28, Nicholson 1 for 1. Owensville: Rasmussen 8 for 67, Crosby 12 for 68, Lewis 1 for 0, Dare 5 for 9, Walker 1 for 1, TEAM 2 for minus-4.

Passing - St. James: Spurgeon 3-15-82-0. Owensville: Crosby 5-7-175-0.

Receiving - St. James: Lonning 2 for 69, O. Jackson 1 for 13. Owensville: Hetsch 1 for 28, Rasmussen 1 for 10, Papenfuss 1 for 4, Krupp 1 for 65, Dare 1 for 68.