The St. James Tigers are seeing them in their sleep the past two weeks.

For the second consecutive week the Tigers produced a goose egg on the scoreboard - thanks in large part to the big-play/turnover bug - dropping a 34-0 Four Rivers Conference decision to the St. Clair Bulldogs Friday, Sept. 18 at Tiger Field.

The loss dropped St. James to 2-2 overall and 0-2 in the FRC. St. Clair won its third straight to improve to 3-1 and 2-0.

And the STJ losses to Sullivan and St. Clair had similar looks to them with those big plays and turnovers.

After a nice offensive start to the season over the first two games, the Tigers have been outscored a combined 75-0 since opening league competition. And in those two games St. James has combined to commit eight turnovers and give up seven touchdowns on plays of 27 or more yards. That includes runs of 45, 58, 67 and 83 yards and passes of 27, 32 and 61 yards.

Against St. Clair, the Tigers bogged down with five turnovers - three fumbles and two interceptions.

“Turnovers; that and big plays,” said St. James head coach Dusty Craft. “That has kind of been our Achilles heel. The game plan going in was establish the line of scrimmage; we knew we would be able to move the football if we executed. Obviously, the goal was to eliminate the mistakes. It’s hard to play mistake-free, but if you do you limit the damage and put yourself in a better situation.”

The game’s opening drive was the best for the Tigers, as they marched to the Bulldog 29 yardline on 10 plays before an interception ended things.

And nearly 16 minutes into the game it was a scoreless battle. However, St. Clair then began to put together those big plays. A 26-yard pass from senior QB Jude Dierker to sophomore running back Tanner Voorhees followed by a 17-yard run by senior running back Danny Lottmann got the ball to the Tiger 17 yardline. Three plays later Lottmann scored on a five-yard run at the 8:31 mark of the second period.

That opened the floodgates, as St. Clair would score two more touchdowns before intermission. Again a turnover chocked off a STJ threat, losing a fumble at the Bulldog 29. And despite back-to-back St. Clair holding penalties, the Bulldogs would ended up scoring when junior wideout/back Carson Roemer took a pitch, cut to the left sidelines and was gone for an 83-yard TD run at the 2:02 mark.

After a three-and-out the Tigers punted it back and, aided by pass interference and personal foul penalties, St. Clair went 77 yards on seven plays, scoring once more on a 27-yard TD pass from Dierker to junior running back Kasen Conway with just one second left in the first half, allowing what had been a scoreless battle to become a 21-0 Bulldog halftime cushion.

The second half produced three more Tiger turnovers, while St. Clair got a 67-yard scoring run from Roemer in the third period and a 19-yard scoring run from Lottmann in the fourth quarter to make the final score.

Senior quarterback Owen Spurgeon led St. James with 62 rushing yards. St. Clair finished with 355 yards of total offense – 282 rushing. Roemer erupted for 161 yards on just five carries while Lottmann ran for 87 yards.

Homecoming

Now St. James turns its attention to Homecoming Week this week and will host an unfamiliar foe in Butler High School as the homecoming foe Friday. Kickoff at Tiger Field is set for 7 p.m. The Tiger Homecoming King and Queen will be crowned before the game.

A Class 2 school, Butler comes in with a 2-2 record. The Butler Bears are riding a two-game winning streak, having beaten Crest Ridge 45-21 at home Sept. 11 and outscoring Windsor 54-30 on the road Sept. 18.

“They will show a spread offense,” Craft said of Butler. “A lot of power read; they like to run with their quarterback. It’s kind of what we’ve seen a lot of so far.”

The box score:

Sept. 18 at St. James

St. Clair 34, St. James 0

Team Statistics

First Downs: STJ 9, STC 16

Yards Rushing: STJ 117, STC 282

Yards Passing: STJ 3, STC 73

Total Yards: STJ 120, STC 355

Passing: STJ 4-11, STC 5-14

Int. Thrown: STJ 2, STC 0

Fumbles Lost: STJ 3, STC 1

Penalties: STJ 8-70, STC 11-90

Punting: STJ 4-28.0, STC 1-38.0

The score by periods:

St. Clair     0   21    7    6-34

St. James   0     0    0    0-  0

The scoring plays:

St. Clair: Lottmann five-yard run, Tiepleman kick (8:31).

St. Clair: Roemer 83-yard run, J. Dierker runs in conversion (2:02).

St. Clair: Conway 27-yard pass from J. Dierker, conversion fails (:01).

St. Clair: Roemer 67-yard run, Thompson kick (11:00).

St. Clair: Lottmann 19-yard run, kick fails (5:48).

Individual Statistics

Rushing - St. James: Spurgeon 12 for 62, Holt 7 for 16, King 9 for 35, Lonning 6 for 2, Nicholson 3 for 8, TEAM 1 for minus-6. St. Clair: Lottmann 11 for 87, J. Dierker 8 for 26, Roemer 5 for 161, McDaniel 2 for 0, Travis 1 for 25, TEAM 3 for minus-17.

Passing - St. James: Spurgeon 4-11-3-2. St. Clair: J. Dierker 5-13-73-0, E. Dierker 0-1-0-0.

Receiving - St. James: O. Jackson 2 for minus-1, King 1 for 4, Nicholson 1 for 0. St. Clair: Voorhees 3 for 41, Conway 1 for 27, Roemer 1 for 5.

Tackles - St. James: Freeman 3 (solos)-5 (assists), B. Arnold 1-2, Gibson 1-1, Cantrell 0-3, Gunter 0-1, Reeves 0-1, G. Arnold 0-1, Cohen 0-1, Cruz 0-6, Mathenia 0-3, Ferguson 0-3, Miller 0-1. St. Clair: N/A.