A frustrating losing streak continued for the St. James High School football squad last week. However, with its performance, along with a couple of unexpected turn of events, the Tigers find themselves staying home for the opening round of the district playoffs nonetheless.

St. James lost at Pacific 34-29 in Four Rivers Conference play Friday, Oct. 23. That leaves the Tigers 2-7 overall and 0-6 in the FRC. It was the seventh consecutive loss for St. James.

Despite that setback St. James leap-frogged two teams in the Class 3 District 5 standings, which determines the district first-round matchups. St. James now hosts Salem this week in District 5 first-round play Friday, Oct. 30. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Tiger Field.

Mountain Grove, the only team in the district with a winning record, finished No. 1 in the District 5 standings with a 7-2 record and 43.00 points while Strafford is No. 2 with a 4-5 mark and 30.06 points; St. James No. 3 at 2-7 with 25.22; Cuba No. 4 at 4-5 with 28.75, Buffalo No 5 at 3-6 with 24.43, Salem No. 6 at 2-7 with 20.08 and Pleasant Hope No. 7 at 1-8 with 16.56.

St. James was No. 5 in the standings the previous week but moved up by getting points for playing a school from a larger classification (Pacific is in Class 4) and holding its deficit to just five points. In addition, St. James jumped Cuba due to head-to-head competition in the regular season (STJ beat Cuba 30-24 on Sept. 4). And the Tigers’ strength of schedule got added leverage when league rival Sullivan got a win added to its record due to the Missouri State High School Activities Association ruling that Farmington must forfeit four games - including a victory over Sullivan - for using an ineligible player.

Add it all up and St. James is now third-seed and hosting sixth-seed Salem in the district first round at Tiger Field Friday. In the season-opener Aug. 28 St. James defeated Salem 23-8 in St. James.

In other first-round district games Friday, Strafford hosts Pleasant Hope while Cuba hosts Buffalo. Mountain Grove receives a first-round bye.

The St. James/Salem winner will play the Strafford/Pleasant Hope winner in the semifinals next week at the location of the highest seed.

“We would be the fourth seed, but because we beat No. 3 Cuba we flip-flop with them,” said St. James head coach Dusty Craft. “Our strength of schedule went up when Farmington forfeited to Sullivan, and we got points for playing up against Sullivan and Pacific. And every drive matters. We were trying to get the boys to understand how important that last drive (against Pacific) was when we scored. Instead of a minus-13 points against them (in playoff points), we finished with a minus-five.

“That last drive gave us momentum; the Pacific game in general gave us momentum. Our offensive performance was better and our defense tightened up a little. And (senior Hunter) Freeman got a nice interception and then caught our last touchdown pass, which was big for him and us. After the game we told the guys everybody is now 0-0. Now we can take some momentum out of that.”

Big plays again haunted St. James last week. The Pacific Indians scored touchdowns on a 72-yard pass, a 49-yard pass, a 76-yard kickoff return and a 42-yard run. And the TD that proved to be the game-winner for the Indians late in the third quarter was set up by a 35-yard pass.

It was St. James’ finest offensive performance in weeks, as the Tigers finished with 288 yards of total offense, including 192 rushing yards.

St. James closed the gap to a one-score game by scoring a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns, with senior fullback Steven Holt scoring on a two-yard TD run. The final Tiger touchdown came after Freeman picked off a Pacific pass in the endzone and returned it to the Tiger 41 yardline with :43 left in the game. St. James would score four plays later on a 12-yard pass in the endzone from senior quarterback Owen Spurgeon to Freeman with six seconds remaining.

The Tigers tried an on-side kick to try and get the ball back, but Pacific pounced on it and ran out the clock.

Spurgeon rushed for 67 yards on 10 carries and hit on nine-of-14 passes for 96 yards. Holt ran for 52 yards and three touchdowns. Five other Holt carries resulted in Tiger first downs.

Now St. James prepares for a rematch with Salem in a battle of the Tigers.

This is the fifth consecutive season that St. James opened its season against Dent County rival Salem. In that span St. James has finished 6-0 over Salem, outscoring Salem a combined 163-14.

Like St. James, Salem also has a 2-7 record this fall. Salem snapped a six-game losing streak by defeating South-Central Association foe Cabool 39-6 at home last week.

“What an exciting time,” Craft said. “It’s nice to be hosting them again. They have a new look to them since we played them in the opener. They are playing some younger guys. They still have a good senior quarterback in Sylis DuBois. And they’ve got some young skill position guys in (sophomore Jacob) Gover and (sophomore Tripp) Creek and some other up-and-comers who will be good.”

The box score:

Oct. 23 at Pacific

Pacific 34, St. James 29

Team Statistics

First Downs: STJ 19, PHS 13

Yards Rushing: STJ 192, PHS 140

Yards Passing: STJ 96, PHS 194

Total Yards: STJ 288, PHS 334

Passing: STJ 9-14, PHS 10-14

Int. Thrown: STJ 0, PHS 1

Fumbles Lost: STJ 0, PHS 0

Penalties: STJ 5-35, PHS 8-63

Punting: STJ 3-34.0, PHS 1-29.0

The score by periods:

St. James    7     6     0   16-29

Pacific        6   14   14     0-34

The scoring plays:

Pacific: Fielder 72-yard pass from Jones, kick fails (8:13).

St. James: Holt one-yard run, Arnold kick (1:02).

Pacific: Hernandez 49-yard pass from Jones, kick blocked (5:02).

St. James: Holt two-yard run, kick blocked (:25).

Pacific: Davis 76-yard kickoff return, Krumrey runs in conversion (:11).

Pacific: Fielder 42-yard run, Jones runs in conversion (9:46).

Pacific: Krumrey three-yard run, conversion fails (5:19).

St. James: Holt two-yard run, Holt runs in conversion (6:35).

St. James: Freeman 12-yard pass from Spurgeon, Holt runs in conversion (:06).

Individual Statistics

Rushing - St. James: Holt 10 for 52, King 15 for 38, Lonning 4 for 0, Nicholson 5 for 36, Spurgeon 10 for 67, TEAM 1 for minus-1. Pacific: Krumrey 6 for 18, Jones 9 for 54, Fielder 5 for 70, Klinger 1 for minus-1, Haddox 1 for 0, TEAM 1 for minus-1.

Passing - St. James: Spurgeon 9-14-96-0. Pacific: Jones 10-14-194-1.

Receiving - St. James: O. Jackson 3 for 19, Nicholson 1 for 13, Cruz 1 for 4, Lonning 2 for 34, Freeman 2 for 26. Pacific: Hernandez 3 for 60, Fielder 3 for 89, Haddox 3 for 38, Krumrey 1 for 7.