St. Aloysius is faced with a lot of issues after back-to-back disappointing losses. Correcting them is critical with a crucial stretch to the season coming up.

The Flashes (1-5, 1-3 Region 4-1A) were throttled 35-7 Friday by University Christian in front of a capacity crowd for homecoming.

Flashes coach B.J. Smithhart was frustrated by his team’s lack of focus and passion for the season’s most important game to this point. A win would have finished off a three-game homestand with momentum going into a road stretch at Cathedral and Resurrection. Getting that passion back is priority No. 1 for the Flashes.

“This makes two weeks in a row where we just didn’t have any fire and we didn’t play very well,” Smithhart said. “They have some good ball players and were prepared, while we played like we weren’t prepared.”

University Christian (2-3, 2-2) found plenty of motivation in playing St. Al for the first time, said Flames coach Theo Hannan. The school moved from the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools to the Mississippi High School Activities Association this year.

“There was a tremendous atmosphere and a great crowd here,” Hannan said. “We responded by playing the best we have all year. It was definitely the best defensive effort we’ve had.”

Offensively, the Flames had near-perfect balance with 170 yards rushing and 163 passing. Sophomore quarterback Caleb Shufelt avoided the mistakes that cost University Christian in its three losses. He had his best game of the year, completing 7 of 11 passes for 163 yards and four touchdowns.

The big plays given up in the passing game for the second straight week are the next big issue for the Flashes. Shufelt had touchdown tosses of 50, 30, 5 and 34 yards.

“It’s something we have got to address, but then, we have to address everything,” Smithhart said. “We’re not tackling well to begin with. And our special teams were bad again.”

The Flashes’ mishaps in the kicking game are a third key issue. They gave up a 50-yard punt return to K’shun Evans that set up Shufelt’s 5-yard TD pass that made it 28-0 with 7:07 left in the third quarter.

St. Al answered after the Flames’ score with its best drive of the night, an eight-play, 80-yard march capped by Carlton Campbell’s 3-yard TD run. Campbell finished with 102 yards on 18 carries.

In the second half, any hopes of a comeback were dashed by two poor punts and a bad punt snap. With a short field, the Flames were able to work the clock and settle for two long field goal tries. Both missed, but the Flames still left town with an impressive win.