Last season, St. Aloysius took a long and winding road to the Class 1A semifinals.

This time, the road to a state championship will go through Balzli Field.

St. Al’s 49-8 rout of Montgomery County on Friday night clinched the program’s first region championship since 1993 and ensured it of a first-round home playoff game. It’s a hard-earned honor for a team that has won 13 of its last 15 games, and has not played a game closer than 10 points during its current nine-game winning streak.

The first-round home game will be a welcome change of pace. Last year’s run started with a must-win regular-season finale on the road against Greenville-St. Joe, followed by back-to-back road victories over Coffeeville and Hamilton.

This time, the Flashes will play at least one home game before potentially having to go on the road in round two. Depending on matchups, they could be at home throughout the North State playoffs.

Despite having home field advantage, St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said he wasn’t taking anything for granted. After all, he pointed out, his team made it to last season’s North State championship game as a No. 4 seed.

“Home field advantage is huge. You don’t want to look too far ahead, but we know we’ve got at least one home game. Our fans always give us a lift,” Smithhart said. “We’re going to be preaching that we were a four-seed last year. A playoff game is a playoff game and we need to be ready.”

Friday’s win made this week’s regular-season finale relatively meaningless for St. Al (9-1, 7-0 Region 2-1A). Even if it loses to Greenville-St. Joe, it’ll win a head-to-head tiebreaker with Shaw.

What the Flashes can play for is a place in history.

St. Al has not gone undefeated in region play since 1993, when it only played three region games. It also has a chance to win at least 10 games in a season for the first time since 1981.

The school record for wins in a season is 11, accomplished in 1981 and 1977. Since 1925, St. Al has only posted a double-digit win total five times.

“We’re not going to be a team that doesn’t think a game counts. We’re going to play hard, and play like it counts,” Smithhart said. “It’s football. We’ve got guys that don’t have many more games left, and they realize that. They’re going to take advantage of this.”

On the radio

Friday, 7 p.m., 101.3 FM

Greenville-St. Joseph at St. Aloysius