On a chilly Halloween night in the Delta, the St. Aloysius Flashes celebrated a victory the school had waited a couple of decades for.

DeMichael Harris ran for two touchdowns, and Connor Smith ran for one touchdown and threw for another to lead St. Al to a 49-8 rout of Montgomery County and the Region 2-1A championship on Friday night.

It’s St. Al’s first region championship since 1993, and only the fourth since the Mississippi High School Activities Association implemented a playoff system in 1981.

The victory assures St. Al of a first-round home playoff game against either Smithville, Coldwater or Hamilton in two weeks. St. Al will finish the regular season at home next Friday against Greenville-St. Joseph, which is in a three-way tie with Shaw and Broad Street for second place in the region.

St. Joe, Shaw and Broad Street have all clinched playoff berths.

“We don’t have a kid on our team who was alive the last time we won one, so we’re all excited,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said. “We’re just playing really good. We were worried coming off the bye week, and we came out a little slow, but we got it going.”

After a scoreless first quarter, St. Al (9-1, 7-0 Region 2-1A) turned the game into a rout in the second by scoring four touchdowns in six minutes.

Harris started it with a 5-yard run and Smith finished things off with a 67-yard run with 3 minutes to go.

Harris added a 42-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter to make it 35-0.

The Flashes finished the game with six rushing touchdowns by five different players. In addition to Harris and Smith, Taedrin Warnsley, Connor Bottin and Casey Landers all scored.

Smith’s touchdown pass went to Josh Brown.

“We settled in a little bit. We saw things on film that they do differently, and we were a little hesitant. Once we settled in, we were in control,” Smithhart said. “A lot of momentum hit us all at once.”

St. Aloysius 49, Montgomery County 8

Records: St. Al (9-1, 7-0 Region 2-1A); Montgomery Co. (5-6, 4-4)

Skinny: St. Al rolls over Hornets to clinch first region championship since 1993