By LORI LYONS, Journal Sports

St. Mary’s football coach Kedrin Seastrunk was not in the mood for company over the weekend.

Yes, he had made a deal with several players from the Red River football team, many of whom he mentors as part of his church ministry. that they could come hang out at his house as they usually do – if they won. But after Red River rallied late to hand St. Mary’s a 26-13 loss that came with some questionable calls Friday night, Seastrunk was in no mood for company.

“I wasn’t in the mood for talking,” Seastrunk said. “I didn’t want to see anybody. But they let me have it (Sunday) at church. Luckily, we got a little Jesus in us and it didn’t get too bad.”

Seastrunk’s mood stemmed from a night in which lots of things went wrong for his Tigers. There were numerous issues with the scoreboard clock, which caused lots of problems as time was kept by the referees.

“It really messes up your strategy,” he said.

Seastrunk said he also had issues with the short-handed four-man referee crew and some of the calls they made, especially on a couple of touchdowns that were nullified by penalty, along with two controversial calls on fourth downs.

“I’m not one to complain, but I’ll even tell you it was mutually agreed upon that the referees were, let’s just say, not as efficient as they should be,” Seastrunk said. “I can say it because they had about 500 people that saw it. Those two calls went against us and just kind of broke our backs. It’s one thing to play the team; it’s another thing to play the refs. But all in all, the goal is to make sure we don’t leave it in their hands.”

The Tigers had a lead thanks to an 85-yard touchdown strike from sophomore quarterback Preston Tilley to Braylon Norman and a 25-yard touchdown pass from Tilley to John Paul Thibodaux.

But Red River rallied late in the game to take the win and hand St. Mary’s its second loss of the season.

“I saw some improvement,” Seastrunk said. “I saw some good things. I’m proud of the way they fought. But at times we just exhausted all we could do for the time being.”

The Tigers will try to get their first win against nearby rival Holy Savior Menard next Friday night at Turpin Stadium.