RAYVILLE, La. — Porter’s Chapel Academy battled District 3-AAA rival Riverfield Academy Friday night and came out on the wrong side of things, losing 39-21 in its district opener.

PCA coach Blake Purvis said an inability to run the ball really hurt the Eagles. They had rolled up 255 rushing yards last week in a win over Columbus Christian, but struggled against a talented Riverfield team.

“We came out and they hit a couple big plays on us and we were down two scores early,” Purvis said. “Offensively, we couldn’t get the run game going up front early in the game like we wanted to and it put our defense in a tough situation.”

The Eagles (1-1, 0-1 District 3-AAA) fell behind 26-0 to Riverfield (2-0, 1-0) and managed to move the ball within the Raiders’ 1-yard line in the final minute of the first half, but couldn’t punch it in as the clock expired.
PCA did get the offense going in the second half.

Down 32-0, sophomore quarterback Tristan Pickering guided the Eagles to a nice scoring drive in the third quarter. PCA capitalized on a roughing the passer penalty to keep the drive alive. Running back Glenn Alan Kittrell’s touchdown run with 37 seconds to play in the quarter put Porter’s Chapel on the board. Jagger Weekly added the extra point.

Pickering found wide receiver John Michael Wilkerson in the end zone for a 20-yard TD with about five minutes left in the game and Weekly booted the PAT to make it 39-14.

Kittrell took a short screen pass from Pickering late in the game and ran about 80 yards for the score, with Weekly’s extra point making it 39-21.

Pickering completed 11-of-22 passes for 294 yards and 2 TDs. The yardage total was nearly half of what the Eagles accumulated through the air all of last season, and the best game by a PCA quarterback since Jonah Masterson threw for 305 yards against Russell Christian in September 2013.

Wilkerson had five catches for 82 yards and a score, while Brayden Ray had four catches for 88 yards. Defensively, McKinley Skipper had 11 tackles and Michael Brewer had 10 for the Eagles.

“We’ve got to get back to working on the run game,” Purvis said. “We believe we’re built on the run and we need to work up front and re-establish the run game and get back to what we’re built on.”

Porter’s Chapel Academy will host Hillcrest Christian for its first home game of the season in another District 3-AAA contest next Friday at 7 p.m.