On their way to Lexington for Friday night’s game, the St. Aloysius Flashes got stuck in a traffic jam on I-20 for nearly an hour. It delayed their arrival and the start of the game against Central Holmes Christian School, and served as a bad omen of things to come.

The Flashes started slow, missed opportunities, and wound up on the wrong side of a 28-14 decision as Central Holmes rushed for nearly 400 yards. St. Al (2-5) had a two-game winning streak snapped and had their playoff hopes dealt a big blow.

St. Al will likely need to win its last three games to qualify for the MAIS Class AAA playoffs, beginning next week at home against archrival Cathedral.

“The problems we had, we can fix. Offensively, we moved the ball. Defensively, we just didn’t tackle well,” St. Al coach Michael Fields said. “I think we’re going to bounce back. We’ve got Cathedral next week, it’s a rivalry game, and the kids know how important it is. We can’t afford many more missteps.”

Despite scoring only two touchdowns, St. Al had a productive night offensively. Quarterback Phillip Upshaw was 12-of-23 passing for 254 yards and a touchdown, and also ran for a score. Wide receiver Ryan Theriot caught five passes for 128 yards and a TD and Evan Fedell had five receptions for 93 yards.

Alvin Brown ran for 108 yards, and on defense totaled five tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery.

The Flashes finished with 370 total yards, but couldn’t seal the deal on several scoring chances. They missed two field goals and came away with no points after having first-and-goal at the Central Holmes 3-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. Central Holmes led 28-14 at that point and was able to bleed off most of the clock on its ensuing possession.

“We had our chances,” Fields said. “We score there, and there’s still five minutes to go and we had three timeouts. The took the ball and got some first downs and took it down under a minute.”