MINDEN, La. — There were a lot of reasons for the Porters Chapel Eagles to feel as if they missed their chance at a state championship on Friday.

An undefeated season went by the wayside with one bad night and a blowout loss. Their top two skill players had played their last high school football game. Another trip to the state semifinals ended in disappointment.

And yet, when it comes time to evaluate the season and where to go from here, it’ll be hard for the Eagles not to roll with the punches and gear up for another run. They seem to do it every year.

Over the span of five straight playoff appearances, PCA has had four different starting quarterbacks and five different starting tailbacks. Next year will make five and six, respectively. Two years ago, nearly the entire starting lineup turned over. Despite the constant changes, though, the Eagles have perservered and won 54 games and made three trips to the semifinals during their run.

With a solid core of players coming back for the 2009 season — five starters return, including two linemen and receivers Reed Gordon, Jay Wiley and Colby Rushing — coach Randy Wright was confident the good times haven’t ended yet at PCA.

“We’ll just reload and hopefully we’ll be right back here next year,” Wright said. “I already feel like we’ve got an opportunity to fill those holes. I don’t know exactly who’s going to be where yet. When we start two-a-days we’ll try to figure it out.”

Until then, the Eagles will have to figure out where things went wrong this time.

Glenbrook controlled the line of scrimmage during Friday’s 30-7 win in the MPSA Class A South State championship game, rushing for 273 yards. Jack Jiles had 115 yards and one touchdown, and David Thompson ran for 154 yards and two scores.

It was a blueprint etched out in the second round a week earlier by Huntington, which rolled up 366 rushing yards and held the ball for 36 minutes in a 27-26 loss to PCA.

“We thought we’d be able to pound on them. We got off of that in the second quarter, but went right back to it in the second half,” Glenbrook coach Jerry Almond said.

More importantly, they shut down an offense that had averaged 38 points per game coming into the contest. PCA managed just 161 yards and didn’t get inside the 25-yard line until Clayton Holmes tossed a 34-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Roach with 40 seconds left. It was the last offensive play of the Eagles’ season.

The defensive dominance allowed Glenbrook (12-2) to pull away in the second half. The Apaches led 7-0 at halftime before scoring on three of their first four second-half drives. The one drive that didn’t result in a touchdown was stopped by a goal-line stand by PCA (13-1).

“I figured it’d be a close game. We had an opportunity to score in the first half and we didn’t take it,” Almond said. “Give credit to Porters Chapel. They would bend but they wouldn’t break.”

What did finally break was the Eagles’ hearts. Again.

This was their third loss in the semifinals in five seasons, almost as good a run as a team can have without winning a championship. In time, the Eagles will look back on another great season with a lot of pride. Watching someone else celebrate on Friday, and two teams other than themselves playing for a Class A championship on Saturday, leaves a hollow feeling, however.

“It’s been an experience,” said tailback Josh Perry, who transferred to PCA from Warren Central for his senior year. “If I had it to do over again I would do it in a second. Of course, right now, it sucks.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com.