The St. Aloysius Flashes jumped out of a big hole Friday night against Washington School, only to fall right back in it.

The Flashes scored two touchdowns in less than a minute midway through the third quarter to tie the game, only to allow Washington to retake the lead on its next possession. Anthony Bariola’s 3-yard touchdown run with 4:15 left in the third quarter stood up, and the Generals got away with a 20-13 victory.

The comeback and tight game against last year’s MAIS Class AAAA Division II champions gave St. Al coach BJ Smithhart an optimistic outlook for the start of district play. The Flashes go on the road to play Hartfield Academy next Friday.

“I’m just proud of the kids. They played hard. We get a little worn down out there in depth, but our kids played hard. They played a good football team for four quarters and didn’t quit,” Smithhart said. “We definitely want to win, but it’s definitely something to build on for district next week when it really counts.”

St. Al and Washington traded four touchdowns in a span of 3 ½ minutes in the third quarter.

Washington’s Zach Zepponi caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from Anderson Shelley to put the Generals ahead 13-0 with 7:37 left. The Flashes answered right away, with quarterback Antonio Thompson running 61 yards for a touchdown on the next play from scrimmage.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Flashes recovered an onsides kick by Channing Curtis.

“Channing has worked really hard on it in practice, and he was excited to do it. We felt like we needed to see a little more momentum. It all worked out good,” Smithhart said.

After a 32-yard pass by Thompson to Brandon Teller, senior Jamar Williams ran the ball 3 yards for St. Al’s second touchdown. The kick was blocked and the game was tied at 13.

The tie didn’t last long. The Generals regained the lead with a quick six-play drive finished by Bariola’s 3-yard run, and they kept it the rest of the way.

A recovered fumble gave St. Al hope with about 2 minutes left in the game, but three incomplete passes and a false start penalty dashed its chances of putting more points on the board.

Despite the loss, Smithhart feels positive about the strides the Flashes made following last week’s 50-26 loss to Madison-St. Joseph.

“I think that was probably our most complete game,” Smithhart said. “We’ve just got to get some people healed up and get ready to play a good Hartfield team Friday.”

Sophomore quarterback Antonio Thompson was injured with about 8 minutes left in the game. Teller took his place and finished at quarterback.

“He took a bad hit. We’re just erring on the side of caution,” Smithhart said.

Overall, Smithhart feels like the team has built momentum throughout the first four weeks of the season and will use that moving forward.

“We’ve got some guys really stepping up, and they’re playing 100 snaps or more a game — that’s a lot of them. I’m just proud of them,” Smithhart said. “It’s hard to single anybody out when they all played so hard.”