FLOWOOD — St. Aloysius has made an unfortunate habit of losing close football games this season. On Friday night it put a new spin on things by losing a close game disguised as a blowout.

The Flashes took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter, then committed three turnovers and gave up 20 unanswered points down the stretch as Hartfield Academy rallied for a 33-14 victory.

Hartfield’s Kyle Waterbury rushed for 201 yards and two touchdowns, and Drew Willis scored two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter. As a team, Hartfield (3-2, 1-1 District 3-AAA) rushed for 371 yards.

St. Al (0-5, 0-1) had lost three of its first four games by seven points or less, and kept this one close enough to have a chance. It never got going on offense, though, and by the fourth quarter its defense had worn down.

Outside of a 14-play, 75-yard scoring drive that spanned the first and second quarter, St. Al had one offensive snap inside the red zone. It came from the Hartfield 19-yard line with two minutes to go, and resulted in an interception. The Flashes finished with just 235 yards of total offense.

“It’s frustrating, because the game was so close and then we let it get out of hand. It’s getting frustrating to let leads go like this. We’ve got to make changes on defense, and learn how to score on the offensive side of the ball,” said St. Al linebacker Jaylen Whitaker, who returned a fumble for a touchdown.

Hartfield jumped out to a 13-0 lead by scoring on its first two possessions. Waterbury broke a 66-yard touchdown run on the Hawks’ first play, and then finished off a nine-play, 80-yard drive with a 12-yard TD run. The senior quarterback had 124 yards on five carries on the two drives.

St. Al responded with its long touchdown drive, capped off by a 2-yard run by Jamar Williams on the first play of the second quarter, to settle things down and trim the deficit to 13-7. Then the defense took control of the game for the next two quarters.

Hartfield went three-and-out on its next two possessions and had another drive stall in St. Al territory just before halftime. The Flashes forced two turnovers in the third quarter, including one that gave them the lead.

With about two minutes left, Hartfield’s Cline Stone ran off the left side and had the ball knocked out. It popped right in the arms of Whitaker, who rumbled 35 yards up the sideline for a touchdown. Gradon Bourne added the extra point to put the Flashes ahead 14-13.

“It was out of nowhere,” Whitaker said with a laugh. “It was a shocker to me. I was just trying to make the tackle and I saw the ball come and was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to take it to the end zone.’”

St. Al’s hopes of a hard-fought win soon evaporated, however. On Hartfield’s next drive, Willis broke loose for a 42-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-2 to put the Hawks back in front with 10:53 left in the game.

St. Al drove across midfield on its next drive, only to turn it over when Tyler Lewis caught a pass for a first down and was stripped at the end of the play. Hartfield drove the field again, scoring on a 2-yard run by Willis to take a 26-14 lead.

Now in desperation mode, St. Al went for it on fourth-and-16 from its own 20 on its next possession. Brandon Teller threw an interception that was returned inside the 5-yard line, and Stone scored on the next play to make it 33-14.

Lewis caught five passes for 71 yards, and Williams carried the ball 19 times for 76 yards and a touchdown.

“Once we got our assignments, we hit them pretty good and played really hard defensively,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said. “We’ve just got to give the defense some help. That’s a couple weeks in a row we haven’t had much on offense.”