At the end of their first possession Friday night, a three-and-out, Porter’s Chapel Academy had its punt blocked backward into the end zone where it was recovered by Glenbrook Academy for a touchdown.

It didn’t count as one of the six turnovers the Eagles committed in the game, but it had the same result — points for the Apaches that led PCA into a downward spiral.

Glenbrook returned one fumble for a touchdown, turned two others into short touchdown drives and did the same with a recovered onsides kick, and spoiled homecoming for the Eagles by beating them 34-6.

“It’s the story all year. You give them the ball, you hand it to them, and it’s tough to overcome that. We spent hours working on that. We knew we were going to see the onsides kicks and things like that. We were diligent about it this week, and that’s a bad hop,” PCA coach Blake Purvis said. “And then effort. If effort is a bad thing, it was a downfall to us tonight. Our fumbles came on guys fighting in the pile for extra yards and they just coughed the ball up. It’s hard to overcome that, and they capitalized five times.”

Damaza Robinson completed 8 of 14 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown for Glenbrook (1-7), while Marshall Meek rushed for 96 yards and a touchdown and also caught a TD pass. Sammy Feaster caught four passes for 49 yards on offense, and had three takeaways on defense — two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

For PCA (1-8), Luke Yocum was 10-of-20 passing for 162 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. Spencer Azlin caught three passes for 69 yards and a touchdown, while his fellow receiver Michael Tod Andrews finished with 107 total yards — 66 rushing and 48 receiving on three catches.

The story of the game for the Eagles, however, was the turnovers. After Shane Siah recovered the blocked punt for a touchdown in the first quarter, Cade Clemons returned a fumble 22 yards for another score and a 13-0 lead in the second.

Azlin’s 29-yard touchdown catch with 2:35 left in the half pulled PCA within a touchdown, but they committed two more turnovers in the third quarter and lost an onsides kick to start the second half. Glenbrook turned all three miscues into touchdowns to blow the game open.

Thomas Parnell’s 7-yard touchdown run with 15 seconds left in the quarter put Glenbrook ahead 34-6.
PCA kept pushing, but was unable to get the ball into the end zone again. It reached Glenbrook territory on all three second-half possessions, but fumbled once, threw and interception inside the 10-yard line, and turned it over on downs.

“I’m never going to be upset if they give it everything they’ve got, and they did that. It’s still frustrating because you know the plays are there if we don’t give them those extra opportunities,” Purvis said. “The situation is frustrating. It’s not frustrating toward the players. They’re fighting their tails off and I’m going to be proud of that every Friday night.”

PCA lost its sixth game in a row. It will have one more chance at a win, next Friday at Park Place Christian in the season finale.

“We keep our faith high in the good Lord above and keep our heads high. We go out every Friday night as a new week and a new week,” PCA senior defensive lineman McKinley Skipper said. “It’s been a rough season. It sucks. One-and-eight is something nobody wants to be. But we keep our head high. We have some great leadership and we’re going to keep our head high until the last game.”