A wild, back-and-forth game took a suddenly somber turn Friday night.

Porter’s Chapel Academy’s senior quarterback Jase Jung suffered an apparent neck injury after taking a hard hit with 9:01 left in the game against Columbus Christian, and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

Blake Purvis, PCA’s head coach and head of school, said Jung was moving his extremities and was responsive as he was taken from the field, but did not have an immediate update on his condition after the game.

The game was delayed for about 20 minutes while paramedics attended to Jung and loaded him into the ambulance.

When play resumed, Porter’s Chapel cut a three-score deficit to one before losing 72-52.

The Eagles trailed 58-40 when Jung was injured. Auston Moore scored two rushing touchdowns to cut it to 58-52, and the Eagles had the ball with four minutes left.

They were unable to move it, though, and turned it over on downs deep in their own territory. Columbus Christian (4-4) scored on that possession, and then recovered a fumble in the end zone on PCA’s next one to seal it.

“We battled. We fought and we had a chance,” Purvis said. “If you would have told me when Jase went off the field with nine minutes to go and we’re down three possessions that we would have the ball with four minutes to go and down six points, I would have told you we’d win the game no problem. But we drop a snap and get behind the chains and just missed it.”

Moore finished with 103 rushing yards and three touchdowns on only seven carries for PCA (5-4). Chad Fuson led the defense with eight tackles, Henry Slayton had seven, Hunter Simms six, and Conley Johnston five.

Before he was injured, Jung reached two more milestones in his record-setting season. He rushed for 409 yards and four touchdowns on 37 carries to set the Warren County single-season record for rushing touchdowns and tie the career mark. He also became the first player ever to surpass the 5,000-yard rushing mark for his career.

Warren Central’s Carl Blue previously held the single-season touchdown record with 33 in 1979. Jung now has 35 this season. Jung is tied with WC’s Brian Darden with 74 career touchdowns.

Jung set the county’s single-season and career yardage records last week. He now has 2,675 yards this season and 5,385 in his high school career.