Santa Gertrudis Academy High School’s varsity football team almost won their second consecutive game this season - which would have been their second in school history - but wound up losing a barn burner to Runge 51-44.

The Lions repeatedly fired back at Runge during the shootout.

Conner DeLaney acquired Academy’s first score by throwing a 30- yard touchdown pass to Isaac Alvarado. The Lions’ second score came through a 15-yard run by DeLaney. Armando Hinojosa reached pay-dirt twice on runs of 35 and 25 yards. DeLaney tacked on the Lions’ fifth and sixth scores on a run of 15 yards and a one-yard push.

“Basically, we couldn’t stop them (Runge) and they couldn’t stop us,” Head Coach Wally Moon said of both teams’ defenses. “We had some defensive break downs during the game that we will have to work on in practice, we know what we need to correct.”

The Lions stood on the doorstep of a late game changing score, but a miscue kept them outside.

“We actually had the ball with first and goal at the oneyard line with less than thirty seconds left in the game, so we had a chance to score and go for the two-point conversion to win it,” Moon said. “But we had a bad snap and Conner managed to recover the ball and get it back to the three-yard line. We tried to run another play but Runge stopped us; we put ourselves in a position to win the game but just didn’t get it done.”

Academy’s offensive production on Friday, though, set new highs for the program especially in points scored.

“I thought our offense had a great game and I am very pleased with that side of the ball,” Moon said. “The offensive line did a heck of a job blocking and was opening holes for Conner which he ran through very well. Armando played as best as he could with a banged up shoulder and Conner did a very nice job of handling the game pressure, getting us the yardage when we needed it and just running our offense.”

The Lions have a bye this week and then host Pettus during homecoming at Javelina Stadium on September 17.

“We’re off this coming week so I am giving the guys Monday off from practice,” Moon said. “Tuesday through Thursday we are going to work on the basics, individual and group drills. On defense we are going to work on the break downs we had on the edges and basically spend the week improving on how we get off the blocks and how we force the ball on the edge.”