By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – They ran out of time.

The Lafayette Christian School Cougars got the ball with less than a minute remaining and trailing by six points in Friday’s game against New Creation.

The Cougars (0-2) didn’t have enough time to find the end zone, though, and they ended up falling 44-38 in their home debut.

With more than three minutes remaining, the Cougars got a touchdown run from Landon Whitley and a two-point conversion to get within six.

The defense made a stop and forced a punt, but the Cougars were unable to drive for the winning score.

While pleased that his team made things interesting late, Lafayette Christian head coach Nate Shaw said there are no moral victories.

“We gave ourselves a chance to win,” Shaw said. “But one of the things I was honest with the team was, it’s not good enough to almost win.”

Shaw said an inability to slow down New Creation’s offense was costly.

“We just didn’t bow up defensively,” Shaw said. “We had a couple of stops in the scoring area, but we were too inconsistent.”

Shaw pointed out that New Creation converted a handful of third-and-long situations.

“Those are just killers,” Shaw said.

Offensively, Whitley had a big day, running for 98 yards on 20 carries with a touchdown run and a 49-yard scoring pass to Cason Firth.

Whitley completed 4-of-8 passes for 77 yards.

Jacob Lueken made the most of his eight carries with 97 yards, and Amani Jenkins had five carries for 38 yards.

Jenkins also returned a kickoff for a touchdown.

Mitch Crandall had a touchdown run called back because of a penalty.