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The Lafayette Christian football team lost its first game of the season on Friday to Unity 30-22 as a late second half rally came up just short.

The Cougars offense struggled to get any sort of traction in the first half. The LCS offense turned the ball over twice in the first quarter. 

Unity was able to break the deadlock with a touchdown with 7:50 left in the first quarter and doubled its lead quickly in the second quarter.

Unity made it 18-0 with 5:32 left in the first half as the Cougars were struggling to find answers early in the game.

The Cougars trailed 24-0 at the halftime break, a much different tune than LCS had been used to so far this season as the Cougars led at the break in their first three games of the season.

Eventually, the Cougars were able to get some traction on offense. Ephraim Snyder got the Cougars on the board with a 15-yard rushing touchdown with 8:38 left in the third quarter to cut the Unity lead to 24-8.

The Cougars were able to recover an onside kick attempt and eventually turned that into eight points when Snyder rumbled in the end zone from 21 yards out. Snyder added the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to just one score. 

Lafayette Christian had a couple of costly fumbles late in the third quarter and early in the fourth that ruined any chance of a comeback.

Unity was able to stretch its lead back out to two scores with a touchdown run with 10:27 left in the fourth quarter.

The Cougars got their final points when David Karvelas connected with Paul Batistini for a 40-yard touchdown with just two seconds on the clock.

Lafayette Christian could not recover the onside as the team saw its undefeated streak come to an end.

LCS (3-1) will travel to Central Christian next Friday for its 2023 region opener.