&8220;They completely fooled us, took a 50-yard pass to tie the game up.&8221;

That was howKingwood head football coach Jerry Stearns described the play he felt changed the momentum in his Lions&8217; non-region loss at Patrician Academy last Friday night.

The loss was Kingwood first of the season, but they are still in the race for the region crown.

Kingwood took a 14-7 led in the first quarter against Patrician on passes from Andrew Pearce to Nathan Allen and Cody Owens for 18 yards each. Pearce added the PAT&8217;s, as well.

Pearce continued his usual good performance at quarterback, hitting Grant Armstrong and Drew Davis for 9-yard TD passes each in the second quarter. This time, however, Pearce made one of two PATs.

But as the first half came to a close and Kingwood was up 27-21 with 20 second left in the half , Patrician struck on a 52-yard bomb to tie the game at 27-27.

From there, Patrician came out in the second half and &8220;lined up and pounded us.&8221;

Patrician scored on runs of 3, 35 and 2 yards, adding insult to injury returned a kick 40 for a touchdown.

Patrician out rushed Kingwood 416-81 yards. And while the Lions led in the air 256-107, it was Patrician who dominated.

The 2A, AISA Kingwood Lions were fortunate that this was not a region battle. Now 6-1, 4-0, the Lions will travel to face undefeated Lowndes Academy for what Stearns said will be the region title