With just less than seven minutes left in the third quarter, everything looked positive for the Chattanooga Christian School football team in Friday's nonregion home game against Lakeway Christian.
Gavin Berger had just connected with Jermaine Stinson for the Chargers' fourth touchdown pass of the night, with Stinson bouncing and spinning off a tackler for a 19-yard score on fourth down and a 28-25 lead.
Stinson had already surpassed 100 receiving yards — including a 38-yard touchdown catch over the top of the defense at the end of the first half — while fellow senior star Da'Rell Brown surpassed the 100-yard rushing mark with 6:50 left in the third quarter with another bruising run up the middle, this one for 11 yards.
However, the fourth quarter belonged to the Lions, whose Shajai Jackson put on a show at running back as he cut and juked his way to three touchdowns and more than 200 total yards in a 39-28 comeback victory.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night's Chattanooga-area prep football games)
Lakeway Christian (5-3) capped a five-minute drive to begin the final quarter with the go-ahead touchdown on first-and-25 from 30 yards out. Levi Martin's shovel pass was taken by one of his speedy receivers to the end zone untouched after going around the left side as the defense bit to the right.
The Lions followed with an onside kick, recovered and did not waste the opportunity. Martin threw a 26-yard pass over two defenders to Jesse Stump down the right sideline on fourth-and-15, which was followed by Jackson's third rushing score to all but seal the victory with an 11-point lead with 3:26 left to play.
Berger threw for 210 yards and added 24 rushing yards, while Brown finished with 132 total yards (125 rushing). Stinson was outstanding throughout as he hauled in five passes for 112 yards and two scores while adding 12 tackles, with two coming behind the line of scrimmage. Jameson Hinton and Dre Martin added touchdown catches of 9 and 20 yards for the Chargers in the first half.
"We just got outplayed by a team who showed more heart than us tonight," said CCS coach Grant Reynolds, whose Chargers fell to 4-4 overall. "They played with a lot of passion and physicality, and their running back is definitely a force. We have to come back to work and get better. We can't give up. Not in life or right now."
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.