LASKER – It wasn’t the Homecoming Northeast Academy was hoping for.

The Eagles battled, but fell to visiting Cary Christian Academy 33-26 when the Knights scored with just 22 ticks left on the clock.

Northeast had come back from a 26-18 deficit to tie the football game before the Knights pulled out the victory.

Trialing by eight, the Eagles got a safety when the football was snapped over the head of the quarterback and one of the Knights kicked the ball out of the endzone making it 26-20.

Following the free kick, the Eagles drove 44 yards on five plays to deadlock the score. On the first play from scrimmage, quarterback Davis Harrell fired a 15-yard pass to James Pope to put Northeast at the Cary 29 yardline. It appeared the possible game-tying drive would end there as the Eagles lost four yards on two consecutive running plays followed by an incomplete pass on third down. However, the Harrell-to-Pope connection worked again on fourth down, this time going for a 33-yard TD. The conversion pass failed, leaving the two teams deadlocked at 26-all with 9:05 left in the game.

Down the stretch, Northeast rode the strength of big defensive plays by Jake Ellis and Will Glover to put the brakes on a pair of Cary drives.

Meanwhile, the Northeast offense couldn’t muster a drive of their own as back-to-back penalties killed one series while a sack ended another.

Cary got the ball back at their own 21 yardline with less than a minute to play. On the second snap, James Montgomery teamed with Samuel Casucci to break the Eagles hearts as they connected on a 79-yard TD pass to win the game with only 22 seconds remaining.

Northeast had to battle back all night.

Trailing 7-0, the Eagles got their first score on a 13-play drive that ended with Harrell’s 33-yard TD pass to Russ Flythe. The conversion failed, leaving the Eagles with a 7-6 deficit with 5:10 left in the first quarter.

The Eagles took their only lead of the game (12-7) thanks to a four-yard TD pass from Harrell to Jud Smith at the 9:28 mark of the second period.

Cary rallied for a pair of second quarter scores – both by Casucci on a 53-yard run and 26-yard pass from Montgomery.

Northeast closed to within 19-18 at halftime thanks to an 11-yard TD run by Harrell with 54 seconds left on the second quarter clock.

Cary stretched its lead to 26-18 at the 5:29 mark of the third quarter where Matt Daum scored on a four-yard run.

The loss, the second straight for the Eagles, drops Northeast to a 3-3 record. Cary meanwhile improved their mark to 3-3.