Victory seemed inevitable for Porters Chapel.

The Eagles’ vaunted defense, the one that hadn’t allowed a touchdown coming into this game with Lee (Ark.) Academy was on the field. Lee had a mile to go for a touchdown, and only a half-mile for a first down. All that was left was to run a few plays and start the celebration.

The plays did come. So did the celebration.

But when Landon Bullard crossed the goal line with 27 seconds left, it left the PCA sideline in frozen silence and the distant echo of jubilation from Lee’s sideline the only sound in the chilly night.

Bullard’s 3-yard touchdown run gave Lee a 20-13 victory in the Academy-A North State championship game Friday night and ended PCA’s season with a heartbreaking loss.

&#8220The pain can’t be explained,” said PCA’s Kenny Simms, a senior defensive end and running back. &#8220It’s a failure at something you’ve dreamed of. Only dreamed.”

PCA (11-1) was ranked No. 4 in the state coming into the game, had the first perfect regular season in school history, advanced to the state semifinals for the first time and came within one defensive stop of moving on to the state championship game. Most of that was lost, though, in the pain of this defeat.

&#8220This is a devastating loss for our team and for our program. We’re going to bounce back. We’ve got a lot of kids coming back next year. But it’s going to take us a long time to get over this one,” PCA coach Randy Wright said. &#8220This is very hard to take because we just didn’t make the plays to get it done tonight.”

Bullard’s touchdown capped a wild final six minutes that featured two scoring drives in a game otherwise dominated by defense.

With just under six minutes to play and Lee (12-1) leading 12-7, PCA’s defense came up with a big fourth-down stop at its own 40-yard line. That play provided a spark the Eagles had been lacking to that point, and they took immediate advantage.

On the next play, Hayden Hales connected with Cole Smith for a 27-yard gain to the Lee 33. Chris Mixon followed with two runs to the 1-yard line, then finished the brief drive with a short touchdown to put the Eagles ahead 13-12. A personal foul after the play pushed the extra point attempt back 15 yards and the kick bounced off the crossbar.

Lee got the ball back at its own 45 with 4:45 to go and slowly creeped toward the goal line. Nearly three minutes later, they had converted two fourth downs and advanced only to the PCA 29 when disaster struck.

Lee running back Matthew Gerrard was hit for a 3-yard loss, and a holding penalty pushed the Cougars back another 10 yards. While the officials were sorting out the penalty, they flagged Lee for a personal foul. When the dust cleared, the Cougars were left facing a first-and-33 from their own 42 with just under two minutes to play.

The same yellow flag that had pushed Lee back proved to be its salvation, though.

On second down, Bullard threw a jump ball toward the middle of the field that was hauled in by Jason Carter. PCA was called for pass interference on the play, giving Lee a first down instead of a third-and-13 at the PCA 43.

&#8220We were really kind of halfway lucky there, but we had some things go wrong so I guess it was time for the ball to bounce our way a little bit,” Lee coach John Holcombe said.

Three plays later, Lee’s Taylor Clark made a diving catch at the 4-yard line, and Bullard scored two plays after that. He then added the two-point conversion run to make it 20-13.

&#8220We were still sitting very good. The long pass just deflated us,” PCA defensive lineman Blake Purvis said. &#8220Everybody still put it all on the line. We just couldn’t stop them.”

The Eagles still had one last gasp, but came up short. After Kenny Simms returned the kickoff to the PCA 46, Hales was intercepted by Carter with 5 seconds to play.

When Carter came down with the pass, PCA’s bench went deathly silent. One player threw his helmet against the gym wall, while many more simply fell to the ground in frustration.

&#8220Our defense played an outstanding football game tonight. We hardly gave them anything,” Wright said. &#8220Our kids played their hearts out tonight and gave everything they had. The bottom line is (Lee) made the plays and we didn’t.”

Mixon led PCA with 131 yards rushing and two touchdowns, including a 59-yarder on the first play of the game. Matthew Gerrard ran for 95 yards and a touchdown to lead Lee.