MINDEN, La. — The Porters Chapel Eagles tried running. They tried throwing. They even mixed in a little misdirection.

Nothing worked, and in the end there were no easy answers.

Glenbrook scored the last 23 points of the game as David Thompson ran for 153 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries, and the Apaches ended PCA’s season with a 26-8 win in the second round of the MPSA Class A playoffs on Friday night.

Glenbrook (10-3) outscored PCA 20-0 in the second half, when Thompson had all but 18 of his yards. PCA (9-4) managed just 150 yards of total offense, and ran just two plays — both resulting in interceptions — in the last 13 1/2 minutes. Senior tailback Austin Barber, who had ripped off six straight 100-yard games, had just 56 yards on 18 carries.

Even the trick plays backfired for the Eagles. In the final minute of the first half, they tried a hook-and-lateral play. Matt Cranfield completed the pass to Colby Rushing, who fumbled the ball as he tried to pitch to Barber.

“We tried to do everything. Bottom line, we didn’t block them,” PCA coach Randy Wright said. “They were giving us fits all night and we couldn’t block them. There’s not a whole lot we could do.”

The loss ended a remarkable season for PCA. After losing 20 starters from a team that had reached the Class AA semifinals a year ago, PCA was given little chance of returning to the playoffs. Instead, the Eagles won eight of their last 10 games and reached the postseason for the fourth straight year.

Once there, they beat Heidelberg in a first-round game before falling under the Glenbrook buzzsaw.

“Overall, it’s a great year,” PCA center Joe Borrello said. “Nobody expected us to come this far. They expected us to be a below-average team.”

PCA and Glenbrook were expected to provide plenty of offensive fireworks after combing for 40 touchdowns of 20 yards or more this season. The big plays didn’t materialize, though, until late in the first half. The teams combined for 261 yards in the first two quarters, with just less than half of it coming in the last two minutes.

With 1:36 to play before halftime, Cranfield dropped back and launched a deep pass to Luke Willis. The senior receiver reached over a defensive back to make the catch, then turned and ran the rest of the way for a 57-yard touchdown that put PCA ahead 8-3.

Glenbrook answered right back with a four-play, 64-yard drive that took less than a minute. Quarterback Jake Byrd was 3-for-3 on the drive, including a 35-yard touchdown pass to Will Samuel that put the Apaches back in front. Byrd added the extra point to make it 10-8 and give his team a huge momentum boost heading into the locker room.

“That was big. That motivated us all. We were down and came back,” said Byrd, who ran for 25 yards and completed 7 of 21 passes for 103 yards and the one touchdown. “Our heads were hanging, then all of the sudden we’re ahead going into halftime.”

After the break, Glenbrook seized control.

A fourth down try by PCA just inside Glenbrook territory failed, and Thompson broke off a 43-yard touchdown run three plays later to make it 17-8. Later in the third quarter, he keyed a quick four-play scoring drive with runs of 14 and 21 yards before scoring on a 3-yard scamper to push the lead to 23-8.

PCA ran just two plays the rest of the way as Glenbrook added a field goal midway through the fourth quarter, then drove inside the Eagles’ 10-yard line in the closing seconds. Glenbrook held the ball for all but 16 seconds of the fourth quarter and converted two third downs and a fourth down. Overall, Glenbrook converted 6 of 11 third downs after failing to convert their first three.

“They just took it to us all night,” Wright said. “They were the better team. They’ve got a lot of athletes, were well-prepared, and they just took it to us.”