It was a tale of two different halves for Kingwood Christian Friday night against Hooper Academy. After holding Hooper to six points in the first half, Hooper exploded for 22 points in a four-minute span of the third quarter to pull away for a 34-7 win.

Both teams struggled in the wet conditions early and couldn’t get anything going. Kingwood got a little hope going near the end of the second quarter with an Austin Boothe blocked punt and an interception by Colt Jones, but neither possession led to a score.

Hooper was able to push across the first score of the game with 58 seconds remaining in the half on a 6-yard touchdown run by Morgan Falkner, but Kingwood was able to block the extra point and trailed 6-0 going into the half.

Kingwood executed a perfect onside kick to start the second half as Tyrone Pope recovered his own kick, but the drive was halted three plays later with an interception.

Hooper was able to expand their six-point lead with touchdown runs of 14, 19 and 50 yards by running back Morgan Falkner to expand their lead to 28-0 to end the third quarter.

Kingwood head coach Vince Elliot was concerned about depth as the game wore on.

“Lack of depth hurt us,” Elliott said. “We are only one deep in most places and when we get a player hurt or out of the game, we have to move people around.”

Kingwood was able to mount a drive near the end of the game to put points on the board. Senior quarterback Daniel Reeves connected with Tyrone Pope on a 7-yard touchdown pass. Derrick Lykins added the point-after attempt to close out the scoring on the night.

Pope led Kingwood on the ground with 16 carries for 63 yards. He also added four receptions for 35 yards and a touchdown. Seth Trimble and Patrick Steele led the defense with seven and six tackles, respectively.

Kingwood is back in action next week as they host Morgan Academy of Selma.

The Lions fell to 0-2 in Elliott’s first season with the loss Friday.