The first game under the lights for Mount Paran Christian could not have finished any better.

The Eagles rallied from an 11-point, second-half deficit to beat Pace Academy, 40-37, in overtime Friday.

In a back-and-forth battle from the first whistle, Mount Paran withstood a last-second 35-yard field goal by Pace's Arthur Omilian which sent the game into the extra session.

With the clock winding down and Pace out of timeouts, the junior kicker from Pace drilled his second field goal of 30 yards or more and all of the life was sucked out from the standing-room only crowd.

"You know they just executed and Matt Hall did a great job of driving them down the field," Eagles' head coach Mitch Jordan said. "They converted four fourth downs and put the ball in, but our kids felt like we could get it in the end zone in overtime."

The Eagles were led by a great rushing attack that featured a bruising mix of junior David Ian (16 carries for 125 yards and one touchdown) and senior Nolan Moran, who rushed for 129 yards on just 11 carries, scoring one touchdown.

Mount Paran took the lead at halftime 19-17, but the lead would not last long as Pace would storm out of the second half behind and 2-yard run by senior Will Cox and a 70-yard catch and run by junior Billy Tutt.

Cox finished the game with an impressive 174 yards on 23 carries and two touchdowns.

One of the heroes of the game on Mt. Paran's end would have to be backup quarterback/utility player Landon Bentley.

Bentley entered the game in a key stretch when the Eagles' starting quarterback, Zack Greenwood, had to leave due to injury.

He drove the Eagles to 1-yard line and punched in the first score of the fourth quarter cutting the Pace lead from 31-19 to 31-26.

For Bentley, coming in off of the bench in a key moment was what he was ready to do, even if he was a little nervous.

"I usually second-string quarterback, so it was kind of unexpected, but once I saw Greenwood go down I was like, 'Oh, not good," he said. "I was a little nervous at first but our team came through."

Our guys pulled it together when our starter went down. It was a total team effort."

During the drive that would end with Bentley's one yard plunge, a 40-yard touchdown run was negated by a referee's inadvertent whistle. With the crowd in shock over the call, it would have been easy for the Mount Paran players to feel likewise, but that was not the case.