W.T. White of Dallas blocked an extra point and intercepted a pass at its 10-yard line to hold off the Greenville Lion 38-37 in a football opener on Friday night at T.A. “Cotton” Ford Stadium.

 Though the Lions piled up 518 yards of total offense, including 348 yards rushing and 170 passing. They gave up 402 total yards and lost three turnovers.

 “The kids had too many turnovers, in the kicking game and offensively,” said Lions coach Darren Duke. “I thought we’d be better than them in those areas and we didn’t do it tonight.”

 Trailing 38-31 with less than two minutes remaining, the Lions struck quickly on a 60-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Stephens to Shawn Brown. But the Longhorns blocked Josh Allen’s extra point kick after they appeared to jump offsides. There was no call.

 “It looked like they were offsides to us,” said Duke. “I don’t know why it wasn’t called. That was disappointing because we had battled back. We stopped them. The defense got the ball back and gave us an opportunity.”

 The Lions started a drive at their 6-yard line with 1:11 remaining. They were hoping to get into field goal range for Allen, who had 45-yard field goal earlier in the game.

 Quarterback Brandon Stephens, who was 7-of-21 passing for 170 yards, passed for completions of 8 and 9 yards to receivers Caleb Johnson and Miles Denson and ran for gains of 14 and 12 yards to reach midfield.

 But Brinden Hatten stopped the Lions with an interception at the Longhorn 10 with less than 30 seconds remaining. The Longhorns took a knee twice and the game was over.

 The teams traded the lead back and forth.

 Stephens rushed for a game-high 169 yards on 19 carries, scoring on runs of 45, 3 and 9 yards.

 Lester Turner ran for another 135 yards on 16 carries for the Lions, setting up one score with a 61-yard burst.

 Johnson scored a Lion touchdown on a 55-yard catch and run along the right sidelines after catching a strike from Stephens.

 W.T. White quarterback Jason Salinas, just a sophomore, went 18-of-25 passing for 244 yards, including scoring throws of 51 yards and 8 yards to Hatten.

 Elijah Edwards, who led the Longhorns with 92 yards on 25 carries, scored on runs of 1 and 5 yards and Chris Davis ran a yard for another Longhorn touchdown.

 Duke said he knew coming in that the Longhorns were a much improved team from 2018, when the Lions beat them 51-13 in the season opener.

 “They made plays,” he said. “I thought they did a good job.

 “I thought we would make a few more plays defensively,” he said.
