It was déjà vu all over again for the Wolfpack.

Much like the previous game against Eagan, the Park Wolfpack built a big lead, and then watched it all slip away.

Unlike the Eagan game, however, this time the Wolfpack came out on the short end of the scoreboard.

Park led 25-12 at the half and then 32-12 early in the third quarter, but visiting Eastview roared back to score 24 unanswered points and claim a dramatic 36-32 victory Thursday.

Eastview took the lead with 56 seconds left in the fourth quarter on a 13-yard run by running back Tyler Jerstad.

Park rallied to get within striking distance and got the ball down deep into Eastview territory when the game ended on a controversial call. Park completed a pass play down to about the 20-yard line with perhaps a second left on the clock, but the officials ruled time had expired. The refs ran out of Wolfpack Stadium as a loud chorus of boos rang down.

Neither Park coaches nor players pointed fingers at the officials for the home loss however.

“A second left there? I don’t really think that that matters,” said junior lineman Rory Lane. “We should have given more in that second half. We shouldn’t have even had to rely that second.

“They played harder than us,” Lane added. “We didn’t give our all in that second half. We didn’t go 100 percent like we should have. We left the foot off the pedal.”

Park head coach Rick Fryklund noted the game was a mirror image of the Eagan game, with the exception of the Wolfpack coming out on top in that one.

“Our team motto is edge, which is energy, discipline, grit and execution,” said Fryklund. “We have good effort and we are gritty. But we are not disciplined, particularly on the defensive side. And we need to execute better. And maybe with this loss we will look in the mirror a little bit more and believe those little things are big things so we can fix them and hopefully put ourselves in a position in the following weeks to have more success and close out a game.”

Frylund declined to answer if he thought there was a final second left on the clock at the end.

“The game didn’t come down to that anyway,” Fryklund added.

The two teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter, but neither team could manage an extra point and the score was tied at 12-all after one period.

Park controlled the second quarter, scoring two long touchdowns on senior Blake Johnson’s 68-yard run, followed by a 59-yard pass and catch from quarterback Evan Bearth to Johnson.

Park then scored again midway through the third quarter on Brady Perryman’s 5-yard touchdown run with made it a 32-12 game.

But there was no quit in the Eastview Lightning, who dominated play the rest of the way. Eatsview scored twice in the final three minutes of the third period to close to 32-21.

The Lightning pulled even closer with a touchdown at the 8:49 mark of the fourth quarter and trailed just 3229. That set up the game’s dramatic last minute.

As in the Eagan game, Park’s passing game clicked, but the running yards were hard to come by. Park’s Bearth completed 22 of 32 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns.

But while Park passed for 245 yards, the Wolfpack gained just 85 yards on the ground.

Eastview was the offensive opposite, rushing for 357 yards and passing for just 30.

Park running back Johnson had a fine night offensively, rushing 13 times for 102 yards and a touchdown and catches five passes for 90 yards and another score.

Perryman of the Wolfpack had 10 catches for 52 yards and rushed twice for eight yards, including a 5-yard touchdown run that put Park up by 32-12 in the third quarter.

From that point on, it was all Eastview.

“We really, really have to be disciplined,” said sophomore defensive lineman David Laturnus. “We have the grit. We work hard, but when we’re on defense we’re just not disciplined enough. And we really need to fix that.”

“They just executed better than we did,” Fryklund said of Eastview in the second half. “Just like last week to be totally honest. It kind of flip-flopped totally in the second half. All credit to them, they just out executed us. They weren’t doing anything schematically that couldn’t be figured out, they just were better and more physical and out executed us.”

Park’s Jalataa Shenkor and Dom Atkins both had touchdown receptions in the first quarter.

Defensive back Brandan Lee led the Park defense with seven tackles, five assists and an interception. Linebacker Logan Lucas had three tackles, seven assists and two tackles for losses.

Park (1-1 in the division, 1-2 overall, plays at Hopkins Friday, with a 6 p.m. start. Hopkins is winless at 0-2 and 0-3 on the season with losses to Prior Lake (49-0), Burnsville (14-7) and East Ridge (34-0).

Park defenders Brandan Lee (7) and Jacob Nickle (8) tackle Eastview back Tyler Jerstad.Photo by John Molene