COLUMBIA, Mo. - Jefferson City knew it had to contain Rock Bridge running back Nate Peat to have a chance Friday night.
The Jays stuffed Peat numerous times, but the shifty back made the Jays pay once with the ball in his hands and twice without the ball, which was enough to give Rock Bridge a 32-21 win.
"We played our tails off tonight," Jefferson City coach Ted LePage said. "I am really proud of our football team. We were right there. Again, we're learning."
Peat only had 32 yards on 13 carries in the first half, but a 73-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter gave the Bruins a 25-21 lead.
On the run, Peat broke a tackle in the backfield, got away from a pack of defenders to the right and broke to the left to find a wide open path to the end zone.
Take away that touchdown, Peat only ends up with 43 yards. Instead, he finished with 116 yards on 22 carries to surpass the 1,000-yard mark for the season with three regular season games remaining.
"Executing our defense," LePage said about stopping Peat. "It was simple, easy, executing our defense. The two times we didn't execute, the quarterback put it in the end zone."
The Bruins burned the Jays on two fake handoffs to Peat.
Quarterback Trevor Twehous put the Bruins up 9-7 in the final minute of the first quarter on a 62-yard sprint to the right side after a fake handoff.
The same play worked in the third quarter, except this time Twehous ran it 70 yards to the left side to make it 18-14 Rock Bridge with 2:28 on the clock.
"We knew that would happen at some point in time," LePage said.
"What we didn't know what would happen is we would have a breakdown on the quarterback. There were two missed assignments, and we keep talking about that one situation where we have one guy make one mistake and it turns into a touchdown."
Just a few mistakes cost the Jays in what was otherwise a dominating defensive performance.
The first score of the game came off a turnover, which was a fumble on a read-option play to begin the game.
Jays defensive end Nik Williams recovered the fumble at the 12-yard line and Jays quarterback Devin Roberson scored from 9 yards out on the second play of the drive.
Rock Bridge punted it three times in the first half, but a field goal and a safety gave the Bruins an 11-7 advantage at halftime.
The Jays moved the ball right away in the second half, driving down the field 77 yards in nine plays for a touchdown.
Roberson hit Michael Ellinger on a slant for a 9-yard touchdown, putting the Jays up 13-11 with 8:39 on the clock.
Ellinger caught three passes for 61 yards on the drive.
Roberson dropped in a deep pass to Ellinger on the first play of the drive following Twehous' 70-yard run.
Ellinger dragged a Rock Bridge defender for extra yards after catching the pass in stride down the sideline, picking up a total of 48 yards.
Roberson would later find tight end Ian Cote for a 16-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-8. The score put the Jays on top, 21-18 with 11:52 left.
But Peat's 73-yard scamper came on the first play of the ensuing drive and the Jays threw two interceptions and punted in the next three drives.
The dagger was an 85-yard touchdown pass from Twehous to Reece Jarvis, who got open on a corner route and ran down the sideline for the final score of the game.
"When we needed the play to make, we missed that one block, we missed that one thing," LePage said, "We're going to be alright. We've got to learn from this."
Jefferson City (2-4) will be on the road for the final time in the regular season next Friday when the Jays play at C.B.C. (5-1), which beat St. Louis University High 55-7 on Friday.