Allowing big momentum-grabbing plays led to losses the last two weeks for the Jefferson City Jays.
On Friday night, they were the ones who made that type of play when Devin Roberson went up the middle for an 80-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
However, Jefferson City only reached De Smet territory twice the rest of the game in a 42-7 loss at Adkins Stadium.
"Roby is a great kid he gives great effort," Jefferson City coach Terry Walker said. "He leads by example really, really, really well, as do all the captains. It's unfortunate that their Homecoming and Senior Night didn't turn out better."
That 80-yard score was the first time the Jays had Roberson line up at fullback in I-formation with Cole Gresham taking the snap. Roberson just went up the middle, broke a tackle and was off to the races. Walker said it might have caught De Smet off guard.
"I think so and again we executed well on that play, but then after you do it two or three times they make adjustments," Walker said. "Now we've got to be able to adjust in order to continue to execute. There's only so much scheming you can do. At some point in time you've just got to line up and play."
That score cut the Spartans' lead to 14-7 with 2:58 left in the first quarter. The Jays went back to that formation off and on throughout the night, but they couldn't get consistent results.
Jefferson City made it to its own 47-yard line on its next drive by running it with Maleek Jackson and Roberson out of the I-formation only to have De Smet defensive lineman Carter Edwards track down Jackson for a 5-yard loss on third down to force a punt.
Darez Snider returned the punt 37 yards to the Jays' 42-yard line and the four-play drive was capped off by a 27-yard touchdown pass from Nate Martens to Jordan Johnson with 7:54 left in the first half.
Another long punt return by Snider placed the Spartans 38 yards from the end zone on their next drive, despite a holding penalty.
Martens connected with Grant Stegman for a 21-yard gain on third-and-10 and Snider eventually scored a 1-yard touchdown for a 27-7 lead.
Seth Harris picked off Roberson on the ensuing drive and Snider added another touchdown, this time a 13-yard scamper to lead 34-7 at halftime.
De Smet gained 125 yards on 25 rushing attempts in the first half and Martens completed 8-of-11 passes for 142 yards to that point.
"Their offensive line and defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage, and in a football game that goes 99 percent of the way towards determining the outcome," Walker said. They had some really good looking linemen on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball that just controlled the pace. We had a couple series where I thought our kids did OK. Sometimes we have them bottled up and we missed some tackles. We'll keep working."
Jefferson City ran for 160 yards on just 15 rushes in the first 24 minutes, but 132 of those came on two plays.
On the final drive of the second half, Jackson bounced to the left side of the field for a 52-yard run to get the Jays to the De Smet 28-yard line. The next play went for three yards and three incompletions followed to turn the ball over on downs.
The final touchdown of the game came midway through the third quarter when Ra'shod Smith-Harvey ran across the field and got open for a 46-yard touchdown reception.
Martens finished with a pair of touchdown tosses while Snider ran for three scores, including a 2-yard run midway through the first quarter.
Taj Butts scored the game's second touchdown on a 5-yard run with 3:13 left in the first quarter.
Jefferson City (3-4) will finish the regular season on the road. The Jays face Battle next Friday and play at Rockhurst in Week 9.
"We do have some kids in the locker room that are battling, which is good," Walker said. "We've just got to keep working."