The first seven minutes could not have been much better for the Jefferson City Jays.
But Rock Bridge gradually battled back from a 14-0 deficit and then put the hammer down in the second half to defeat the Jays 42-21 on Friday night at Adkins Stadium.
"I feel like our kids are improving in several areas, but part of developing into a good team is understanding how to play in different situations," Jays coach Terry Walker said. "Understanding how to play with a lead, understand what you can and can't do with the football when you have a lead. We also wasted an opportunity at the end of the first half to put more points on the board. One of those things is OK, but you can't do five, six, seven or eight of them, you can't, it's unrecoverable."
Jefferson City forced Rock Bridge to punt on the opening drive of the game after defensive end Devin Roberson brought down Stanford commit Nathaniel Peat for a 1-yard loss on third down.
The Jays quickly scored after that as Maleek Jackson ran through a hole up the middle for a 53-yard gain on second-and-20 and Roberson scored on a quarterback sneak. Ben Folz added the first of three PATs for a 7-0 lead with 7:24 left in the opening quarter.
Khalil Foster then made the play to force another Rock Bridge punt, delivering a blow to Wyatt Towe that knocked the ball out of the receiver's hands on third-and-2.
The Jays then went 43 yards in eight plays, including a 22-yard burst by Jackson to get to the 1-yard line for the second straight drive. Roberson once again finished it off with a 1-yard sneak for a 14-0 lead with 4:49 left in the first quarter.
"I thought Maleek ran really hard during parts of the game, I really did," Walker said.
Jefferson City's next score didn't come until about four minutes into the second half when Roberson faked a handoff and scored from 25 yards out to put the Jays up 21-14.
That drive was set up by a Jordan Bruner fumble recovery.
But it was all Rock Bridge after that, beginning with a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown by Martez Manuel to tie the game at 21 with 7:47 left in the third quarter.
"I don't ever pin it down on one play, but it looked to me like just from the body language of our kids they didn't respond real well after the kickoff return and that can't happen," Walker said. "There was still way too much game left to play. We've got to do a better job as coaches teaching them how to respond in that situation, but the players have to take some ownership too. At some point in time, playing for the name on the front has got to mean something."
Just a couple minutes later, Manuel, who's committed to play at Missouri, intercepted a pass off a deflection and returned it 79 yards down the home sideline for a 28-21 lead.
Rock Bridge went up 35-21 with 10:05 left in the game on Peat's 7-yard touchdown run.
Late in the game, Peat ran up the middle, broke a tackle and sprinted to the left side of the field for an 81-yard score with 2:30 left. Peat gained 206 yards on 25 carries, but 131 of those yards came on the three touchdown runs.
"He was really patient and did a nice job running," Walker said of Peat. "The kid's going to make some plays. The one that I'm really disgusted with was the play at the end of the game. He hadn't dominated the game but then we let him break an 80-yarder, which is going to make his numbers look great. In reality, I thought we played him a little bit better than that."
Peat scored Rock Bridge's first touchdown when he ran to the outside side and cut back inside for a 43-yard dash to the end zone late in the first quarter.
Rock Bridge tied the game at 14 with 4:25 left in the first half on an end around to Towe.
After taking a 21-14 lead, the Jays punted on five of their last six drives with the other ending on the pick-six.
"We didn't execute," Walker said. "I didn't think our offense played with much passion. I didn't think they played with much of a sense of urgency, and that's unacceptable. This is Jefferson City football. The kids need to understand they've got to play four quarters and sometimes more maybe."
Jefferson City (3-3) will host De Smet (4-2) at 7 p.m. Friday for Homecoming and Senior Night.
Rock Bridge (4-2) will play Sedalia Smith-Cotton on Friday.