Just a few minutes into the second half Friday night, the Jefferson City Jays were where they wanted to be. They had the lead, Rock Bridge had already punted six times and Stanford commit Nate Peat only had one run of more than 15 yards.
Oh, how quickly things can change.
In about a two-and-a-half minute span, the Jays' seven-point lead shifted to a seven-point deficit after Missouri commit Martez Manuel returned a kickoff 100 yards and followed that up with a 79-yard pick-six off a deflected pass.
Jefferson City never threatened to score the rest of the way as Peat added a pair of touchdowns in a 42-21 victory for the Bruins at Adkins Stadium.
"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," Jefferson City coach Terry Walker said after the Jays lost their second straight game to drop to 3-3. "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."
Jefferson City's final score of the game was set up by a Jordan Bruner fumble recovery at the Rock Bridge 48-yard line.
Devin Roberson connected with Levi Jobe in stride for a 21-yard completion on first down, Jake Duke saved the Jays from turning it over by recovering a fumble on the next play and Roberson ran it 25 yards to the end zone after a fake handoff. Ben Folz's third PAT of the game made it 21-14 Jays with 8:02 left in the third quarter.
"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," 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."
Walker was referring to the Jays starting the final drive of the first half at midfield with about 25 seconds remaining.
Christian White gained 16 yards on a reverse before Roberson spike the ball, but Keaton Lockett chased down Roberson for a sack to end the half tied at 14.
The Jays did reach Rock Bridge territory four times in the second half, but only scored once.
When it was 21-14, the Jays had a 147-123 advantage in rushing yards. The Bruins outgained the Jays 107-46 in the final 20 minutes of the game.
"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."
Forty-two of those yards were on a Jackson run that placed the Jays at the Bruin 31-yard line with the game tied at 21.
Then the Jays went backwards. Rock Bridge cornerback Spencer Nivens tracked down a scrambling Roberson for an 8-yard loss and a 3-yard loss followed.
Then Roberson went deep to Jobe, but it went off Ja'vell Sanders' hands and into the grasp of Manuel for the pick-six.
After the fifth of nine punts for the Jays, Rock Bridge went 59 yards in 16 plays to take more than 5 minutes off the clock.
Grant Hajicek kept the drive going with a 10-yard completion to Marcus Manuel on fourth-and-4 and Peat ended up capping the drive by squirting through the line of scrimmage for a 7-yard touchdown to extend Rock Bridge's lead to 35-21 with 10:05 remaining.
Peat put the finishing touches on the game with 2:30 left by running through a hole up the middle, breaking a tackle and sprinting away from the Jays for an 81-yard touchdown. Peat finished with 206 yards and three touchdowns on 25 attempts for Rock Bridge (4-2).
"He was really patient and did a nice job running," Walker said. "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 a 80-yarder, which is going to make his numbers look great. In reality, I thought we played him a little bit better than that."
Maleek Jackson surpassed 100 rushing yards for the fourth straight game for the Jays, gaining 163 yards on 20 carries.
A 53-yard run set up Roberson for a 1-yard quarterback sneak for a 7-0 lead at the 7:24 mark of the first quarter.
Jackson escaped the Bruin defensive front for a 22-yard run on the Jays' next drive and Roberson added a second 1-yard sneak to go up 14-0 with 4:49 left in the first quarter.
"I thought Maleek ran really hard during parts of the game, I really did," Walker said.
After the teams traded punts, Hajicek found Marcus Manuel for a 41-yard gain on the first play of the drive. Hajicek completed 15-of-29 passes for 150 yards.
Two plays later, Peat ran to the outside and cut back inside for a 43-yard touchdown to cut the deficit in half in the final minute of the first quarter.
Rock Bridge tied the game on a 2-yard end-around to Wyatt Towe with 4:25 left in the first half.
Jefferson City will play its final home game of the regular season Friday when it hosts De Smet for Homecoming and Senior Night. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Adkins Stadium.