With Jefferson City being down 21-0 early in the second quarter Friday night against St. Louis University High, the Jays needed to play close to perfect the rest of the way to earn a third straight win.
But their push for scoring opportunities were all for not too many times in a 35-14 loss, the second straight win for coach Mike Jones and the Junior Bills at Adkins Stadium.
"We never give up on a game," Jefferson City coach Terry Walker said.
Down 28-14 with less than 8 minutes remaining, the Jays needed a way to stop the Junior Bills' offense that ended up averaging better than 8.5 yards per play.
They did just that, holding Kellen Porter, who ran it 20 times for 177 yards, to three carries for eight yards for a three-and-out.
The chance at a comeback was short-lived as the punt return was muffed and recovered by SLUH at the Jays 38.
"It was nice to see our defense get a stop, but we've got to execute there," Walker said. "We've got to do a better job. From the head coach on down, we've got to be better."
Porter then powered his way to a 12-yard gain on first down and added a 5-yard run.
Sidq Cherry followed by plowing through several Jays on a 16-yard run and finishing off the game's scoring by stretching for the goal line for a 5-yard touchdown.
Thomas Ziegler knocked through his fifth extra point for a 35-14 lead with 3:54 remaining.
Forcing that three-and-out wasn't the only chance for Jefferson City to put pressure on SLUH.
After Porter ran through a hole untouched until safety Devin White hit him at the goal line on a 7-yard touchdown run for a 21-0 lead at the 9:21 mark of the second quarter, the Jays marched down inside the red zone in 12 plays.
The 12th play was an 18-yard completion to Nick Williams on a second-and-26.
An incompletion and a missed 36-yard field-goal attempt kept the Jays off the scoreboard.
Jefferson City responded by snatching the ball back on the second play of the ensuing drive as safety David Bethune picked off Brendan Hannah to give the Jays the ball at their own 25-yard line.
The Jays then worked quickly with Orentheus Pitts running 22 yards in the first three plays, Williams catching a 17-yard pass from Cole Gresham and Darrell Jones hauling in a 26-yard touchdown pass at the front pylon with a defender smothering him.
Ben Folz booted his first of two extra points to make it 21-7 with 37.4 seconds on the clock. That score held at halftime.
SLUH (2-2) got moving again on its first drive of the second half and Porter punched it in from 9 yards out for his fourth touchdown of the game and a 28-7 lead at the 7:45 mark of the third quarter.
Jefferson City (2-2) then made it to the SLUH 5-yard line in 16 plays. The 17th play of the drive was a run for Bethune, who got stuffed for a loss to turn it over on downs.
"It just goes back to execution," Walker said.
Jones bailed out the Jays with an interception on a deep pass intended for Isaac Thompson and had a 26-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 28-14 with 7:58 left in the game.
Jones' touchdowns were his only catches of the game.
"There's some great individual performances that are occurring on some plays, but individual performances never win a game," Walker said. "Team players and teams win football games. And typically, if you have individuals that are playing, you're losing football games, and that's what happened tonight."
That was the conclusion of the comeback attempt as the muffed punt followed by a four-and-out on the Jays' next drive ended their chance at winning a third straight game.
Jefferson City had no answer to Porter and Hannah early.
Porter began the scoring with a 39-yard touchdown at the 10:08 mark of the first quarter, two plays after Thompson got behind the defense for a 29-yard diving grab.
SLUH outside linebackers Luke Schuermann and Dashiell Wuller each had a sack on Jefferson City's first drive to force a punt.
Porter made it 14-0 with a 3-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive.
SLUH's defense came with more pressure on the Jays' next drive.
Schuermann and Danny O'Keefe brought down Gresham on back-to-back plays before Anthony Bohannon and Wuller teamed up for a sack to force a three-and out.
"They were more physical at the point of attack both on offense and defense," Walker said. " The bottom line is they just whipped us."
The Junior Bills' passing attack complimented the run well as Hannah completed 8-of-11 passes for 129 yards with two interceptions.
Gresham had an up-and-down game by completing 11-of-22 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns.
White caught six of those for 37 yards, while Williams had three catches for 48 yards.
Bethune led the Jays on the ground with 74 yards on 15 attempts.
Jefferson City will host Chaminade at 7 p.m. Friday for Homecoming.
The Red Devils (3-1) defeated Vianney 44-0 in their Week 4 game.