JOPLIN - The Jefferson City Jays couldn't stop receiver Zach Westmoreland or running back Isaiah Davis.
They also couldn't stop fumbling the football.
Three first-half fumbles plus a turnover on downs and a pick-six added up to a 68-16 defeat against the Joplin Eagles in the first round of play in Class 6 District 3 on Friday night.
"It looked like their game plan was to throw on first down early, and then hand it off to No. 20 (Davis) on the later downs," Jefferson City coach Terry Walker said. "But we turned the ball over so many times and gave up so many big plays, there is no defense for that."
The top-seeded Eagles never trailed the eighth-seeded Jays, but an early big play for Jefferson City gave the game the look of a possible shootout.
Darrell Jones got open downfield, caught a pass from Cole Gresham and scored a 73-yard touchdown with 4:33 left in the first quarter.
Ben Folz added the extra point to cut Joplin's advantage to 13-10.
Things started to unwind after that.
Westmoreland found space in the middle of the field and caught a 55-yard touchdown pass from Blake Tash on the sixth play of the ensuing drive for a 19-10 lead.
Then the sequence for the next 8 minutes went Jefferson City fumble, 9-yard touchdown catch for Westmoreland, Jefferson City fumble on the kick return, 28-yard touchdown run for Davis, Jefferson City fumble at the Joplin 5-yard line, 95-yard touchdown reception for Westmoreland down the home sideline.
It was 41-10 Joplin with 8:40 remaining in the second quarter.
Westmoreland gashed the Jays for 265 yards receiving on eight catches, four for scores.
"Obviously he was better than our guys," Walker said, "because we had our best cover guy on him, Devin White, and Devin's covered a lot of really good receivers this year.
"And Devin misjudged a couple and got beat off the line of scrimmage on a couple of them, didn't use his feet real well. And then when we had to take Devin out for a play, they were smart and they went right back to their guy for the 95-yard touchdown. So those are all things as players and as coaches you've got to recognize and you've got to anticipate so you can defend better."
Westmoreland also burned the Jays on special teams, returning a punt to the Jefferson City 6 to set up Davis for a 1-yard dive into the end zone for a 48-10 lead.
Davis carried the ball six times for 149 yards and four touchdowns.
Jefferson City moved the ball on its next drive, as Gresham completed passed of 11 and 19 yards to White and added a 17-yard run.
But a screen pass that lost 4 yards, an incompletion, a 2-yard run and a sack for Will Boman gave Joplin the ball back on downs.
The Eagles (10-0) were in the end zone again in one play.
Davis burst through a hole, broke a tackle and ran it 64 yards for a score to make it 55-10 with 3:12 left in the second quarter.
Elijah Eminger added a 35-yard pick-six at the 1:45 mark to make the halftime advantage 61-10.
Jefferson City forced a three-and-out against Joplin's second-string offense on the Eagles' first drive of the second half, but a Jays player touched the bouncing punt and Dominick Simmons recovered it at the 18-yard line.
Joplin's final touchdown came two plays later on a 13-yard run for Mataou James.
Garrett Landis added his sixth extra point for a 68-10 lead with 4:15 left in the third quarter.
Gresham scored on a quarterback sneak from a yard out with 8:53 remaining in the game for the final points of the night.
The Jays' first points came at the 5:51 mark of the first quarter when Folz booted a 40-yard field goal to cut Joplin's lead to 6-3.
White broke Jefferson City's single-single receptions record on a 35-yard grab in the first quarter.
He finished with six receptions for 134 yards to end the season with 53 catches to surpass Adam Huff's mark of 47 in 2016.
Friday marked the Jays' first loss to the Eagles, who lost the previous five matchups against the Jays with the last coming in 1991.
Jefferson City ends the season at 2-8, the first time the Jays finished with two victories since 2002.
Joplin, the third-ranked team in Class 6 in the latest Missouri Media Rankings, will host No. 4 seed Kirkwood next Friday in the district semifinals.
Kirkwood (7-3) defeated No. 5 seed Northwest: Cedar Hill 54-7 to advance.