BROOKINGS – The football rivalry between the Bobcats and Bucks transitioned to Tuesday night’s futbol match at Fishback Soccer Park as the ‘Cats came out on top, 5-4, in a back-and-forth Eastern South Dakota Conference affair.

“It was a big game for our guys because what we’ve preached from the beginning of the season is that all of these ESD games are going to be one-goal games,” said Bobcat head coach Steve Binkley. “It looked like our boys knew that every time that they got scored on, they’d score back – they were really responsive that way. We knew from playing Yankton to a draw last year, this was going to be a close game and a high-scoring game – I don’t think we expected 5-4 – but it showed a lot of resiliency from our guys, especially in the second half, to know that they were down, but not out.

“I think a lot of it was the senior leadership; playing together as a group; and the mindset that we want to win the ESD – and we are one step closer to the conference championship, and they all have that in the back of their minds.”

Yankton got on the scoreboard first with 23:26 left in the half when Luke Schulz chipped the ball from just outside the penalty box over the hands of Bobcat keeper Jake Weber, who came out to challenge.

But Brookings answered on its next possession as Jonah Dobbs beat Buck keeper Grayson Lange off an assist from Keegan Fields with 22:50 on the clock.

The Bucks retook the lead when William Pavlish’s shot was misdirected for a Bobcat own goal with 5:46 left in the half.

Ninety seconds later, Fields buried a penalty kick to level the match at 2-2, but Yankton took a one-goal lead into the intermission after Pavlish headed in a corner from Christian Budig with 1:06 remaining.

Junior Zokou evened the match at 3-3 just 13 seconds into the second half with an unassisted goal, and then, the ‘Cats took their first lead of the match with 17:10 to play on Vini Fornari’s goal with the assist going to Zokou.

But the Bucks didn’t fold as Shulz netted his second goal of the match off an assist from Nick Gregoire just inside of 8 minutes.

Not to be outdone, Zokou bookended the second-half scoring as Daniyil Potapenko picked up the assist with 7:14 left, as the ‘Cats improved to 6-4-1 overall and 6-0-1 in the ESD and Yankton dropped to 4-5-2 and 3-3-1.

Brookings plays host to  Pierre on Thursday at 6 p.m. in their Homecoming game at Fishback. The Governors are 2-8-1 overall and 1-5-1 in conference play.

Troy Maroney/Register

Senior defender David Park clears the ball past the Bucks’ Nathan Zimmerman (left) and Isaac Klimisch during the second half of the Bobcats’ 5-4 Eastern South Dakota Conference win over Yankton on Tuesday at Fishback Soccer Park