SIOUX FALLS — The Brookings Bobcats suffered their first loss of the season, falling to the Sioux Falls Roosevelt Roughriders 26-21 at Howard Wood Field on Friday night.

But even in defeat, the Bobcats had a positive mindset over a game that came down to their final possession and left them with a 4-1 record on the season.

“Our theme of the year is grit and I feel like they had a ton of it tonight,” Brookings coach Brady Clark said. “Honestly, I’m just really proud of how the boys played a [Class 11AAA] team. We had injuries throughout the night. We believed the whole time. We never thought the game was over until the very end and I’m just really proud of them.”

The Bobcats began the game on a tough note as the Roughriders scored a touchdown on their opening drive and starting quarterback Gavin Anderson was knocked out of the game with an injury.

Already down starting running back Will Conrad in the backfield, Jones Huntimer took over at quarterback and found Jay Harris for a nine-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the second quarter to put Brookings in front 7-6.

The Bobcats had momentum on their side when Charlie Bisgard intercepted Roosevelt quarterback Riley Casey but Capital Schmaus scooped a fumble on the next play and scored to put the Roughriders back on top with 5:07 left in the second quarter.

After a two-point conversion failed, Brookings answered with a one-yard touchdown run to Bergen Tetzlaff with eight seconds left in the first half to take a 14-12 lead into halftime. But Huntimer was intercepted on the first play of the second half, setting up a three-yard keeper into the end zone by Casey to give Roosevelt a 19-14 lead.

The Roughriders scored again late in the third quarter on a long drive that ended with a 13-yard touchdown run by Kalaho Lyongola that gave Roosevelt a 26-14 lead but the Bobcats kept Roosevelt off the scoreboard for the rest of the game.

With the game on the line, Huntimer found Tetzlaff for a 15-yard touchdown pass on a 4th-and-10 with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter. Brookings had a chance to win the game after forcing a three-and-out and getting the ball back with 2:34 to play but after getting to midfield on a long pass from Huntimer to Dagi Thomas, the Bobcats stalled out and Roosevelt picked up a sack on fourth down to seal the game.

Despite the result, Clark was impressed with Huntimer’s performance in relief.

“I thought Jones came in and stepped up really well,” Clark said. “We needed a spark and we needed to get some passing going. They were loading the box on us and I felt Jones came in and did a really nice job running the offense tonight.”

While the Bobcats didn’t improve to 5-0, Clark felt like there was enough to build on heading into next week’s homecoming matchup against Tea at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.

“We just want to touch on all of the positives because there were a lot of them tonight,” Clark said. “We just need to keep him on the positive side going into next week and we’ll have a lot of fun on Friday.”