The Jefferson High School sideline begins to celebrate, as Tay'Shaun Roper heads upfield on a catch and run for the first touchdown of the season on Friday night. The Cougars won the game, 21-19. David Pennock

SHENANDOAH JUNCTION — When you have the faster players in the game, your chances of winning are significantly increased.

With Tay’Shaun Roper and Keyshawn Robinson, Jefferson High School could claim the fastest players in its season-opening football game against invading Spring Mills High School.

Roper scored on two lengthy plays where he was too fast for any Cardinal pursuit, and Robinson scored once on a pass from Dylan Harich as the Cougars kept their slender lead, despite a last-ditch recovery of an on-side kick by the scrambling Cardinals.

The 21-19 win sent the Cougars off to Stephens City (Virginia) last night to see usually forceful Sherando in a seldom-seen Thursday night game. The Warriors had lost their opener, 28-21, to Brentsville (Va.), when their end-of-game comeback fell fruitless.

Roper had turned a short-range completion into a score by out-running his chasers. Robinson scored on another pass completion from Harich with his sprinter’s speed. Roper’s second touchdown came on a return where he reversed his field and then couldn’t be caught as he fled to another score.

Junior linebacker Nycere Jacobs makes a sure tackle on Spring Mills High School's quarterback, Max Anderson, on Friday night. David Pennock

Spring Mills showed its own offensive difference-makers, especially quarterback Max Anderson.

Anderson threw a scoring pass to Keyon Mills and scored on a short run as time fled off the fourth-quarter clock. Alex Eaton gave the Cardinals a short running TD during their spirited comeback push. Anderson’s running TD brought on the Cardinals’ successful on-side kick recovered by their Brad Butts and gave them the game’s last possession. But time was a mortal enemy of any possible game-saving heroics. And the Cardinals could not score again, seeing their hopes for a memorable comeback die on Jefferson’s 19-yard line.

Long-range scores and owning the fastest of the game’s players in Robinson and Roper were Jefferson’s trump cards.

Trying to overcome a late-game, two touchdown deficit was just a little too much to manage for the Cardinals, who were playing their first game under interim coach Marcus Law.

Last night against Sherando — also in the hands of a first-year head coach — the Cougars faced a team steeped in tradition and one that has beaten them some five times in the last six years.

Jackson Rockwell brings down Spring Mills High School's Alex Eaton, as Nolan Meehleib comes in to assist last Friday night. David Pennock

Roper and Robinson might just have also been the fastest two players in that road game.

High school teams often show their most improvement of the season between the first and second games. Jefferson will have wanted its late-game showing to be improved from its season-opening performance against Spring Mills.

Dylan Harich makes a quarterback run against Spring Mills High School's football team on Friday night. David Pennock