Blacksburg’s Larevis Dawkins looks for running room against Jonesville at Friday’s jamboree. The Blacksburg Wildcats couldn’t come up with enough big plays to beat archrival Jonesville at Friday’s American Community Bank Kickoff Classic.

But Blacksburg coach Robbie Blanton said after his team’s 19-14 loss that it’s not time to panic.

“I think this was a positive for the team,” he said. “They competed all the way to the end.”

In fact, the Wildcats were driving for a potential game-winning score after recovering an onside kick but couldn’t convert a fourth-and-10 at the Jonesville 36 in the game’s final minute.

“Our kids were really excited about playing in this,” Blanton said.

It showed with some jittery play on the part of both teams early on. Jonesville seemed poised to score on its opening drive but Blacksburg’s Manny Ford intercepted Jon Napper’s pass near the goal line.

Blacksburg then turned the ball over when Marcus Glenn picked off Cameron Byars. Just five plays later, Chris Glenn scored from the 5 to make it 6-0 with 5:11 left in the first quarter.

Chris Glenn scored from 58 yards on Jonesville’s next possession to make it 13-0.

The Wildcats got back into the game on the first play of the second quarter when Chase Martin caught a TD pass from Byars.

After Cameron Duffie recovered a fumble, Blacksburg had a promising drive before it stalled at the Jonesville 34.

Jonesville turned the ball over again but it didn’t prove costly before Brandon Eison stepped in front of newly-inserted Dustin Byars’ pass and returned it 80 yards for a touchdown.

Byars rebounded quickly from the interception to engineer a scoring drive. He connected with Tim Boyd for a 42-yard gain to the Jonesville 1. After an offsides penalty pushed the ball to the six, he hit Gary Gaut for a touchdown to slice the deficit to 19-14 with 3:08 left to play.

Blanton said he was happy with Dustin Byars’ performance.

“He made some good runs,” he said. “For him to look strong is a positive for us.”

The Wildcats will now prepare for their season opener against the Chesnee Eagles on Friday.