A pair of cleats and gloves sat on the 42-yard line on a cold Friday night at an emptying Mules Stadium.
Poplar Bluff senior RaShawn McCain left them there following a 56-49 triple-overtime loss to Jackson in the MSHSAA Class 5 District 1 semifinal.
Poplar Bluff's first loss in football wasn't even close to the biggest one the school has suffered this fall.
RaShawn McCain and Myanza McCain led the Mules onto the field prior to kickoff, 13 days after the death of their sister and two more classmates in a car accident.
"I was trying to do my best for her," said RaShawn McCain of his sister Camille McCain who died with fellow junior Linda Schulz and freshman Cody Logan.
A night after the accident on Highway W on Oct. 14, which also injured freshman Martez Janis, students came together at Mules Stadium to morn.
"It was a rough week," Mules coach Mark Barousse said.
For three hours Friday, players and students were back enjoying their time of blissful youth.
"It doesn't go away," Barousse said. "At least (during) practice and games you forget about that stuff. Guess that's one good thing about football.
"Your girlfriend don't like you, you get to go out and play football. Go have fun. It's one of those great releases. You step between the lines and you get to play."
Football, as in life, is unfair and unforgiving.
A half-inch here or a half-second there might have been the difference between winning and losing Friday night. There were 183 plays and each were an opportunity to change the outcome for either team.
Barousse said the loss by no means takes away what the Mules, which featured 21 seniors, did this season.
"Everybody but one team losses," he said. "It's just never, sometimes you never prepare for, you never expect, all of a sudden it happens. It's over."
For the Indians, the win was "sweet, sweet revenge" -- as quoted in the Southeast Missourian -- for a game and SEMO North Conference title they felt slipped away a month early on the same field.
For the Mules, they showed the determination and will that led to the program's third unbeaten, untied regular season.
"It wasn't easy, you've got to give them credit," Barousse said. "Never did they come off the field and I see it in their eyes that we're beat. Never. Ever.
"That was a good thing. Hell, until that fourth down we're still there."
The Mules trailed in four of their first nine games for a total of nearly 103 minutes, or 24 percent of the season.
They overcame a 15-point, second-quarter deficit at Cape Central to win 29-28 then rallied to beat Jackson 29-28 the following week after trailing by 12 in the fourth quarter before pulling ahead with 3:14 left. Poplar Bluff trailed Hillsboro twice -- by 14 in the second quarter and by six in the third -- after losing starting quarterback Logan Bell to a knee injury. The Mules pulled ahead with 7:36 to go for a 21-20 win.
Making his first start at quarterback, Mason Libla was nearly perfect in a 34-10 win over Festus when the senior threw for 201 yards.
Libla had never played quarterback before this summer.
"Nerves got to me," he said Friday night. "It was just an overwhelming experience. I've never played quarterback in my life until this year. Just tried to come out here and do my best. That's all I could do."
His 249 passing yards were the third most this season behind Bell's 316-yard performance in the first meeting with Jackson and 258 yards in the comeback against Cape Central.
"We always had to make it close and make it a good game," Libla said, calling it a hilly journey.
"Through every valley there's always a hilltop," he added. "We're on top, we finished 9-0. You can't ask anything more of your defense, your offense, your coaching staff.
"We all had to put in and do a great job. I think we showed Jackson that we're not pushovers."
There were plenty of hilltops to remember.
Isaiah Johnson's 255 rushing yards and four touchdowns Friday were the most by a Mules running back since Bi Nguyen's record-breaking night in 2013. It was the second-most in a loss since 1993. The junior fell 27 yards shy of becoming Poplar Bluff's 21st 1,000-yard rusher.
Victor Rivera, in his first season as kicker, tied the program's single-game record for point-after touchdown kicks with seven and broke the single-season mark set by Trell Edington in 2003. Rivera converted 38 of 44 point-after kicks and was good on his first three field goals.
Tyson Cox entered the season already holding team records for receiving yards in a game, season and career. After missing the second half in the first meeting against Jackson with an injury the senior scored a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter Friday among his five catches for 95 yards. He ended with 2,616 career receiving yards with 31 touchdown catches and never lost a fumble while scoring 220 points.
Myanza McCain ended his career ranked sixth all-time in career receiving yards with 1,384. He led the Mules with eight catches for 136 yards Friday with a game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter.
RaShawn McCain had a career-high 17 tackles Friday and forced a fumble. He and fellow senior linebacker Makarius Bell each had 111 tackles this season.
Poplar Bluff's offensive line didn't get called for a holding penalty all season on 561 offensive snaps and allowed 11 sacks.
Remember the punt block by Tanner Dunivan with the Mules trailing Cape Central in the fourth quarter.
And the image of Brett Barousse running down the sideline in front of a stunned Jackson team as the senior returned an interception 82 yards for the go-ahead score to rally the Mules in the first meeting. It sealed a win for his father and coach to rank second all-time in coaching wins at Poplar Bluff.
The Mules entered the state rankings for the first time since 2003 and reached No. 6 before ending the regular season seventh in Class 5. They were one of 21 unbeaten teams left in the state.
It took three overtimes and 56 points to end Poplar Bluff's amazing run.
"Eventually I guess this had to happen," center Boone VanDover said. "At state or next round or what, that's just life and something we're going to have to get over."