Call it a cruel twist of fate, the untimely injury to Jacob Peterson of the Plains Horsemen.

One of the senior leaders for the Horsemen, and their defensive anchor at his linebacker position, Peterson was benched for the rest of the season last week when an ACL knee injury was diagnosed.

Unfortunately, Peterson's absence from the Plains lineup really hurt coach Eddie Fultz and his Horsemen, and ultimately led to a 44-40 loss to Mission in Plains in Western C 8-Man football action Friday.

"We were up 40-26 in the fourth quarter," Fultz said. "Not having Jacob in there on defense really hurt us as he was arguably our best player on that side. Mission attacked the spot he played and that proved to be just too big of a hole to fill."

Fultz added that two turnovers and a blocked punt in the fourth quarter also added to the Horsemen's demise against Mission. The loss to the Bulldogs effectively ends any chance of the Horsemen now advancing to the 8-Man playoffs.

"We really feel like we could have won this game," he added, "but we have to move on. We'll be focusing on the rest of our games now, hoping to finish strong and leave a legacy for next year's team to build on."

Now 1-5 in Western C action and overall, the Horsemen travel to Victor to play the 0-6 Pirates in the Bitterroot Valley Saturday afternoon. Victor lost to Seeley-Swan 26-6 in Seeley Lake last week. The Horsemen's only win of the campaign was a 36-6 win over the Blackhawks in Seeley Lake back on Aug. 31.

Fultz said he has adjusted his defense – moving Malachi Paulsen into Peterson's linebacker spot – and that he might have a few tricks up his sleeve on offense for the Victor game.

"We might try some trickeration, I have a list of plays I have been looking at using," he said. "There are a few on that list that we will probably try."

Paulsen and Treydon Brouillette were the Horsemen's offensive leaders against Mission. Paulsen rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries while Brouillette threw for three touchdowns and ran for another score.

Defensively, Matt McCracken had a team-high 11 tackles for Plains and pulled down an interception, and Paulsen, Rusty Stuart, Esvin Reyes and Tucker Foster had 10 tackles each.