RAPID CITY - This weekend's Rushmore Bowl sees three of the four participants looking for their first win after opening-weekend defeats, but the coaches of the area Class 11AA teams that are set to square off see some real positives to build on.

The Rushmore Bowl will pit Rapid City Stevens against Spearfish at 4 p.m. and Rapid City Central taking on Sturgis at 7 p.m. Both games are being played at O'Harra Stadium on the campus of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

The first game pits Spearfish and Stevens, in a match-up of 0-1 teams that both lost close games to Eastern South Dakota Conference foes last week. The Raiders lost to Watertown, 22-7, on the road, while Spearfish got nipped, 13-12, by Pierre at home. Both head coaches saw some things that they would like to develop as the season moves along.

"It was frustrating getting as close as we did and then letting the opportunity slip away," Spearfish head coach Chuck Syverson said. "To take the lead and lose was tough. The fumbles kind of got to us. I thought we were OK after the first one but we got a little deflated after the second one. Still, I thought there were some good things that we can build on."

Syverson saw the play of his relatively young, inexperienced offensive and defensive lines as a big plus so early in the year. He was also pleased with the defensive effort.

"Both lines played better than I anticipated and holding them to 13 points was a good job," Syverson said. "Pierre's got one of the best quarterbacks and receivers in the state, so I thought we did a pretty good job there."

Stevens, under first-year head coach Paul Ferdninand, was right there with Watertown, but the Raiders just had a few early-season lapses that cost them at critical junctures in the game.

"We're excited about another week," Ferdinand said. "We're looking to keep continuing to try to improve as a team, group of players and students from week to week. Last week was kind of a disappointing loss in that the last couple of years we haven't been that close, so to get that close and come up short was hard. But we were right there, a close play here or there and that game could have gone differently for us."

Both Syverson and Ferdinand pointed to the turnover difference as being key to the outcome of Saturday's game, along with Spearfish running back Jordan Johnson.

"The biggest thing for us is if we can do a good job of running the ball and control the clock," Syverson said. "We need to take care of the football and keep our offense on the field."

Ferdinand couldn't agree more.

"We just need to keep working hard and the ball will start bouncing our way instead of the other way," the Raider coach said. "The key for us is to not turn the ball over and to try to contain Johnson. Obviously he's a big weapon for them, on offense and special teams, so we need to try to contain him and make other people beat us."

The Rapid City Central and Sturgis match-up brings a 1-0 Cobbler squad into O'Harra to face off with an 0-1 Sturgis team that lost to Sioux Falls Washington last week. The Cobblers played a great game defensively, holding Aberdeen Central to 193 yards of total offense in a 21-7 win.

The Scoopers fell behind Washington early in first-year head coach Rod Richardson's debut, en route to a 37-0 loss.