EAST WENATCHEE — It might not have been pretty, but there is no win more satisfying for Eastmont head coach Mike Don, who won his fourth-straight Battle of the Bridges Friday night at Eastmont Stadium. The Wildcats (1-1) gave up a touchdown on the opening drive but the defense was able to hem-in Panthers’ quarterback JJ Jelsing in the second half and grind out a 10-7 win thanks to a 36-yard field goal from senior Oscar Mago. As expected though, it came down to the wire. “I don’t know what it is about these games,” Don said after the win. “It’s unbelievable how they always come down to the final few minutes. There is just no other way to do it I guess.” Jelsing had the Panthers' offense rolling on the first drive. He knifed through the Wildcats' front seven on the first few plays and racked up over 40 yards on the ground before capping the drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass to tight end Camden Loidhamer — his first of the season. But that was about it offensively in the first half. The Panthers had opportunities, they just missed them. On the Panthers' second offensive drive, Jelsing had senior receiver Obadiah Young wide open on a seam pass down the middle but the ball glanced off Young’s fingertips and fell incomplete. The Panthers drove down into the red zone but stalled out and turned the ball over on downs following a sack by junior Logan Schneider. Wenatchee got deep into Eastmont territory twice more in the half but turned the ball over both times; once on a pick Jelsing threw into the endzone to Wildcats’ Chance Garcia and another on a botched zone-read exchange between Jelsing and wideout Johnny Amezcua. Both turnovers killed what had been momentum-building drives for the Panthers, who took a 7-0 lead into the break. Eastmont received the second-half kickoff and imposed its will offensively. The Wildcats, who had struggled to get anything going in the first half, ran nearly 10 minutes off the clock as they pounded the rock with Austin Ruffins, Corbin Keys and quarterback/fullback Ivan Corona. On a fourth-and-2, Keys punched in a TD to even the score at 7-7. After holding the Panthers on their ensuing drive the Wildcats caught a massive break. Garcia muffed a punt at his own 35 and Wenatchee recovered. But amidst all the excitement, a flag was thrown on the Panthers for an illegal block-in-the-back and they were forced to re-kick. With a chance to win, Eastmont drove down the field and took the lead off a 36-yard field goal from Mago, who made both his attempts after having to move back 5-yards following an illegal procedure penalty. Jelsing attempted to get Wenatchee in field goal range for a potential game-tying kick, but the Eastmont defense bowed up and forced Wenatchee to turn the ball over on downs. Jelsing ran for 202 rushing yards but most of that came in the first half. Eastmont’s defense seemed to snuff out the zone-read as the game wore on. “That’s what we wanted to see,” Don said. “I thought we didn’t play with great heart in the first half but we were able to hit them in the mouth in the second half. I think JJ is a phenomenal player and does a lot of special things with the ball in his hands, but he doesn’t leave the field. In the fourth quarter, our guys have played 50-60 snaps and he’s at 100-120.” Ultimately, it was a much better showing for Eastmont, who lost 50-10 last week in Royal. There were still some mistakes, but Don will take the win. “We’re still getting better,” he said. “We see a lot of mistakes that we haven’t seen out of ourselves in years but we have a lot of guys that are still getting back to things and we’re super young. We only play six seniors total and have 16 underclassmen starting, we’ll continue to get better and we’re excited.” Eastmont travels to Moses Lake next Friday to take on the Chiefs. Wenatchee hosts Royal. Kickoff in both games is at 7 p.m.