NATRONA HEIGHTS — All things being equal, the Mars football team was better than Highlands Friday night.

But all things weren't equal.

Mistakes in the form of two costly muffed punts doomed the Planets in a 14-11 road defeat.

“We cost ourself the game,” Mars coach Scott Heinauer said. “There's no question about that.”

The two punt return miscues set Highlands up deep in Mars territory, leading to both Golden Ram touchdowns.

“We cannot muff punts and give them opportunities deep in our territory,” Heinauer said. “They made no mistakes, we made mistakes and those mistakes cost us.”

Mars (4-2, 2-2) got on the board first with a Ryan Gralish 20-yard field goal with 56 seconds left in the first half.

The defenses on both sides came out fighting. Highlands was held to 55 rushing yards and Mars to a mere 65 in the first half.

“We got some young linebackers in there who just fly to the football,” said Highlands coach Sam Albert.

The Rams (5-1, 2-1) were able to make the most of their two great opportunities deep in Mars territory.

Highlands quarterback Gage Clark scored on a 6-yard run shortly after the first muffed punt by Mars in the third quarter.

Clark also ran for a 1-yard touchdown after another muff on a Highlands punt with 11:56 left in the game.

Mars, though, still made it interesting in the fourth quarter when Jacob Wright caught a touchdown pass from Owen Nearhoof and Jason Lozzi converted on a two-point run with 8:43 left to cut the gap to three points.

Nearhoof had a solid day passing, finishing 7-of-13 for 109 yards and a touchdown.

Lozzi also had a strong game on the ground for the Planets, gaining 125 yards on 21 attempts.

Mars had one last chance after stopping the Rams on fourth down with less than a minute to go.

The Planets were unable to connect on a few deep passes to try to reach field goal range for Gralish.

The game ended as Nearhoof fumbled the ball, and the final seconds ticked away.

“They (Mars) got a lot of team speed,” Albert said. “It's always a battle, week in and week out, in this conference. There is no let up.”

Mars held Highlands' leading rusher, Jarrail Carver, to just 49 yards on 19 carries.

But Clark was able to find running room, gaining 90 yards on 17 attempts.

“They did a real nice job taking the big dog (Carver) away,” Albert said. “Gage stepped up and got us first downs when we needed him.”

With the win, Highlands moved a half-game ahead of Mars in the Greater Allegheny Conference standings.