RAPID CITY – In a battle of Cavaliers, Roncalli came out on the short end on Saturday.
Aberdeen Roncalli fell to St. Thomas More 35-6 in a non-conference football game, which featured two schools that bear the Cavalier nickname.
However, in this game, it was the hosts from St. Thomas More that took control of the game early and never looked back, while Roncalli struggled to gain a solid footing.
“We just never could get anything going offensively, had some tough breaks on special teams, and then defensively just never really got any momentum going,” Roncalli coach Billy Young said.
St. Thomas More opened up the scoring with a six-yard touchdown pass from Lee Neugebauer to Ryan Neugebauer, before Lee Neugebauer added a one-yard run to give the hometown Cavaliers a 13-0 lead after one quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Roncalli suffered a major blow offensively as quarterback Zane Backous left the game with an injury and would not return. Aiden Fisher was forced to move from his wide receiver position to fill in at quarterback.
“Well, you never want to lose your starting quarterback. That’s the hardest position to replace, because if anybody could play that position it wouldn’t be such a special position,” Young said. “I did think Aiden Fisher came in and did a great job with very limited practice there.”
However, Roncalli’s offense was never able to build any momentum, while St. Thomas More tacked on two more touchdowns in the third quarter, including a 98-yard pass from Lee Neugebauer to Ryan Neugebauer on a fake punt, which all but sealed the win.
St. Thomas More added a 38-yard Trevor Erlandson field goal in the fourth quarter, before Roncalli scored a 60-yard touchdown on a pass from Fisher to James Behan.
Roncalli finished with 62 rushing yards as a team, with Brody Weinmeister leading the way with 44 yards. Fisher passed for 142 yards and also added an interception on defense.
St. Thomas More’s Lee Neugebauer finished with 260 total yards, including 243 passing yards and three touchdowns. He also added a touchdown run. Ryan Neugebauer had 117 yards receiving and a pair of touchdown receptions. Josh Elder added a touchdown run.
Roncalli, now 4-2 on the season, will return home for a short turnaround as they host Webster on Thursday.
Young said the team must work to make corrections during the short week of preparation.
“We just have to go back and figure out where we had breakdowns at and try to fix that,” Young said. “There’s not a lot of time to be changing stuff with a three-day week, so we’ve just got to figure out what we did well and what we didn’t do well, and work on some stuff and just play our game.”
Aberdeen Roncalli (4-2) 0 0 0 6 – 6
St. Thomas More (3-3) 13 7 12 3 – 35
First Quarter
STM – Ryan Neugebauer 6 pass from Lee Neugebauer, 7:19
STM – Lee Neugebauer 1 run (Trevor Erlandson kick), 1:21
Second Quarter
STM – Grayden Juve 10 pass from Lee Neugebauer (Erlandson kick), 9:52
Third Quarter
STM – Josh Elder 2 run, 6:32
STM – Ryan Neugebauer 98 pass from Lee Neugebauer, 1:06
Fourth Quarter
STM – Erlandson 38-yard field goal, 8:43
AR – James Behan 60 pass from Aiden Fisher, 6:27
OFFENSE: Aberdeen Roncalli, rushing 30-62 (Brody Weinmeister 7-44, Zane Backous 3-16, Kaden Larson 7-13); passing 5-14-1 for 159 (Aiden Fisher 3-10-0 for 142); receiving (Luke Kaiser 1-66, James Behan 1-60, Weinmeister 1-16, Noah Kramer 1-12); St. Thomas More, rushing 31-55 (Lee Neugebauer 6-17, Josh Elder 7-14); passing 14-23-1 for 238 (Lee Neugebauer 13-22-1 for 243); receiving (Ryan Neugebauer 3-117, Max Speed 1-46, Aaron Roach 3-27, Reeve Ross 3- 25, Grayden Juve 4-23).
DEFENSE: Aberdeen Roncalli, Aiden Fisher interception; St. Thomas More, Peyton Young interception, Declan Mickley sack, Marcus Stouffer fumble recovery.
