MILBANK – Aberdeen Roncalli’s football season came to a quiet end Friday night in a 38-0 setback to Milbank.
Braylen Bowsher accounted for nearly 300 yards of offense and three touchdowns for the Bulldogs. The quarterback passed for 190 yards and one TD, and also ran for 100 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers could not sustain much offense throughout the contest.
“We just hurt ourselves. We were our worst enemy tonight,” said Roncalli coach Billy Young. “I thought for the most part our defense played well. We put ourselves in a bad spot with a turnover on special teams and a turnover on offense.”
Milbank led just 8-0 after the opening quarter, but pushed the lead to 24-0 at halftime, scoring 10 points in the final three minutes of the second quarter.
The hosts then scored single touchdowns in each of the third and fourth quarters for the final margin of difference.
Once again, Roncalli was forced to use a lineup that featured many players in new positions because of injuries to normal starters.
“It’s been one of those years, we’ve had so many injuries,” Young said. “We’ve had to move guys around and nobody’s been able to get any consistency, because every week they’re having to play a new position, and that’s just difficult.”
Roncalli, which has a bye on its schedule for next week, ended its varsity season with a 1-7 record, following the setback to Milbank.
“It’s disappointing. It’s definitely not the way we wanted our season to go, but when you have to play this many young kids, some of them aren’t quite ready to be out there yet, then that tends to happen,” Young said. “If there’s a silver lining to it these guys got some valuable experience moving forward. Even some of our freshmen stepped up and played well. It’s only going to help them down the road. It doesn’t make you feel better tonight, it doesn’t make you feel better for the seniors.”
Roncalli will lose a group of seniors that has been instrumental in the team’s recent accomplishments during its years with the program.
“I said don’t let this game be what you remember,” Young said. “You were part of a conference championship team in 2022 and two nice playoff teams the last two years, and some of those guys played valuable roles on that.”
