WILMOT – Aberdeen Roncalli scored on the first play of the game and never looked back on the way to a 70-0 non-conference football victory over Dakota Hills Friday night.

The Cavaliers improved to 4-0 on the season in a game that was stopped at halftime on the 50-point mercy rule.

“We had three goals coming over,” said Roncalli coach Billy Young. “One was to win, obviously, one was to pitch a shutout, and one was to get everybody playing time, and we were able to accomplish that. Our young guys contributed maybe more so offensively than our starters did.”

Abe Kretchman returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown and moments later Zane Backous blocked a Dakota Hills punt just outside of the Grizzlies’ end zone. Keegan Stewart scooped it up and ran three yards for a score. That gave the Cavaliers a 15-0 lead and they hadn’t run a play from scrimmage, yet.

“You can’t ask for better than that,” Young said of his team’s fast start. “I told our kids to keep playing hard and we’ll take care of the rest as far as trying to control the scoring. We basically ran two different type of plays the whole night. We didn’t’ go too far into our playbook. We were basic, pretty vanilla. All we asked was for our kids to play hard and respect the game, and they did that.”

The first time the Cavaliers did run an offensive play, it resulted in a Maddox May 40-yard touchdown run.

Kretchman soon added an 8-yard scoring run before May produced a 25-yard TD run moments later and Roncalli was off to the races with a 35-0 lead less than nine minutes into the contest.

Kretchman added one final TD to start the second period before the reserves took over. Aiden Fisher scored on a 15-yard run and sophomore Kaden Larson scored on back-to-back carries. Backous had Roncalli’s final touchdown.

Larson had two carries and finished with two touchdowns and 77 yards.

“Kaden has good speed. He’s a good running back, he’s just kind of stuck behind two seniors that are also very good,” Young said. “Kaden had some really good blocking in front of him, too, that opened that hole up. Kaden ran well tonight.”

The Cavaliers are ready to return home after three straight games on the road. Roncalli will have back-to-back home games and just one more road trip during the regular season.

“It’s draining playing three games on the road,” Young said.

Roncalli plays host to Mobridge-Pollock at 7 p.m. Friday at Dacotah Bank Stadium. The Tigers, who lost to Redfield 21-20 last night, are 3-1 on the season.

“They can score points. They have a lot of team speed, probably of all the team’s we played so far, the best overall team speed,” Young said. “They blitz a lot on defense, pretty much every play they’re bringing one or two guys from some direction, so we’ll have to be ready for that. They’re a well-coached team. They’re another team that always seems to play us really hard when they come to town.”

Aberdeen Roncalli (4-0) 35 35 – 70

Dakota Hills (0-4) 0 0 – 0

First Quarter

AR – Abe Kretchman 90 kickoff return (Maddox May pass from Jackson Isakson), 11:45.

AR – Keegan Stewart 3 blocked punt return (Isakson kick), 10:09.

AR – May 40 run (Isakson kick), 7:46.

AR – Kretchman 8 run (Isakson kick) 5:38.

AR – May 25 run (Isakson kick), 3:23.

Second Quarter

AR – Kretchman 32 run (Isakson kick), 11:13.

AR – Aiden Fisher 15 run (Isakson kick), 10:50.

AR – Kaden Larson 15 run (Fisher kick), 9:18.

AR – Larson 61 run (Andrew Brennan kick), 6:01.

AR – Zane Backous 19 run (Bryson Lane kick), 2:40.