Aberdeen Roncalli found itself in an unusual spot, but responded in its usual way Saturday afternoon.

The fifth-rated Green and Gold Cavaliers, who trailed for the first time this season, made one big defensive play after another. Roncalli collected four turnovers, played on a short field, and defeated St. Thomas More 21-6 in non-conference football action at Dacotah Bank Stadium.

“Our defense just played outstanding,” said Roncalli coach Billy Young. “I can’t remember the last time we gave up double digits (points) in a game, and we kept that streak going today. As long as you do that, you’re going to win the majority of your football games and we really stepped up defensively, today.”

Roncalli looked like it was going to score first in the contest, but could not take advantage of a pair of opportunities. Two trips inside the STM red zone resulted in a missed field goal and an interception in the end zone.

It was the STM Cavaliers who struck first when Tyson Durham got behind the Roncalli defense for a 72-yard touchdown pass from JonPaul Sullivan. It was about the only mistake the defense made all day and left the local squad staring at its first deficit of the season.

“We just had a miscommunication on coverage there. That’s the first time we’ve trailed all season. I wanted to see how we responded,” Young said. “We responded as well as we could have. I told them flush it and let’s move on to the next play and they did that.”

Roncalli rose to the challenge in the final three minutes of the first half. Zane Backous recovered a muffed punt at the STM 8-yard-line and caught a touchdown pass from Jackson Isakson two plays later.

On STM’s next possession, Isakson picked off a pass at the STM 35 and returned it to the 19 to set up Roncalli’s next score when he went in on a quarterback sneak with 15 seconds left in the half.

“The D-line and the linebackers were stopping the run all night, so we knew they were going to have to take a shot,” Isakson said of that interception. “We were just in the right coverage. It was a good play call. I just made a play on the ball and took it back as far as I could.”

Roncalli took advantage of another short field early in the second half after a 19-yard STM punt. Isakson found Keegan Stewart for a 4-yard TD pass with 9:35 left in the third quarter and that was more than enough offense considering how well the Roncalli defense was performing.

Isakson added another interception later in the game as Roncalli stifled a potent STM offense throughout the contest, shutting down the run and keeping receivers in check.

Roncalli senior Phillip Zens talked about the defensive strategy against those receivers.

“Just staying over the top, can’t let them beat our coverage, get behind us. That’s when you get beat,” Zens said. “If you can break down on the ball you actually have a chance. If they get behind you it’s tough to play. So that’s what we kind of tried to do. We got beat on that one, but otherwise we played pretty well.”

STM has a variety of playmakers on offense, but the Roncalli defense was up to the challenge, holding its West River opponent to just 19 yards of rushing.

“They run those jet sweeps. You never know, they might pass out of it, keep it, you never know,” Zens said. “You always have to be ready for anything with those guys. They’re a really good team.”

Meanwhile, Isakson had a big day running the ball. In addition to passing for 86 yards, the senior also rushed for 90 yards.

“To me, it looked like their game plan was to stop our running backs,” Young said, “and when they do that, we have to go to our wing and our quarterback to make plays.”

Isakson does not have a problem with running the ball and gave credit to his offensive linemen for opening up big holes to run through.

“It’s definitely fun to run behind the five up front,” Isakson said.

With the victory, the Roncalli improved to 6-0 on the season and picked up valuable seed points for the upcoming playoffs. While the local squad currently owns the most seeds points in Class 11B, there is still work to be done, according to Isakson.

“That will give us a lot of seed points. That will come in handy down the playoff stretch, especially if we can hopefully get that one seed,” Isakson said. “We’ve got business to take care of, two games left in the regular season.”

One of those two games takes place at Webster on Friday. The Bearcats are coming off a win over Groton and pushed Roncalli to the limit last season.

“Our guys have to remember that was a one-touchdown game last year,” Young said. “That could have gone either way in the fourth quarter. They’re going to be a good football team.”

St. Thomas More (4-2) 0 6 0 0 – 6

Aberdeen Roncalli (6-0) 0 14 7 0 – 21

Second Quarter

STM – Tyson Durham 72 pass from JonPaul Sullivan (PAT failed), 10:03

AR – Zane Backous 8 pass from Jackson Isakson (Kretchman run), 2:23.

AR – Isakson 1 run (PAT failed), :15.

Third Quarter

AR – Keegan Stewart 4 pass from Isakson (Isakson kick), 9:35.

OFFENSE: St. Thomas More rushing 14-19 (Matthew Larson 7-26), passing 14-27-2 for 152 (Sullivison 14-27-2 for 152, receiving (Durham 2-76, Peyton Young 6-63, Easton Ogle 5-18), first downs 7; Aberdeen Roncalli rushing 32-145 (Isakson 11-90, Maddox May 16-38, Abe Kretchman 6-14, Aiden Fisher 1-14), passing 11-19-1 for 86 (Isakson 11-19-1 for 86), receiving (Stewart 3-36, May 2-15, Abe Holscher 1-15, Zane Backous 2-14), first downs 18.

DEFENSE: St. Thomas More, Aidan Mason 10 tackles, Layton Spratte 9 tackles, Young 8 tackles and 1 interception, Chase Donelly 8 tackles, Larson 8 tackles; Aberdeen Roncalli, Kaden Clark 4 tackles and 1 sack, Backous 4 tackles and 1 fumble recovery, Josh Schaunaman 3 tackles, May 3 tackles, Isakson 2 tackles and 1 interception, Andrew Brennan 1 tackle and 1 interception.