WILLOW LAKE – Aberdeen Roncalli made the plays it needed to on Friday night.

The Cavaliers held off Clark-Willow Lake 7-2 for a Northeast Conference football win at Willow Lake.

Roncalli coach Billy Young figured the game would be a hard-hitting battle.

“It was a really physical game like we knew it was going to be,” Young said. “We told our guys all week it could likely be a one score game and come down to the last minute or so, and we had to be prepared for that.”

It was a game that had its difficulties for both teams, including the windy conditions.

“We were fighting the wind a lot and that was kind of dictating our play-calling when we were going into the wind,” Young said. “It made it hard to throw, and so we were trying to be really conservative with the wind in our face.”

The first points of the game came in the third quarter as Roncalli scored the lone touchdown of the night on a Kaden Larson 1-yard run. The score capped off an 86-yard drive that included a fourth down conversion. Young said field position was huge during the game.

“A lot of it was just playing the field position game, honestly,” Young said.

Defensively, the Cavaliers kept the Cyclones in check, allowing just 192 total yards.

Young said his team has relied on defense all season.

“I just felt like all night our defense played really well, like they have all year,” Young said. “Nothing special that we did game plan-wise, we just played good sound football, defensively.”

Larson led Roncalli with 41 yards rushing, while Aiden Fisher had 40 rushing yards and 24 passing yards.

Clark-Willow Lake’s Emmerson Larson had 75 yards rushing and 42 yards passing.

The Cyclones finish their season with a 3-5 record.

Roncalli concluded the regular season at 6-2 and will travel to Wagner for an opening round playoff game on Thursday. Young said the team will begin preparing for the matchup today.

“We’ll start game planning for them (Saturday),” Young said. “We’re not changing anything drastic. We’ll play the same style of football we’ve played all year regardless of who we play.”

Aberdeen Roncalli (6-2) 0 0 7 0 – 7

Clark-Willow Lake (3-5) 0 0 0 2 – 2

Third Quarter

AR – Kaden Larson 1 run (Aiden Fisher kick).

Fourth Quarter

CWL – Safety

OFFENSE: Aberdeen Roncalli, rushing 36-82 (Kaden Larson 18-41, Aiden Fisher 17-40), passing 2-6-0 for 24 (Fisher 2-6-0 for 24), receiving (Noah Kramer 1-21, James Behan 1-3), first downs 7; Clark-Willow Lake, rushing 41-150 (Emmerson Larson 14-75), passing 4-14-0 for 42 (Larson 4-14-0 for 42), receiving (Lincoln Reidburn 1-15), first downs 8.

DEFENSE: Aberdeen Roncalli, Josh Schaunaman 10 tackles and 1 sack, Brad Harms 9 tackles; Clark-Willow Lake, Griffin Musser 9 tackles, Reidburn 4 tackles 1 sack.