It was a full defensive effort for Aberdeen Roncalli on Thursday night.

The Cavaliers forced six turnovers on their way to a 21-6 win over Webster in a Northeast Conference football game at Dacotah Bank Stadium.

Roncalli coach Billy Young was proud of his team’s defensive effort.

“Coach (Dan) Gallagher does such a great job with our defense. He has them ready to play every week,” Young said. “There’s not a week that we step on the field where I don’t feel like our defense is prepared. Tonight was no different. We were where we were supposed to be at. We had a couple of letdowns, but that’s just football. When we needed to make a play, we made a play.”

The Cavalier defense made several plays, recovering three Webster fumbles, as well as intercepting three Webster passes throughout the night.

Roncalli linebacker Josh Schaunaman recovered a fumble, which almost resulted in a score, and added a late sack to help seal the win.

“He fumbled it, Landon (Zikmund) tackled him, I picked up the ball and ran it. I almost got it in there, but I just wasn’t quite able to,” Schaunaman said of the fumble recovery.

Both defenses dug in early, forcing a scoreless first quarter, and nearly a scoreless first half.

However, Roncalli opened up the scoring with 40 seconds left in the half with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Aiden Fisher to Noah Kramer to give the Cavaliers a 7-0 lead. Fisher was moved to quarterback after last week’s injury to Zane Backous, while Kramer was chosen to fill Fisher’s spot at wingback.

“I just had a little sucker route where I was running at the corner like I was going to block him and then I turned in deep and Aiden Fisher just tossed it up to me,” Kramer said of the touchdown reception.

Coach Young was pleased with how well his team adjusted to the position changes throughout the week.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder of a team than I am tonight because they faced some real challenges. Losing our quarterback last week, finding out Tuesday that he’s out for the season, having to get another guy ready to play quarterback, and then having to replace that guy’s position, and doing it on three days of rest, it’s not easy,” Young said. “Our guys gritted their teeth and found a way to get it done, and I’m just really, really proud of them.”

Webster came back to score its lone touchdown with just two seconds left before halftime on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Ian Lesnar to Brent Bearman. However, the extra point was blocked and Roncalli held on to a 7-6 halftime lead.

The defenses continued to cause any offensive success to stall out for much of the second half. The lone outlier came with just over two minutes left in the third quarter when Fisher again found Kramer for a score, this time from 22-yards out, extending the Cavalier lead to 13-6 after a missed extra point.

The clincher came less than a minute later, as Roncalli’s Keegan Stewart stepped in front of an errant Bearcat pass and, after intercepting it, took it to the house, sealing a Roncalli win.

Stewart said the defense knew what Webster’s gameplan would be in the second half.

“We knew they were going to come out in the second half throwing the ball, and I saw the ball go up and I knew I could make a play on it,” Stewart said. “When I caught it, I only saw two Webster players on my sideline, so I made one cut and then I had some great blocks to lead me to the end zone.”

Webster coach Tyler Wagner said the turnovers made it difficult for his team to gain any momentum throughout the game.

“We didn’t take care of the ball; little mistakes, mental mistakes,” Wagner said. “Turning the ball over is just a drive killer, it’s a momentum killer every single time. We made way, way too many of those mistakes to give ourselves a chance to win tonight.”

The Bearcats were led by Lesnar, who passed for 139 yards and one touchdown. Bearman led the team with 44 rushing yards, while adding 61 receiving yards and a touchdown. Webster finished its regular season at 4-4 and still has a possibility of making the postseason.

Wagner said his team will look to prepare for a shot in the playoffs during its bye week next week.

“The positive thing for us is we’re going into a bye week. That’s a positive and a negative. We’re waiting in limbo now, waiting to see how things shake out,” Wagner said. “But the good thing about that is we have this week to get healthy, get our guys that are banged up feeling good again, and work on us. Hopefully we do find ourselves in the playoffs playing again in two weeks and we’ve got those things ironed out and cleaned up.”

For Roncalli, now 5-2 on the season, Fisher passed for 126 yards and two touchdowns, along with 58 rushing yards. Kramer led the Cavaliers with 59 receiving yards and two touchdown receptions, while Brody Weinmeister, who left the game with an injury, added 84 rushing yards.

Defensively, Schaunaman, Joey Johnson, and Brad Harms had fumble recoveries for the Cavaliers, while Fisher, Weinmeister, and Stewart had interceptions.

The Cavaliers will travel to Clark-Willow Lake for their regular-season finale next Friday, and Young said the team will look to make some more adjustments and prepare for the Cyclones.

“Now we’re going to have to find some more depth at tailback because we lost one,” Young said. “I think it’s just getting more repetitions. We didn’t have a ton of time to practice, so hopefully with the added day, having tomorrow off, and then having a full normal practice week next week, we can kind of get into a rhythm.”

Webster (4-4) 0 6 0 0 – 6

Aberdeen Roncalli (5-2) 0 7 14 0 – 21

First Quarter

No scoring

Second Quarter

AR – Noah Kramer 17 pass from Aiden Fisher (kick good), :40

W – Brent Bearman 6 pass from Ian Lesnar, :02

Third Quarter

AR – Kramer 22 pass from Fisher, 2:08

AR – Keegan Stewart pass interception return (Fisher pass to James Behan), 1:18

Fourth Quarter

No scoring

OFFENSE: Webster, rushing 20-50 (Brent Bearman 7-44, Carson Mount 6-24); passing, 15-31-3 for 139 (Ian Lesnar 15-31-3 for 139), receiving (Bearman 6-61, Jacob Keller 3-51, Jack Shoemaker 2-27, Carson Mount 2-14); Aberdeen Roncalli, rushing 49-159 (Brody Weinmeister 21-84, Aiden Fisher 19-58), passing 9-18-2 for 126 (Fisher 9-18-2 for 126); receiving (Noah Kramer 4-59, Jett Johnson 2-39, James Behan 3-28).

DEFENSE: Webster, Martin Dorsett interception, Gavin Witt interception; Aberdeen Roncalli, Josh Schaunaman fumble recovery, sack, Joey Johnson fumble recovery, Brad Harms, fumble recovery, Fisher interception, Weinmeister interception, Keegan Stewart interception.