GROTON – The Groton-Aberdeen Roncalli rivalry added another memorable chapter to its collection Friday night.

Groton edged the Cavaliers 29-23 in double overtime for a Northeast Conference football victory in a true thriller of a game.

The Tigers’ win came on the heels of a 43-7 setback last week to Clark-Willow Lake.

“I thought our kids played well. After last week, we took a beating, and I was a little worried how this group was going to respond,” said Groton coach Shaun Wanner. “As a coach you got to get them back and ready to go because you only get a few days to prepare. I thought we were well prepared.”

The game was all fireworks, starting off with a 58-yard touchdown pass from Korbin Kucker to Keegen Tracy, his first of 3 on the night.

“It felt amazing, I get the first score. Tell them that we’re here, we mean business and we’re ready to play,” said Tracy. “It got everyone else going, and then on from there we just kept going.”

However, the Cavaliers responded quickly with a touchdown of their own.

“We told them ‘One play is not going to end this game’,” said Cavalier coach Billy Young. “I knew we would score.”

Roncalli answered back when Aiden Fisher found James Behan for 58 yards, followed by a 7-yard Zane Backous touchdown run. The ability to bounce back is something that Backous said the Cavaliers take pride in.

“One thing our guys do great, our senior class, everybody, we respond well to adversity. That’s one of the things we pride ourselves on,” said Backous. “If things don’t go right for us, we keep our heads up, keep tugging along.”

With 9:07 left in the second quarter, the Cavaliers punched the ball in with a 1-yard Brody Weinmeister touchdown. Kucker then found Tracy once again, this time on an 8-yard touchdown pass to tie the game up with 4:37 remaining in the first half.

The score stayed at 14-14 until the last three minutes of the fourth quarter before Groton’s Joao Nunes hit a 20-yard field goal as the Tigers regained the lead. The Cavaliers only obtained one first down on the next drive before failing to complete a 4th and 10, giving the ball back to Groton with 1:41 remaining on the clock and two timeouts.

Groton’s Christian Ehresmann was pushed out of bounds by Backous stopping the clock on first down. The Cavaliers were able to call back-to-back timeouts on the next two plays, and following a 30-yard punt from Ryder Johnson, it forced the Cavaliers to drive 90 yards in 1:12 with no timeouts.

Fisher found Behan for another 50-yard plus gain on second down, and a late hit penalty put the Cavaliers on the 19-yard line with under 45 seconds to go. Backous gained a first down for the Cavaliers getting them to the 3-yard line and following a spike from Fisher, the Cavaliers had 2nd and goal from the 3.

Following an incomplete pass on second down, and a fumble out of bounds on third down, the Cavaliers had the ball on the 11-yard line with Fisher lined up to kick the game-tying field goal.

Fisher missed the kick, but a roughing the kicker penalty gave the Cavaliers another chance from the 5-yard line, and this time, Fisher made the field goal to force the game into overtime tied at 17-17.

On the first play of overtime, Kucker found Ehresmann for touchdown. However, a bad snap caused the holder Brevin Fliehs to scramble to the right, and he was tackled just short of the end zone, leaving the Tigers with a 23-17 lead.

Roncalli scored on its chance in the first OT when Backous found the end zone for the second time of the night on a 3-yard run, but Johnson blocked the PAT kick to force a second overtime.

On the first play of the second overtime, Kucker rolled out left, stopped in his tracks, reversed field and found Tracy for a touchdown for the third time of the night.

“It was supposed to go to the left side, but he turned back around, so I turned back around,” said Tracy. “We both made eye contact, and he threw it and I caught it. And the rest is history.”

Another botched snap on Groton’s extra-point attempt left Roncalli with a six-point deficit heading into its possession.

After back-to-back missed extra-point attempts, Wanner knew he had to pick his team up to focus on closing out the game.

“When stuff like that happens, the heads go down. You can’t do that. Guys, we’re still ahead,” Wanner said. “You got to keep them thinking that we still have a chance to win this football game. If we get four stops we win.”

The Tigers did get four stops to close out the game, including stopping Backous on 4th and goal from the 1-yard line to preserve the victory.

“There were two teams out there that didn’t want to lose, and somebody had to. We came up a yard short in the end,” said Young. “If you want to give the ball to anybody on 4th and 1 on our team, it’s going to be Zane. If anybody can punch it in and drag people through. He was running like a man possessed on that last possession.”

Although it didn’t end how the Cavaliers wanted it to, it’ll be a game that both teams never forget and add yet another contest for the ages in the Groton-Roncalli rivalry.

“I will remember that one for a long time,” said Backous.

So will a lot of others.

“A good ole Roncalli, Groton Area football game,” said Wanner.

Roncalli hosts Milbank next week at Dacotah Bank Stadium.

Aberdeen Roncalli (4-2) 7 7 0 3 6 0 – 23

Groton (4-2) 7 7 0 3 6 6 – 29

First Quarter

G – Keegen Tracy 58 pass from Korbin Kucker (Joao Nunes kick), 5:48.

AR – Zane Backous 7 run (Aiden Fisher kick), 4:28.

Second Quarter

AR – Brody Weinmeister 1 run (Fisher kick), 9:07.

G – Tracy 8 pass from Kucker (Nunes kick), 4:37.

Fourth Quarter

G – Nunes 20 field goal, 3:17.

AR – Fisher 22 field goal, :01.

First Overtime

G – Christian Ehresmann 10 pass from Kucker.

AR – Backous 3 run.

Second Overtime

G – Tracy 10 pass from Kucker.

OFFENSE: Aberdeen Roncalli, rushing 37-146 (Backous 17-82, Weinmeister 10-40, Fisher 10-24), passing 7-20- for 140 (Fisher 7-20 for 140), receiving (James Behan 3-114, Weinmeister 1-9, Luke Kaiser 1-7, Jett Johnson 1-5, Backous 1-5), first downs 15; Groton, rushing 28-59 (Ehresmann 8-25, Brevin Fliehs 5-19, Kucker 15-15), passing 15-19 for 166 (Kucker 15-19 for 166), receiving (Tracy 3-68, Ehresmann 7-47, Ryder Johnson 2-17, Teylor Diegel 1-15, Fliehs 2-14), first downs 13.

DEFENSE: Aberdeen Roncalli, Weinmeister 12 tackles, Carter Samson 11 tackles, Backous 8 tackles, Noah Kramer 8 tackles; Groton, Ehresmann 14 tackles, Fliehs 9 tackles, Tucker Hardy 7 tackles, Kucker 5 tackles, Caleb Mertz 4 tackles.