SISSETON – Sisseton tried to catch Aberdeen Roncalli off-guard with an onside kick to open Friday night’s Class 11B football contest.

It didn’t work, and little else the Redmen tried to toss at the Cavaliers did either, as Roncalli cruised to a 50-0 mercy rule victory on the road.

Roncalli took advantage of excellent field position throughout the contest, starting all but one of its drives in Redmen territory. That trend began with the opening kickoff, as Sisseton tried the onside kick approach. Roncalli recovered near midfield, and immediately marched down the field for an Aiden Fisher 6-yard score.

“Good way to finish the season,” said Roncalli coach Billy Young.

It was all Cavaliers from there, as Roncalli forced an interception and a pair of fumbles, while also taking advantage of a bad snap on a punt and a misplayed kickoff reception. Roncalli’s final three drives of the first half began on the Sisseton 25, 32 and 31-yard lines, respectively.

Sisseton did pick off Fisher on Roncalli’s second drive of the game as the Cavaliers were going for a long pass play. Aiden Hellwig secured the interception in the end zone, but tried to bring the ball out into the field of play. Hellwig was immediately brought down, however, and the Redmen began the second quarter standing on their own half-yard line.

From there, Kaden Larson scored on a 2-yard plunge, Noah Kramer caught two long passes for scores, and Brody Weinmeister caught a 29-yard screen pass for his second touchdown of the half.

““I think we scored every time we had the ball except for the turnover,” Young said. “We executed our game plan just like we had intended. Nothing really deviated from that.”

Young said Friday’s game – its regular season finale – was more about fine-tuning the Cavaliers than it was about getting a victory.

“We were able to do the little things right and clean up the things we needed to work on (from) the last couple of games,” he said.

Roncalli put an end to the game after recovering the opening kick of the second half, and marching downfield for an 8-yard Austin Fisher score. Weinmeister ran in the 2-point conversion for the 50-point threshold.

With a 6-2 season behind them, the Cavaliers will now turn their attention to the postseason and await the final pairings for the Class 11B playoffs.

“It’s a short turnaround and it’s going to be even shorter because we won’t know who we play until late (Saturday),” Young said. “We won’t have a lot of time to prepare so you really do try to focus on yourself.”