More scores, but falls to Roncalli

By Padraic Duffy, Journal Sports Writer | Friday, November 10, 2006

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VERMILLION -- Sometimes, it just isn’t your night. Friday wasn’t Nathan Jacobson’s.

The St. Thomas More High School quarterback, brilliant all season long, was harassed into throwing five interceptions and fumbling once as Aberdeen Roncalli defeated More 27-13 at the DakotaDome for the Class 11B football championship. It was the second consecutive season that the Roncalli Cavaliers topped the St. Thomas More Cavaliers for the ‘11B’ title.

“We made too many mistakes to beat a football team that’s that good,” St. Thomas More head coach Wayne Sullivan said of Roncalli, which finished a season undefeated for the second consecutive season. “I made some mistakes in play calling that I’m going to have to fix, and we had some mental breakdowns that cost us.”

Despite Jacobson’s five interceptions -- two more than he had thrown all season -- the West River Cavaliers were still very much in the game late, with possession in Roncalli territory and trailing only 19-13. With the ball on Roncalli’s 45 yard line, it looked like the previously unthinkable might happen. The team from Aberdeen -- which hadn’t allowed a single point all season coming into the game -- might actually find itself behind. But Aberdeen’s Jordan Kline intercepted a Jacobson pass to set up Roncalli’s final scoring drive. Aberdeen used seven plays to march 57 yards as the game’s most valuable player, Dan O’Keefe, capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run -- his third of the game.

Coming into the championship game having outscored their opposition 508-0, Roncalli wanted to keep that scoreless streak intact but couldn’t as Jacobson scored More’s only touchdown of the game on the first play of the second quarter when he somehow slithered through the Aberdeen defense and scrambled 20 yards for the score.

“It would have been nice if we could have held them scoreless,” O’Keefe, who also plays defensive back, said. “But that would have been really hard, because they have a great offense.”

Two of St. Thomas More’s seniors, Dusty Nowotny and Johnny Gonzalez, set Class 11B state championship records. Nowotny kicked a 44-yard field goal in the second quarter, and Gonzalez had 10 receptions in the game.

More ended what looks to be its final Class 11B season at 11-1. Next season, they are scheduled to move up to Class 11A. Roncalli finished at 12-0 for the second consecutive year.