HOT SPRINGS - The St. Thomas More Cavaliers served notice to the rest of the Black Hills Conference on Friday night that it will be anything but easy to dethrone the defending conference champs.

The Cavaliers ran out to a 35-0 halftime lead en route to a 42-8 victory over the Hot Springs Bison in the season opener for both teams. The Cavaliers got contributions from familiar faces, and some new ones, as they rolled to the win.

Quarterback Nate Jacobson threw for two scores and ran for one in the first half, while running back Alex Hollibaugh carried the ball 13 times for 179 yards and three scores - including an 80-yard run for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in the second half - to lead the Cavs to the win.

"We picked up right where we left off and we're hoping to come out and win another Black Hills Conference championship," Hollibaugh said.

Newcomer Joe Kennedy, a transfer from Rapid City Stevens, had an impressive debut in blue and white, registering four sacks for the Cavaliers from his defensive end spot.

"It was a great way to start my career here," Kennedy said. "I was just hoping to come out and help the team and I ended up doing pretty well today."

The Cavaliers didn't waste any time getting things going as Jacobson and Tanner Wince hooked up on a 61-yard strike on their first play from scrimmage to take a 7-0 lead.

"We did graduate one of the best receivers I'll ever have," More head coach Wayne Sullivan said of departed all-stater Dusty Nowotny. "But we've got a heck of a crew right now and we've got a quarterback that's going to put it there. If they're going to press (coverage) like that we're going to try to make a play and exploit it, and we did."

The Bison came out and forced the Cavaliers to turn the ball over on downs on More's next possession, but that would be the only time the Hot Springs defense would stop the Cavalier first team, as the visitors scored on their next four possessions to take a five-touchdown lead into the locker room.

"Honestly, we didn't expect them (More) to be at this point this early in the season," Hot Springs head coach Ben Kramer said. "They're the type of team that can get it rolling on you in a hurry. They're just a solid, solid team."

The Bison showed a lot of heart in front of their hometown fans despite being down 42-0 at the end of three quarters, as running back Dustin Fischer kept pounding away at the Cavaliers until the very end, scoring Hot Springs' only touchdown of the night on a 14-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Sophomore quarterback Matt Harkless also showed well for the Bison, as he was hurried and hit on most every play but kept getting up and playing hard in his first-ever start.

"He's a heck of an athlete," Kramer said of Harkless. "We're awful glad that we're going to have him for the next three years. It's just a whole different thing out here tonight. You can beat up on the scout team all you want, but once you get out here under the lights, it's a whole different ball game."

More moves to 1-0 on the year and will play Lead-Deadwood at O'Harra Stadium in Rapid City on Friday. Hot Springs (0-1) will have a bye next week before playing at Belle Fourche on Sept. 7.