PINE RIDGE - Red Cloud's Billy Scott had a ready response for a Pine Ridge heckler on Friday during the two teams' high school football game at Coach Bob Clifford Athletic Field.

"Except for this year," Scott said to a fan who pointed out that Red Cloud never beats Pine Ridge in football. And this year, Scott turned out to be exactly right.

The Crusaders topped Pine Ridge 46-0 due to the mercy rule for the school's first win over the Thorpes since 1997.

"That's big motivation," Scott said of the nine-year losing streak in one of the state's fiercest high school rivalries.

The Crusaders rolled up 299 yards rushing on 32 carries, as Scott and Lester Gotheridge each scored two touchdowns on the ground.

"Kill them," was Scott's response when asked what the game plan was. "We wanted to come out and run on them just like we did. The boys (linemen) set the tone early, and we just kept on them from there."

Things started out a little slowly for the Crusaders as they drove down the field on their first possession but turned the ball over on downs inside the Pine Ridge 10-yard line. But the Thorpes couldn't get much going offensively - a theme for the entire game - and David Giago sacked Pine

Ridge quarterback Harley Cortier

for a safety to get the scoring started.

"We knew we could get them," Scott said. "We didn't get down after not scoring there because we knew it was just a matter of time before we got them."

The Crusaders rolled from there out, scoring three more touchdowns to take a 24-0 lead heading into the half.

"It's a big rivalry, which says it all," first-year head coach Keith Ferguson said.

"We came ready to play."

Part of that readiness came from some bulletin-board material provided by the Journal questioning the Crusaders' ability to score after a 19-6 loss to Bennett County last week.

"We cut out that clipping this morning, where our offense was kind of told that they couldn't put points up," Ferguson said.

"You guys provided a lot of motivation for this team. To come out and put 46 points on the board kind of says it all."

The Crusaders came out and put three more scores on the board in the second half - including a nifty 42-yard run by Art Vitalis to make it 46-0 - to end the game early in the fourth quarter.

Red Cloud's linemen on both sides of the ball controlled the game, as Pine Ridge only managed 43 yards in the first half and committed three turnovers.

"We've got a great line coach working with us this year," Ferguson said. "We're an all new staff but we're all on the same page and the kids have been working hard since day one."

Pine Ridge (0-2) heads to Cheyenne-Eagle Butte on Friday.

Red Cloud (1-1) will head to St. Francis for a game on Friday.

"We should be pretty good after this," Scott said.

"We got some penalties and made some mistakes today, but we'll work on it."