The game was all but decided at halftime. But the Helias Crusaders still had things to play for Saturday night.
Rock Bridge dominated the opening two quarters at Ray Hentges Stadium, rolling to a 38-point lead at intermission on Helias' Homecoming.
The Bruins extended their lead before the Crusaders used a big fourth quarter to make the final 58-30.
"I told them we had to win the second half," Helias coach Tim Rulo said. "We talk about playing in districts, we talk about winning back the district title. But to do that, we have to play better and to do that, we had to win that second half."
Helias gave up two scores in the third quarter to trail 58-7 heading into the final quarter. But the Crusaders scored three times in the final 12 minutes to make the final score more respectable.
"We responded, I know people are going to say we did it against their second- and third-string, but we responded," Rulo said. "They brought their varsity line back in at the end, so that tells me we accomplished something."
The Crusaders scored on the opening play of the fourth quarter when Connor McKenna tossed a 70-yard touchdown pass to Zach Woehr. Vito Calvaruso's PAT made it 58-14.
McKenna then threw a 20-yard pass to Nathan Bax in the back corner of the end zone with 4:19 remaining. Blake Veltrop ran for the 2-point conversion and it was 58-22.
McKenna then scored from a yard out with 2:35 remaining and Blake Savage's 2-point run made the score 58-30 and took the running clock out of play.
"Those plays were there, but we needed to execute at high level against a team that talented," Rulo said. "We need to coach the players up to do that and we need to do a better job of that.
"I don't want to take anything away from Rock Bridge, but we have to coach our guys better than we did for this game."
Rock Bridge did what it wanted in the first two quarters on offense, scoring on all seven of its possessions.
Nathaniel Peat ran for three touchdowns in the half - from 2, 9 and 43 yards - and had nine carries for 129 yards in the two quarters. He finished the game with 12 carries for 172 yards.
Trevor Twehous threw two first-half touchdowns - 16 yards to Zach Boyles and 18 yards to Wyatt Towe. Twehous finished the half 9-of-12 through the air for 135 yards.
Helias' lone score of the half came on a 7-yard run by Daniel Rhea with 4:47 left in the second quarter.
"Rock Bridge is talented and very good and in the end we got kicked hard," Rulo said. "They were fast, big and aggressive. After a while, you realize the things you want to do, you can't do, no matter what you try."
Rock Bridge, ranked 10th in Class 6, is now 6-1. The Bruins will host the St. Louis University High Junior Bills on Friday.
Helias (3-4) will play Friday at Kirksville (2-5).
With two weeks remaining in the season, the Crusaders are fourth in the Class 4 District 7 standings with 33.22 points. If the season ended today, Helias would host fifth-place Warrensburg (28.33 points) in the opening round of district play.
Warrenton (6-1, 44.9), Moberly (5-2, 40.9) and Hannibal (4-3, 33.84) are the top three current seeds in the district.