CLEVELAND TOWNSHIP, N.C. — December football is not for the weak.

Rolesville is looking like one of the strongest remaining.

The fifth-seeded Rams went on the road, again, and knocked off top-seeded Cleveland 49-6 to advance to the 4A East Regional Finals, where they’ll face Cardinal Gibbons in a rematch.

For the second straight week, Rolesville (13-1) went on the road. For the second straight week, Rolesville hung 40 points on a higher seed. Rolesville has outscored their last two opponents 93-12.

Rolesville, who suffered their last loss in week two of the regular season, appears to be getting stronger at the right time of the year.

“The biggest thing is, that bitter taste that happened last November we didn’t want that anymore,” Rolesville head coach Ranier Rackley said. “Like I tell my guys every week, once we play Rolesville football games like this can happen.”

What does Rolesville football look like?

Scoring on the first drive of the game and never looking back.

Rolesville football looked like building a 32-6 halftime lead and looking like they’d lost the game when they gave up a 35-yard score to Cleveland (13-1) before the half.

In this battle of Rams, it was Rolesville with the sharper horns, especially on defense.

The Rolesville defensive line, with three Division I players, made life miserable for Cleveland quarterback Jackson Byrd, who spent most of the night throwing the ball away to avoid sacks for loss.

“They are really, really good on the defensive line,” Cleveland head coach Scott Riley said. “We knew that coming in and they took advantage of it and won the football game, a lot of credit to them.”

Once Braden Atkinson found A.J. Roberts for touchdown passes, covering 66 and 30 yards on consecutive possessions, Rolesville, up 29-0, knew they could really pin their ears back and get after Byrd.

Xavier Lewis and his partners on the defensive front were more than happy to obliged.

“We were very aggressive up front,” Lewis said. “They like to throw it deep, they like to hold it a little bit, so we were able to get there and break up their throws.”

Byrd’s touchdown pass to Malachi Thomas was the one flaw in an otherwise near perfect game for Rolesville, who got rushing touchdowns from Amir Brown and Trenton Pressley, a pair of field goals from Riley Daniels (33, 49 yards) and a third score from Roberts to round out a balanced night, offensively.

Riley had the tough task of addressing a group that went 13-1, but came up short of their goal to get back to states.

“Obviously not the way anyone wants to end their season,” Riley said. “There’s a lot to be proud of, they don’t want to hear that tonight, but I’m proud of them. You want to keep playing until you get someone better than you and they (Rolesville) were better than us tonight.”

If the Rolesville road warriors can be better than their opponent one more week, they can make it back to the state finals. They’ll get their chance against the Crusaders, who ended their season last November, a feeling that Rackley didn’t want his team to experience again.

These last two road wins may have sent a message to all of North Carolina.

“The message being sent is, that RPI stuff doesn’t matter,” Rackley said about the system that made his Rams fifth. “We have to play football on Friday night. We have to play ball, that’s what we do, that’s what we’ve been doing.”