KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany -- Viewed on the paper of a preseason schedule, Friday night’s football game between the Kaiserslautern Raiders and visiting Ramstein Royals stuck out as a circle-the-date showdown between local archrivals, perhaps with significant stakes for both.

Reality intervened in the weeks since the schedule’s release and the game’s kickoff. On Friday, the circle around Oct. 21 was mercifully replaced with an X.

Ramstein stomped the overmatched Raiders 49-3, completing a 4-1 conference season, securing a home-field semifinal game and dooming its struggling archrival to a winless fall campaign.

The Royals scored 21 points in the first quarter, highlighted by a 98-yard fumble return and a 40-yard punt return by Brendan Hicks, and another 21 in the second, including two touchdown runs by Marlon Guyton.

Ramstein enters next weekend’s playoffs as the top seed in Division I. The rebuilding Raiders will sit out the playoffs for a second straight season.