C.R. Kennedy uses ground game to outlast I.C. West

CEDAR RAPIDS — As far as season-openers go, fans at Kingston Stadium got their money's worth on Thursday night.

Host Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Iowa City West opened Week 1 play in the Corridor by going back and forth in a contest of contrasting offensive styles. The Cougars dominated on the ground and the Trojans dominated through the air, but in the end it was Kennedy who won the battle of wills at the line and prevailed, 34-31.

Senior running back Tyler Dralle saw the ball 40 times and responded with 264 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Cougars to victory.

'I think the people who paid $5 got their money's worth tonight,' said Kennedy Coach Brian White. 'The funny thing is, I looked at him at our team dinner last night and asked him, 'Dralle, you ready to carry the ball 35 times?' And he said, 'Absolutely.' I never dreamed I'd give it to him 35 times tonight, but I guess if it's working and you're getting the job done, why go away from it? Maybe that's who we are — a good offensive line and a rugged tailback like Tyler Dralle.

'Overall I'm pretty happy with what happened. I'm really happy with those kids.'

It's hard not to be when your team reverses course from a season-opener last year that Dralle said 'jump-started us in a bad way,' after Kennedy (1-0) went on the road and lost to West (0-1), 12-9, in the 2014 opener.

White's Cougars amassed 444 yards of total offense — 316 of which came on the ground. At one point, Kennedy scored on five straight possessions, never punted and only failed to score on three drives throughout the game.

Dralle refused to take the credit for his big night after the game, deferring to the five guys who paved the way.

'It feels great to be able to run behind the five best linemen in the state. I'm just blessed to run behind them,' Dralle said. 'Them moving the guys out of the way for me, it makes it pretty easy.'

The dominance Kennedy showed on the ground was tested by an aerial attack from West. Trojans' senior quarterback Alex Henderson finished the game 20 of 30 for 358 yards and three touchdowns — two of which went to junior wide receiver Oliver Martin. Martin finished the game with 11 catches for 203 yards and his two scores came from 25 yards and a 35-yard screen pass he caught and ran with.

West had its way with the Kennedy secondary throughout the game, which White was concerned with up until the end.

He had reason to be, too. After Kennedy went up, 34-17 on one of Dralle's touchdown runs with 3:31 left in the third, West answered with those two Martin scores on back-to-back drives.

But even after junior quarterback Nick Duehr fumbled at midfield in the fourth quarter to set up what looked like a winning drive for the Trojans and West took its time and tried to kill clock before a score, the Cougars ultimately came up with the stop they needed.

'I was getting that feeling, too, because I started looking at the clock and went, 'OK, well at what point do we want to maybe think about preserving some time on there in case we get the ball back?'' White said. 'It's all how you react when your back's against the wall. And our backs were against the wall. We hadn't stopped them all night long, but our defense bowed up and we caught a break there at the end. We leaned on our offensive line to get us a couple first downs.'

After the fourth-down incompletion from Henderson in the direction of Dallas Majors, it was the young men on the field who decided the next course of action for Kennedy.

'Mason Jacobs said, 'Run it behind me,' and Dallas (Jacobus) said, 'I'm pulling.' And I said, 'Sounds like a plan.' At the end I was going to change the play, but he looked at me and said, 'Don't you do that. We're running 36 Power.' And it's like, 'OK, we'll run 36 Power then.' They just told me what they wanted to run,' White said. 'If you actually look at those kids, they're 250, 260, 240, but there's not much fat on them. They're very strong kids and very powerful. They've spent a lot of time in the weight room and they can all run. They're very athletic. That alone helps us get off the ball. We can get off the ball fast, plus we've got a little lead in our pencil to move people around. It's a fun group to coach.

'When you have that nucleus of kids up front, it's hard not to want to run the ball.'

Next up for Kennedy is Cedar Rapids Washington on Sept. 4. West is in action that night at home against West Des Moines Valley.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com