Kennedy gets first opening-night win since 2008

CEDAR RAPIDS – Desperate to finally begin a season plus one, Cedar Rapids Kennedy turned to a defense that threw up a second-half zero and an offense that could be described as coming straight out of the zeroes. The 1900s, not the 2000s.That's a compliment, not a putdown, by the way, about the Stacked-I formation, which produced touchdowns on the final drive of the first half and first drive of the final half in Kennedy's 14-10 come-from-behind win over Cedar Rapids Washington at steamy Kingston Stadium.Give head coach Tim Lewis and his boys a 1-0 record for the first time since 2008."It's been awhile," Lewis said. "Somebody asked me how long it's been, and I couldn't remember. It means a lot because it's always frustrating the way we've started because we work really hard. It's just frustrating when kids work like they have and commit like they have, and the coaches work hard and commit, and the wins don't come."Everybody can say 'Well, it's not all about winning.' But winning helps everything, while losing tends to get people second guessing. It just helps the morale of the school. Then it's always a battle when you've got to fight back from that. It's going to nice next week to walk around school and talk about a win instead of a loss, like we've had to the past five or six years."Perhaps Lewis can give Washington coaching counterpart Paul James some tips on how to survive a season in which you don't capture your opener. This was not the return James wanted after sitting out the past seven seasons to concentrate solely on his athletics director duties at the school.James came back to try and heal the southeast side of town following the well-publicized drama surrounding old coach Tony Lombardi, who stepped down from his position in early spring and eventually moved his family to West Des Moines. Many in Warrior-land were Lombardi supporters, many were not.James took over to try and coax everyone back into the same red-and-blue boat, so to speak. He installed a new offensive system and even slightly changed equipment.Instead of white numbers on red helmets (a la Alabama) as in past years, Washington players wore red helmets with a Washington logo on just one side."I really didn't think about this being my coaching return," James said. "You just get back into your environment. It's fun being around the kids, maybe more so after you left and have come back. We've got some really good kids that we're working with, and they're working hard and doing everything we ask of them. They're smart. You know, we're going to get better. That's an experienced Kennedy team, and I thought the whole game we went toe-to-toe with them."Washington recovered a Terrance Hall fumble on Kennedy's first play from scrimmage of 2013 inside the Kennedy 5, leading to a Johnny Dobbs 3-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter. Kicker Joe Lenzen added the extra point and a 25-yard field goal with 1:29 remaining in the first half.But Kennnedy's defense stopped a couple of other potential Warrior scoring drives earlier in the half and that was huge when quarterback Derek Jacobus sprung a roll right run 45 yards and deep into Washington territory. On 3rd-and-long, Jacobus spun away from a pair of Wash rushers, moved to his left and spotted wide, wide open running back Miles Moa for a 25-yard touchdown with 15.4 seconds left in the first half.Kennnedy got the ball to begin the second half, went into full Stacked-I mode and literally power ran down field, with Logan Wedo reaching the goal line from three yards out. All of a sudden, it was a 14-10 Cougars lead."Either side of halftime there, those were the drives," James said. "That was the game."Let's re-emphasize this. Most of the game, Kennedy was using an offense with a quarterback, three running backs, two tight ends and not one single receiver.PlayStation gamers wouldn't comprehend it. "They had to bring in an extra lineman," said Jacobus. "We were just pounding it down. Later in the game, we started getting much better."Washington did reach the Kennedy 20 in the fourth quarter but had to turn the ball over on downs. Warrior linemen just could not seem to cope with blitzing linebackers like Triston Christopher, who had a wonderful defensive game."It was just us flying around and being enthusiastic," he said. "Getting off the ball quickly. The first half we were a little shaky, but the second half, we brought it back. They didn't get anything."All of 83 yards in the second half, actually. Fullback Conner Vincent led Wash rushers with just 43 yards on seven fullback trap runs. Sophomore Dobbs looked as if he would be a factor in the game, but sat out the second half with an ankle injury.Moa had a game-high 111 yards rushing for Kennedy. Jacobus ran for 60 yards and threw for 60."After starting out 0-1 for the longest time, this is great," Christopher said. "We weren't really worried too much about it happening again because we had so many returning starters and players."Here is the game boxscore:

CR Kennedy 14, CR Wash. 10

AT KINGSTON STADIUM

TEAM STATISTICS

CR Wash.

CR Kennedy

First downs

13

10

Rushes-yards

42 - 137

31 - 175

Passing yards

102

60

Comp-Att-Int

6 - 13 - 0

4 - 11 - 0

Total yards

257

235

Fumbles-lost

4 - 0

3 - 1

Punts-average

4 - 47.5

6 - 35.3

Penalties-yards

3 - 28

4 - 35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing:  CR Wash. – Connor Vincent 7-43 , Reid Snitker 15-38 , Mason Taylor 9-32 , Johnny Dobbs 8-25 , Caleb Smothers 2-4 , Team 1--5  CR Kennedy – Miles Moa 16-111 , Derek Jacobus 6-60 , Logan Wedo 4-8 , Terrance Hall 2-0 , Jay Blank 1-0 , Team 2--4

Passing:  CR Wash. – Reid Snitker 6-13-0-102  CR Kennedy – Derek Jacobus 4-11-0-60

Receiving:  CR Wash. – Clayton Bjornsen 3-41 , Landen Akers 1-28 , Johnny Dobbs 1-17 , Lars Bjornsen 1-16  CR Kennedy –

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CR Wash.

7

3

–

10

CR Kennedy

7

7

–

14

SCORING SUMMARY

Wash-Johnny Dobbs 3 run (Joe Lenzen kick)

Wash-Lenzen 25 FG

Kenn-Miles Moa 25 pass from Derek Jacobus (Mark Schulz kick)

Kenn-Logan Wedo 3 run (Schulz kick)