Big 2nd half helps Kennedy knock off Wahlert, 36-14

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids Kennedy may have had the most popular football team in the state last night.

Not only were regular Cougars fans pulling for their boys, so were teams and fans of a bunch of other schools. With all that support, how could they lose?

They didn't, getting big games from the H&H Boys to smack Dubuque Wahlert, 36-14, in the regular-season finale at Kingston Stadium.

“I'm not sure about the seedings and all that,” said Kennedy's Trevor Heitland. “I just knew it was a big game for us.”

Heitland rushed for 164 yards and three touchdowns, and Alex Hillyer added 95 yards and two scores as Kennedy finished 5-4 and with momentum heading into the opening round of postseason play Wednesday night. It made its other opponents happy, too, because a winning record increased their respective standings point totals and ultimately their playoff seedings.

Pretty much win-win all around.

“I don't think there are too many people around who gave us a shot when the season started,” said Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis. “We were so young and inexperienced. We started out pretty rough, got shellacked by a couple of pretty good football teams. But I'm just really happy with these guys for bouncing back and battling like they have.”

This game turned on a huge defensive play by Kennedy safety Josh Jahlas late in the second quarter. He intercepted a Riley McCarron pass at the Cougars 13 and returned it to the 47.

Quarterback Chico Lizarraga hit Heitland for a 19-yard touchdown pass with 19.6 seconds left in the half, with the extra point tying the game at 14-14 at halftime. Kennedy scored on its initial possession in the second half (a Hillyer 1-yard plunge), and it was pretty much all Cougars the rest of the way.

Lizarraga completed 13 of 24 passes for 192 yards to perfectly complement Kennedy's ground game, which produced 251 yards.

"We were a little concerned in the first half. We ran it a little bit, but then I thought they shut us down," Lewis said. "We had a little doubt on our sideline, some of our offensive linemen didn't seem too confident in what we were doing. That always concerns you.

"But we thought we might be able to (throw on them) vertically, and that ended up working out."

The Cougars defense also was able to contain dangerous Wahlert quarterback Riley McCarron, particularly in the second half.

McCarron and his ultra-quick feet accounted for 244 total yards, including a 70-yard TD run down the sideline in the second quarter. But he did not get away rushing-wise in the second half.

McCarron completed 15 of 29 throws for 192 yards.

"Just stayed focused," Heitland said. "We didn't really want to think about the playoffs tonight. Focus on this game, it was a big game. All week that was we stressed, focus on this game and don't think about the playoffs too much."

Here is the game boxscore and a short interview with Heitland:

TEAM STATISTICS

Dbq. Wahlert

CR Kennedy

First downs

11

20

Rushes-yards

31 - 151

41 - 251

Passing yards

299

192

Comp-Att-Int

15 - 29 - 1

13 - 25 - 0

Total yards

299

443

Fumbles-lost

1 - 0

0 - 0

Punts-average

4 - 31.5

3 - 35.3

Penalties-yards

3 - 15

3 - 10

Rushing:

 Dbq. Wahlert –

Riley McCarron 12-96 ,

Sam Koenig 16-56 ,

Jake Decker 2-1 ,

Team 1-0

 CR Kennedy –

Trevor Heitland 13-164 ,

Alex Hillyer 24-95 ,

Shane Williams 1-3 ,

Team 1-0 ,

Jimmy Lizarraga 2-0

Passing:

 Dbq. Wahlert –

Riley McCarron 15-29-1-148

 CR Kennedy –

Jimmy Lizarraga 13-24-0-192 ,

Team 0-1-0-0

Receiving:

 Dbq. Wahlert –

Brady Williams 6-86 ,

Josh Tranel 6-33 ,

Kyle Steines 2-19 ,

John Burgmeier 1-10

 CR Kennedy –

Trevor Heitland 6-84 ,

Alex Hillyer 3-37 ,

Josh Jahlas 2-32 ,

Jacob Frazier-Flores 1-28 ,

Jonah Heskje 1-6 ,

Shane Williams 1-5

Dbq. Wahlert

14

–

14

CR Kennedy

7

7

7

15

–

36

CRK-Alex Hillyer 15 run (Jordan Holzer kick)

DW-Sam Koenig 1 run (Koenig kick)

DW-Riley McCarron 70 run (Koenig kick)

CRK-Trevor Heitland 19 pass from Jimmy Lizarraga (Holzer kick)

CRK-Hillyer 1 run (Holzer kick)

CRK-Heitland 19 run (Holzer kick)

[gallery columns="2"]

CRK-Heitland 60 run (Thomas Kaiser pass from Riley Fergus)