Barton’s boot lifts C.R. Washington past C.R. Jefferson, 30-27, in instant classic

CEDAR RAPIDS — Clay Addy is a young kid, and shyness prevented him from giving any words postgame about his favorite player on the Cedar Rapids Washington football team.

But just the mention of Logan Barton’s name made young Clay, the son of head coach Eric Addy, start doing a dance. His eyes lit up.

“This summer he developed a relationship with Logan Barton because he started catching his field goals at practice,” Coach Addy said, after sophomore kicker Barton’s 25-yard field goal with 3.5 seconds left gave Washington a 30-27 win Friday night over Cedar Rapids Jefferson in one hellacious prep football game at Kingston Stadium. “He was rolling with me all summer when we’d do football practice and he’d start catching Logan’s kicks for two hours. Logan is one of his heroes, man.”

There were a lot of heroes for Washington (2-3) in one of the most exciting editions of the East-West Rivalry Game you’ve seen in quite awhile. A lot of heroes on both sides, actually.

The teams combined for 38 points in the fourth quarter, continually one-upping each other offensively. L.J. Nyenow Jr.’s 47-yard catch and run for touchdown with 1:46 left and Lilli Ulrich’s ensuing extra point brought Jefferson (4-1) into a 27-all tie.

Nyenow Jr. was phenomenal: six catches for 206 yards and a pair of long touchdowns from quarterback Vernon Benda. Benda finished 14 of 27 for 371 yards and four TDs.

Washington took over on its final possession at its 20 and worked its way downfield. It caught almost an immediate break when Brock Davis hauled in a slant pass from quarterback Grady McGuire for a 20-yard gain, fumbling, but having teammate Kobe Sindt dig into a pile of players and get the Warriors back the football.

An 18-yard fade pass to Davis took it into Jefferson territory, then a 2-yard QB sneak and personal foul penalty on Jefferson took the ball to the J-Hawks 7. A timeout was called, and on trotted Barton, who already had successful field goals of 48 and 30 yards earlier in the game.

He calmly booted this one through, too. Jefferson had one shot at a Hail Mary pass from midfield on the final play but it fell incomplete.

“Just go where the kick is going to be (coming from),” said Barton, who is considered one of the top kickers in his class in the country. “Memorize it, think about it going in. Don’t overthink it at all. Just visualize it. Then once the timeout was over, I was just ready to kick it. I was just filled with excitement to kick that. I believe in our snap and hold, I believe in myself. We have a great team. Just amazing.”

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Washington topped its season win total of a year ago with this thriller. McGuire threw for 180 yards and a pair of touchdown passes in the second half for the Warriors: one to Davis, the other to Terriyon Montgomery.

Alex Taylor had a short TD run and Davis the ensuing two-point conversion run. This game was 7-3 Jeff at halftime and 12-7 Washington after three quarters.

Jefferson took a 13-12 lead early in the fourth, Washington responded to go up 20-13, only to have Jeff come right back to tie it at 20s with 7:49 left.

Montgomery’s touchdown made it 27-20 Warriors with 3:28 to go, but Nyenow caught a 10-yard pass near the sideline, broke a tackle and was off to the races for his 47-yard TD that tied it.

“It was just crazy. No words,” Davis said. “I knew we were going to come out on top. They had a great play, we missed a couple of tackles. But we were positive. I knew we were going to go get it. I knew Logan was going to hit the game winner.”

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Photos: Cedar Rapids Washington vs. Cedar Rapids Jefferson high school football

“We truly were our culture,” Coach Addy said. “Our culture is ‘Tough Together Warriors,’ and we stayed tough, and we stayed together. There were highs and lows, we were making emotional mistakes. But guess what, we played the next play. We talk about it all the time that ‘Hey, we’ve got another play coming in about 40 seconds, so we’ve got to get rid of it.’”

The key for Jefferson will be to leave this heartbreaking loss. It went 4-0 to begin the 2023 season, lost to Washington, and four other losses followed.

That can’t happen again.

“You’ve just got to stay on the main thing,” said Coach Ed Miles. “The main thing is trying to make it to the playoffs. That’s bigger than beating Wash. Was Wash a goal? Yes. But the big picture is us getting to the playoffs.”

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C.R. Washington 30, C.R. Jefferson

(At Kingston Stadium)

C.R. Washington 3 0 9 18-30

C.R. Jefferson 0 7 0 20-27

Team Statistics

First Downs - Washington 20, Jefferson 13. Rushes-Yards - Washington 31-142, Jefferson 24-11. Passing - Washington 14-21-0-180, Jefferson 14-27-0-371. Total Yards - Washington 322, Jefferson 383. Penalties-Yards - Washington 4-40, Jefferson 8-85. Punts-Average - Washington 3-48.3, Jefferson 5-32.6. Fumbles-Lost - Washington 1-0, Jefferson 2-0.

Individual Statistics

Washington - Rushing: Grady McGuire 11-53, Alex Taylor 6-32, Terryion Montgomery 4-27, Brock Davis 4-24, Will Barnes 4-4, Trey Iranzi 1-2, Aaron Butikofer 1-0. Passing: Grady McGuire 14-26-0-180. Receiving: Brock Davis 5-78, Terryion Montgomery 6-52, Fidel Tiah 2-40, Will Barnes 1-10.

Jefferson - Rushing: Ishara Kalolero 15-65. Team 1-(minus) 24, Vernon Benda 8-(minus) 30. Passing: Vernon Benda 14-27-0-371. Receiving: L.J. Nyenow Jr. 6-206, Dayten Guy 3-49, Ishara Kalolero 2-44, Lucas Raynard 1-43, Ryan Good 1-30, Jermaine Robinson 1-(minus) 1.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com