Kennedy surge continues in 57-7 rout of Waterloo West

CEDAR RAPIDS - Safety didnt exactly come first last night for Cedar Rapids Kennedy. It just got buried in the middle of all the touchdowns.

Rossi Adams and Trevor Heitland ran for 100 yards each as Kennedy brutalized Waterloo West, 57-7, last night at Kingston Stadium. The Cougars (4-4) have won four of five to all but guarantee themselves to be part of the postseason field of 32 in Class 4A.

Now its about improving their seeding going into the regular-season finale next week at Dubuque Wahlert.

"We're not satisfied," said Kennedy Center Ross Ellsworth. "We want to continue to get better. We have a goal every week that you always want to get better. We don't want to have any drop-off, especially going into the playoffs. You want to keep that momentum going in, and you want to keep rolling."

Kennedy picked up three safeties last week in a romp over Iowa City West and had another one last night after a bad center snap on a West punt attempt. But this one was way more about a punishing ground attack that produced 392 yards.

Senior Adams had three touchdowns and a 116-yard night, junior Heitland two TDs and 123 yards. Neither one seemed to meet any defensive resistance until they were at least three or four yards down field, a testament to the guys up front: Ellsworth, guards Jacob Dunne and David Kaiser and tackles Nathan Castek and Andrew Paulsen.

"It's just hard work and repetition," Ellsworth said. "It doesn't matter if it's the top guy or the bottom guy, everyone is working hard right now. And the backs are running their butts off."

"That's a great 1-2 punch," Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis said of his Adams and Heitland. "We're just rotating them by series right now. We started R.J. tonight because it was senior night. Last week, Trevor got the start. It kind of goes by the week of practice that they have."

West (2-6) actually scored on the initial possession of the game, but it was 13-7 Kennedy by quarter's end and 36-7 at halftime. The continuous clock began rolling after Heitlands 5-yard TD run to begin the third quarter.

Kennedy also got TD runs from Anthony Crawley and Chase Fergus and a special-teams touchdown when Jacob Losch fell on a fumble in the end zone after a botched Wahawk kickoff return.

Kennedy has responded after a brutal early season schedule that included losses to Cedar Rapids Xavier, Cedar Rapids Washington, Cedar Falls and Iowa City High.

"I am excited about the way these kids have bounced back," Lewis said. "One of my biggest fears was that people would start doubting. We didn't do that. We just kept coming out, the kids have continued to believe in what we were trying to sell, and I really think we're starting to come together.

"That's one of the nice things about this playoff system. This year more than any, four losses would have (normally) been out of it. But it's nice the way we're doing it now, that there's always that ray of hope."

Kennedy's Christian French missed his second consecutive game with a right elbow injury (infected cut, bursa sac). He said after the game he has eliminated Texas A&M from his college possibilities and is down to Iowa, Oregon, Notre Dame, Missouri and Nebraska.

Here's the game boxscore and a short video interview with Ellsworth:

C.R. Kennedy 57

Waterloo West 7

AT KINGSTON STADIUM

                       WW CRK

First downs 7 23

Rushes-yards 21-24 51-392

Passing yards 82 36

Comp-att-int. 6-16-1 5-11-0

Punts-avg. 3-37.0 2-32.0

Fumbles-lost 3-2 4-0

Penalties-yards 3-15 4-39

Waterloo West 7 0 0 0 -- 7

C.R. Kennedy 13 23 21 0-- 57

WW-Conner Friedly 21 pass from Austin McMahon (Alen Kajtezovic kick)

CRK-Rossi Adams 5 run (run failed)

CRK-Jacob Losch fumble recovery in end zone (Nicholas Bruns kick)

CRK-Chase Fergus 1 run (Bruns kick)

CRK-Anthony Crawley 48 run (Bruns kick)

CRK-Safety, ball out of end zone

CRK-Adams 6 run (Bruns kick)

CRK-Trevor Heitland 5 run (Bruns kick)

CRK-Adams 1 run (Bruns kick)

CRK-Heitland 22 run (Bruns kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- West: Dequayvious Martin 8-23, Dequan Campbell 2-23, Alex Brown 2-9, Carlos Woods 2-3, Austin McMahon 5-(minus) 7, Team 1-(minus) 10, Dakota Hoddle 1-(minus) 17. Kennedy: Trevor Heitland 13-123, Rossi Adams 17-116, Anthony Crawley 1-48, Michael Lawshea 7-38, Shane Williams 5-24, Jed Haycraft 5-23, Caleb Mere 1-17, Chase Fergus 2-3, Team 1-1.

PASSING -- West: Austin McMahon 5-15-0-82, Shawn Bowers 0-1-1-0. Kennedy: Jed Haycraft 5-11-0-36.

RECEIVING -- West: Conner Friedly 3-48, Chris Miller 2-28, Alex Brown 1-6. Kennedy: Jacob Wagner 1-17, Kyle Lamaak 1-13, Chase Fergus 1-10, Rossi Adams 1-1, Joshua Jahlas 1-(minus) 5.