Cedar Rapids Jefferson’s football metamorphosis continues

CEDAR RAPIDS — They’re going from being continuous clocked to continuous clocking opponents. Continuously.

That’s how stunningly rapid this football turnaround has been for the Cedar Rapids Jefferson J-Hawks.

Jefferson won a third straight game to open a 2023 season that’s turning into an incredible metamorphosis Friday night at Kingston Stadium, pummeling Des Moines North, 41-8.

The J-Hawks, as you may know, ended a 26-game losing streak when they beat Muscatine two weeks ago. They pummeled Marshalltown last week, 40-0.

Here they ran out to a 35-0 halftime lead, going back to that running-clock thing. A continuous clock occurs when there is a 35-point spread in the second half of a game.

Jefferson has Des Moines East on the road next week, which lost to North. Could 4-0 be in the offing?

“It’s a full team effort,” said Jefferson quarterback Jeremiah Peiffer. “Offensively, defensively, as a team tonight we came out and did our personal jobs, and got what we needed to get done, done. The amount of players who have bought in this year is tremendous. There’s a lot more numbers this years, so the amount of guys bought in, the team we have and the team we’re rolling with is just great.”

Keep in mind that this is a program that had such a low number of players on the varsity level a couple of years ago that it had to forfeit a game. There was talk a varsity season might not even happen at all, with coaches scouring the school’s hallways to literally recruit students to play.

It’s a program whose last winning season came in 2015, with no other winning seasons in the immediate years before that. Winning hasn’t been a thing on the westside.

But it is now.

“This is frickin’ awesome,” smiled lineman Cade Chism, a long-suffering senior like Peiffer. “It’s like one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. Going through three years previous, all those early mornings, all those lifts, when things got really (bad), it was hard to see where we were going. Now it’s just awesome to see that work finally pay off. We’re not done, yet, though.”

“We still haven’t played a full game,” said second-year Jefferson Coach Ed Miles, the former University of Iowa linebacker. “We haven’t played to our potential. I feel like we haven’t even scratched the surface. We’ve just got to keep going. Tomorrow we’ll go in to fix what we need to fix, get some rest, celebrate it, flush it, and then move on to Des Moines East.”

Jefferson scored two touchdowns in the first quarter and three more in the second.

Running back Daunte Robinson opened the scoring with an 18-yard TD run. Peiffer connected with Carter Bronson on a 22-yard slot slant for touchdown to make it 13-0 after the first.

Running back Ishara Kalolero got going in the second quarter, scoring on a 2-yard run and a 16-yard run. Peiffer had a 3-yard QB sneak touchdown and threw a 2-point pass to Aidan O’Connor after Kalolero’s second TD to make it 35-0 at the break.

Des Moines North (1-2) stopped the continuous clock when Teagen O’Brien broke free for a 74-yard touchdown run, with a Jadrian Naab 2-point run making it a 35-8 game. Backup quarterback Vernon Benda had a 1-yard TD sneak in the fourth for the final margin.

Kalolero rushed 15 times in the game for 104 yards.

“Loved the way we came out in the first half,” Miles said. “We kind of like showed our strength, made a lot of good plays. They might have broke a play here and there, but for the most part, I don’t think they crossed the 50-yard-line in the first half. The second half we just tried to maintain it, tried to get some (other) guys in there. You love games like that, where you are able to get guys some experience.”

“We went 0-9 last year, and that was pretty rough,” said Jefferson linebacker Kayden James. “But we’ve just been saying that it’s a process, and we’ve got to take our time with it. We’re building a culture in this.”

Cedar Rapids Jefferson 41, Des Moines North 8

At Kingston Stadium

Des Moines North 0 0 8 0- 8

C.R. Jefferson 13 22 0 6-41

Team Statistics

First Downs - Des Moines North 12, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 17. Rushes-Yards - Des Moines North 32-144, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 37-211. Passing (Completions-Attempts-Interceptions-Yards) - Des Moines North 5-11-1-90, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 7-14-0-106. Total Yards - Des Moines North 234. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 317. Punts-Average - Des Moines North 3-26.7, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 2-35.5. Penalties-Yards - Des Moines North 3-30, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 9-83. Fumbles-Lost - Des Moines North 1-1, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 0-0.

Individual Statistics

Rushing - Des Moines North: Teagen O’Brien 7-80, Kinnick Dutcher 6-34 Aaron Marino-Moreno 7-26, Dein Gaye 4-11, Johnny Kien 2-5, Logan Hansen 2-3, Donnie Bensley 1-1, Jadrian Naab 2-(minus) 4, Team 1-(minus 12). Cedar Rapids Jefferson: Ishara Kalolero 15-104, Daunte Washington 9-56, L.J. Nyenow Jr. 1-20, Jermaine Robinson 2-13, Vernon Benda 2-7, Jeremiah Peiffer 4-4, Thierry Boyd 2-4, Harald Batige 1-(minus) 1, Dayten Guy 1-(minus) 4.

Passing - Des Moines North: Jadrian Naab 5-11-1-90. Cedar Rapids Jefferson: Jeremiah Peiffer 6-11-0-87, Vernon Benda 1-3-0-19.

Receiving - Des Moines North: Wisdom Fode 2-43, Teagen O’Brien 1-36, Kinnick Dutcher 1-11, Damonte Hardiman 1-0. Cedar Rapids Jefferson: Jermaine Robinson 3-50, Carter Bronson 1-22, Thierry Boyd 1-19, L.J. Nyehow Jr. 2-15.

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