Cedar Rapids Kennedy gets past Cedar Rapids Washington and into the win column

CEDAR RAPIDS — It was unfamiliar territory for the Cedar Rapids Kennedy football team.

The past several years have seen Coach Brian White's team among the state’s best. This season, the Cougars started 0-3 against a tough schedule and a much-improved Cedar Rapids Washington team was the foe on Friday night at Kingston Stadium.

As White walked off the field, he knew Kennedy had been in a battle.

“This was a city game,” White said after his Cougars came away with a hard-fought, 28-14, win. “That's the kind of game you want to come and see, hard hitting with both teams going after it.”

After losses to West Des Moines Dowling, Pleasant Valley and Linn-Mar, Kennedy found itself in another tussle with the Warriors.

“They are a tough football team,” White said of the Warriors (1-3). “They played hard and they played a full game. I thought we did some nice things, too. We came out with a W and that was the most important part of it.”

Kennedy took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards to score, using up over seven minutes. Jacob Doyle capped off the drive with a 9-yard scoring run, giving the Cougars a 7-0 lead.

The Cougars were driving again when Doyle, after catching a pass and gaining 23 yards, was hit from behind and fumbled. The Warriors recovered and took advantage early in the second quarter. Brock Davis took a handoff and went around end 66 yards for the tying touchdown.

Just before halftime, Kennedy retook the lead when Vinny Gianforte hit Deacon Kucera with a 9-yard scoring pass, giving the Cougars a 14-7 lead at the break.

With both defenses playing tough, it took a special teams play from the Cougars to break the game open in the third quarter. Keegan Mastin fielded a punt at the Cougar 33. He broke a couple of tackles, then weaved his way through the remaining Warrior defenders to up the lead to 21-7.

It became 28-7 in the fourth quarter when receiver Josiah Smith took a backwards pass from Gianforte and fired it downfield to a wide-open Brayden Peck for a 52-yard score with 7:35 remaining.

Davis got his second TD on a 10-yard pass from Grady McGuire, with 3:12 left, but the Warriors could get no closer.

Doyle led the Cougar offense, rushing 17 times for 117 yards. Damarian Orr carried 18 times for 82 yards. Davis paced the Warriors with 92 yards on nine carries. He also had three catches for 35 yards.

White has been pleased with the way the Cougars have handled the 0-3 start. They met the first goal, getting win No. 1.

"That was our message this week," White said. "We have to get No. 1 before we can get number anything else. We knew Wash was going to be a tough team. You watch them on film and see how hard they play. We saw them all summer in 7-on-7. They're a darn good football team.

"We haven't been 0-3 in a long time. We had a lot of people questioning us but we just have to take care of us. We made some mistakes tonight but we didn't make nearly as many as we made the first three weeks."

Next week, Kennedy will host Iowa City High on Thursday at Kingston while the Warriors will meet Cedar Rapids Jefferson on Friday at Kingston.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy 28, Cedar Rapids Washington 14

(At Kingston Stadium)

CRK CRW

First downs 15 10

Rushes-yards 39-185 28-167

Passing yards 118 83

Comp-Att-Int 10-15-0 8-19-2

Punts-Avg. 4-23.1 4-37.7

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1

Penalties-Yards 5-50 7-35

CR Kennedy 7 7 7 7 — 28

CR Washington 0 7 0 7 — 14

CRK — Jacob Doyle 9 run (Andrew Waterhouse kick)

CRW — Brock Davis 66 run (Logan Barton kick)

CRK — Deacon Kucera 8 pass from Vinny Gianforte (Waterhouse kick)

CRK — Keegan Mastin 67 punt return (Waterhouse kick)

CRK — Brayden Peck 52 pass from Josiah Smith (Waterhouse kick)

CRW — Davis 10 pass from Grady McGuire (Barton kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — CR Kennedy: Jacob Doyle 17-117, Vinny Gianforte 3-(minus 13), Damarian Orr 18-82. Team: 1-(minus 1). CR Washington: Grady McGuire 8-13, Nicholas Riley 1-3, Brock Davis 9-92, Aaron Butikofer 2-22, Kobe Sindt 1-3, Terryion Montgomery 7-22, Logan Barton 1-12.

PASSING — CR Kennedy: Vinny Gianforte 9-14-0-66, Josiah Smith 1-1-0-52, CR Washington: Grady McGuire 10-10-2-83

RECEIVING — CR Kennedy: Pierce McCrary 1-4, Jackson Popelka 3-17, Deacon Kucera 1-8, Dawson Daugherty 2-9, Jacob Doyle 1-23, Brayden Alber 1-5, Brayden Peck 1-52. CR Washington: Brock Davis 3-35, Fidel Tiah 2-26, Terryion Montgomery 3-22.