Pleasant Valley sends Kennedy to 0-2 with a 35-20 victory at Kingston

CEDAR RAPIDS — Against a team like Pleasant Valley, Brian White said, there is “zero margin for error ... and we had errors in all three phases of the game.”

Pleasant Valley scored the final 21 points and knocked off Class 5A eighth-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 35-20, in high school football Friday night at Kingston Stadium.

Harrison Fierce passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more as Pleasant Valley (1-1) prevailed despite the Cougars’ 459-343 advantage in yards.

“Our special teams were awful. We turned the ball over. And we didn’t get stops in critical third downs,” said White, the Cougars’ coach, after Kennedy slid to 0-2.

“(The Spartans) are what they are. You’ve got to stop the fullback option. They are well-coached, and their offensive line comes at you hard.”

And they did nothing Friday to beat themselves.

Kennedy had first-half leads of 6-0, 13-7 and 20-14, but Pleasant Valley answered each time.

The Spartans bookended the halftime break with touchdowns on both sides of it. A 2-yard dive by Joey Van Wetzinga put Pleasant Valley up 21-20 with 0:48 left in the first half, then the Spartans took the second-half kickoff and drove 69 yards in five plays.

Fierce’s 42-yard TD pass to Camryn LeMoine made it 28-20, and the Cougars were fighting uphill the rest of the way.

Kennedy’s Jacob Doyle scored on touchdown sprints of 87 and 58 yards in the first half, with the first coming on the first play of the game. Doyle finished with 148 yards on five carries.

Vinny Gianforte completed 21 of 31 passes for 240 yards, but was intercepted three times, twice by LeMoine. Pierce McCrary caught eight passes for 98 yards.

Fierce was an efficient 9-of-11 for 129 yards; Elijah Rodney ran for 111 yards on 22 carries.

The Cougars compiled 308 yards in the first half but trailed 21-20 because they missed an extra point, missed a field goal and punted twice for an average of 12.5 yards, among other reasons.

Kennedy faces Linn-Mar (2-0) next week. Pleasant Valley hosts Iowa City Liberty (2-0).

Pleasant Valley 35, Cedar Rapids Kennedy 20

At Kingston Stadium

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs: PV 20, CRK 19

Rushes-yards: PV 47-214, CRK 23-219

Passing yards: PV 129, CRK 240

Passing: PV 9-11-0, CRK 21-31-3

Total yards: PV 343, CRK 459

Fumbles-lost: PV 0-0, CRK 0-0

Punts-average: PV 4-39.0, CRK 2-12.5

Penalties-yards: PV 3-25, CRK 3-25

SCORING SUMMARY

Pleasant Valley 7 14 7 7 — 35

C.R. Kennedy 6 14 0 0 — 20

CRK — Jacob Doyle 87 run (kick failed)

PV — Harrison Fierce 6 run (Jack Reiter kick)

CRK — Demarian Orr 10 run (Nicholas Garcia kick)

PV — Camryn LeMoine 34 pass from Fierce (Reiter kick)

CRK — Doyle 58 run (Garcia kick)

PV — Joey Van Wetzinga 2 run (Reiter kick)

PV — LeMoine 42 pass from Fierce (Reiter kick)

PV — Fierce 2 run (Reiter kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

Pleasant Valley — Elijah Rodney 22-111, Harrison Fierce 14-46, Micah Herlich 3-27, Ben Birkel 3-23, Joey Van Wetzinga 3-9, Team 2-(minus 2). Kennedy — Jacob Doyle 5-148, Demarian Orr 10-62, Vinny Gianforte 7-11, Team 1-(minus 2).

Passing

Pleasant Valley — Fierce 9-11-0-129. Kennedy — Gianforte 21-31-0-240.

Receiving

Pleasant Valley — Camryn LeMoine 3-77, Adam Bratcher 2-21, Max Schmeltzer 2-20, Trey Bahnks 2-11. Kennedy — Pierce McCrary 8-98, Jackson Popelka 5-77, Josiah Smith 4-32, Deacon Kucera 2-18, Brayden Peck 1-13, Doyle 1-2.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com