Heitland 'dribbles' Kennedy past Jefferson, 48-8

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Trevor Heitland is known as a pretty good basketball player. A real up-and-comer, as they say.He's so good, in fact, he can dribble a football up and down the field. At least he did last night at Kingston Stadium, though you kind of doubt he meant to do it.Heitland broke free in the second quarter of Kennedys 48-0 romp over Cedar Rapids Jefferson for a 46-yard touchdown. As he got to the 25-yard-line or so, a defender swatted the football temporarily out of his grasp and to the turf.But it bounced right back up to him -- in stride, no less -- and he continued his sprint to the end zone. One of those nights for Heitland, who finished with 170 yards and three touchdowns."I went to cut back and tried to switch arms (with the ball) and got stripped a little bit," Heitland said. "It just came out of my hands, but I got a lucky bounce right back up to me. Just went into the end zone with it. It worked out."One of those nights, too, for the Cougars (2-4), who have survived an almost unfair schedule that saw them play four ranked teams the first five weeks of the season. Theyre not a bad club at all."It's been very challenging, let us know where we're at," said Kennedy's Christian French, who was honored at halftime for his selection to January's U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio."I don't have the (standings), but I think we're in the middle somewhere. We just have to continue to find ourselves."Heitland, who was suspended for his team's first three games, gave Kennedy a real lift when he came into the game at tailback toward the end of a scoreless first quarter. His hard-charging, straight-ahead style accounted for all 66 yards of Kennedys first successful drive, including a 3-yard TD run on the initial play of the second quarter.It was the quite the quarter for the Cougars, who outscored Jefferson by a 34-0 margin. The J-Hawks certainly contributed to the onslaught with back-to-back bad center snaps on punts that led to Kennedy scores: the first one airmailed and the second one short and bouncing.A fumble also led to another Kennedy touchdowns. Just one of those seasons for Jefferson (0-6), which has lost nine straight and 14 of 15.The J-Hawks hung around for awhile, but when things went south, they really went south. Heitland scored on a 55-yard run on the first play from scrimmage of the second half to get the continous clock moving.Jeff averted the shutout in the final two minutes on quarterback Alex Baxters 9-yard TD run and two-point conversion run.Here's the game boxscore:C.R. Kennedy 48 C.R. Jefferson 8

AT KINGSTON STADIUM    

                                            CRJ CRK First downs 8 11 Rushes-yards 36-49 30-239 Passing yards 76 89 Comp-att-int. 9-12-1 4-6-1 Punts-avg. 7-22.0 1.28.0 Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-0 Penalties-yards 6-47 5-50

C.R. Jefferson 0 0 0 8--8 C.R. Kennedy 0 34 14 0--48CRK-Trevor Heitland 3 run (Nicholas Bruns kick) CRK-Joshua Jahlas 7 fumble return (run failed) CRK-Heitland 46 run (Bruns kick) CRK-Jed Haycraft 1 run (Bruns kick) CRK-Jacob Losch 52 pass from Haycraft (Bruns kick) CRK-Heitland 55 run (Bruns kick) CRK-Rossi Adams 1 run (Bruns kick) CRJ-Alex Baxter 9 run (Baxter run)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING -- Jefferson: Alex Baxter 17-40, Tanner Unkel 15-30, Austin Short 2-19, Tanner Lund 1-(minus) 1, Team 1-(minus) 39.

Kennedy: Trevor Heitland 10-170, Rossi Adams 16-55, Jed Haycraft 2-12, Chase Fergus 1-1, Shane Williams 1-1.

PASSING -- Jefferson: Alex Baxter 9-12-1-76.

Kennedy: Jed Haycraft 4-5-0-89.

RECEIVING -- Jefferson: Taylor Birkicht 2-27, Austin Goodell 1-15, Tanner Lund 3-14, Austin Short 1-13, Kyle Mann 1-4, Alex Denny 1-3.

Kennedy: Jacob Losch 1-52, Kyle Lamaak 2-34, Kyle Lamaak 1-3.