Heitland, Hillyer lead Kennedy past Washington, 41-28

CEDAR RAPIDS - Where the heck did that come from?

A football team that had virtually no offense its first two games of the season suddenly found some Friday night at Kingston Stadium. A ton of it.

Trevor Heitland and Alex Hillyer had three touchdowns each as Cedar Rapids Kennedy surprised Cedar Rapids Washington, 41-28. It's the Cougars' first win over their east-side rival since 2006 and just their second in the last 12 meetings.

"We moved some players around," said Heitland, who was a wide receiver as much, if not more, than a running back. "Hillyer is the running back now, they moved me to receiver. I don't know what to say. It's working."

And how. Kennedy (1-2) had all of 123 yards in its first game against Cedar Rapids Xavier. Last week against Linn-Mar, it was 147.

But moving the talented Heitland to the outside and running out of a three-back, power-I formation a lot of the time did wonders. Hillyer finished with 212 yards rushing, Heitland added 79, as Kennedy rolled to a 35-14 fourth-quarter lead and hung on.

Heitland also had 100 yards receiving on six catches. That included a huge eight-yard gain to convert a 4th-and-5 at the Wash 25 with two minutes remaining and Kennedy nursing a 35-28 lead.

The Cougars finished with 313 yards rushing on 60 attempts.

"We felt like we had two good backs," said Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis. "The stacked-I, that's what we came up with."

Washington (2-1) actually finished with 478 yards, with receiver Flynn Heald having an unbelievable game of 21 catches for 293 yards (both Mississippi Valley Conference records). The Warriors (2-1) scored on the first play from scrimmage, as fullback David Tann rolled 73 yards for a touchdown.

But three turnovers and the inability to stop Kennedy offensively did them in.

"I still think we're a better team than the scoreboard says," Heald said. "We're going to have to work at it starting tomorrow ... I wasn't keeping track (of his catches). I was just trying to win. It's whatever is best for the team. If that means I have to catch the ball 21 times or zero times, it's whatever Coach (Tony) Lombardi wants."

Kennedy countered Tann's touchdown with a 73-yard drive (all on the ground) culminated by Hillyer's 1-yard plunge. Heitland's 4-yard run in the final minute of the first quarter gave the Cougars a 14-7 lead.

A 14-yard Heitland touchdown run and Hillyer 8-yarder made it 28-7 late in the quarter, though Washington quarterback Braedon Tovey countered with a 10-yard TD run that made it a 28-14 game at halftime.

Heitland had a 34-yard catch and run from quarterback Jimmy Lizarraga to make it 35-14, but Wash made in interesting when Walter Short crashed over from the 2 for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter and Noah Dostal caught a 4-yard TD pass from Hovey with 3:09 left.

Hillyer galloped free for a 19-yard touchdown run immediately after Heitland's big fourth-down catch for the final margin. Hovey completed 23 of 45 passes for 305 yards but was intercepted twice.

Here is the game boxscore:

TEAM STATISTICS

CR Wash.

CR Kennedy

First downs

20

22

Rushes-yards

28 - 173

60 - 313

Passing yards

305

140

Comp-Att-Int

23 - 45 - 2

7 - 10 - 0

Total yards

478

453

Fumbles-lost

1 - 1

1 - 0

Punts-average

3 - 48.3

4 - 44.2

Penalties-yards

5 - 45

1 - 5

Rushing:

 CR Wash. –

David Tann 3-80 ,

Walter Short 13-69 ,

Braedon Tovey 6-13 ,

Mitch Bredeson 6-11

 CR Kennedy –

Alex Hillyer 36-212 ,

Trevor Heitland 18-79 ,

Jimmy Lizarraga 6-21

Passing:

 CR Wash. –

Braedon Tovey 23-45-2-305

 CR Kennedy –

Jimmy Lizarraga 7-10-0-140

Receiving:

 CR Wash. –

Noah Dostal 1-4 ,

Flynn Heald 21-293 ,

Mitch Blades 1-8

 CR Kennedy –

Trevor Heitland 6-100 ,

Josh Jahlas 1-40

CR Wash.

7

7

14

–

28

CR Kennedy

14

14

7

6

–

41

CRW-David Tann 73 run (Michael Daughtery kick)

CRK-Alex Hillyer 1 run (Jordan Holzer kick)

CRK-Trevor Heitland 4 run (Holzer kick)

CRK-Heitland 14 run (Holzer kick)

CRK-Hillyer 8 run (Holzer kick)

CRW-Braedon Tovey 10 run (Daughtery kick)

CRK-Heitland 34 pass from Jimmy Lizarraga (Holzer kick)

CRW-Walter Short 2 run (Daughtery kick)

CRW-Noah Dostal 4 pass from Tovey (Daughtery kick)

[gallery columns="2"]

CRK-Hillyer 19 run (kick failed)