Kennedy picks up first win

WATERLOO -- Tyler Dralle and Jay Blank combined for 211 rushing yards and three touchdowns as Cedar Rapids Kennedy picked up their first win of the season with a 46-9 win over Waterloo East Friday at Memorial Stadium.

Dralle had 115 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown, he also caught two passes for 83 yards and a score, while Blank rushed for 96 yards and two scores.

The Cougars (1-6) led 32-0 at halftime after holding East to a negative-1 yards.

It was a familiar story for the Trojans (0-7).

East dropped a what looked like a sure touchdown pass on its opening possession, and penalties extended drives for Kennedy and stymied them for the Trojans.

'We had opportunities to make big plays,' East coach Richard Carter. 'First play of game ... touchdown and we drop it. Have a pick six in our hands and drop it. It is the little things you don't really think about and we can't keep making those mistakes and expect to win.'

Dralle and Blank were a big part of the story in the first half as the Trojans struggled to stop toss sweeps to Dralle, and fake toss sweeps, inside hand-offs to Blank. The Cougars had runs of 19, 18, 20, 11, 12 and 16 in the first half where they had 158 of their 267 rushing yards.

Blank gave Kennedy an early 7-0 lead with 3-yard touchdown run that capped off a 7-play, 70-yard drive. A 14-yard pass from Sammy Lizarraga to Drake Brewster made it 14-0. From there East couldn't get out of its own way with eight first-half penalties for 95 yards and four Cougar sacks of Trojan quarterback John Magnuson.

The second half, however, was encouraging for Carter as he saw a team finally starting to have fun playing together. East got a 23-yard field goal from Nathan Heinz to get on the scoreboard and later, Darren Scott scored on a 10-yard run.

'I'm proud of the kids in the second half just for fighting,' Carter said. 'They actually started to have fun. I think sometimes we forget about having fun and just so worried about getting that win. You have to play relaxed.

'That will be the message this week, just have fun, especially for those seniors. We didn't have the season that we want and we have two games left so let's go out there and have fun. play together and we started to see some of that in the second half.'

After being held to a minus-1 yard in the first half, East finished with 111. Scott led them with 33 yards rushing on 11 carries.