Kennedy turns it on, turns it around

Admit it. You gave up on the Cedar Rapids Kennedy Cougars about halfway through the football season.It's OK because they almost did themselves. Almost."That was pretty difficult," quarterback Jed Haycraft said of  his team's 1-4 start. "But this is a senior-led team, most of the starters are seniors. It was our job to keep the morale high, and I think we did a pretty good job with that."After that loss to City High (in Week 5), the coaches expected us to win out. We knew what we had to do, and we did it."Victim of a brutal early schedule, Kennedy (7-4) won four games to close the regular season and has two upset wins in the postseason, advancing to a Class 4A quarterfinal tonight at Kingston Stadium against mighty Bettendorf (11-0). It's been a great turnaround."This has gotten everybody excited," said Kennedy's Christian French."Kingston is going to be great," said Kennedy's Anthony Crawley. "That was our motivator. We brought out all our trophies (the other day). We saw all the little participation trophies and then the quarterfinals trophies. That really got us all pumped up. Then going back to Kingston was an added factor in that."Kennedy has advanced to the quarterfinals four times and semifinals once (1993). Last season, the Cougars shocked unbeaten Bettendorf in the first round, 17-14, so there is history between the teams.They are similar in approach: power football offensively, with strong defenses being their base. Since a 21-0 loss to undefeated City High on Sept. 21, Kennedy has allowed its next six opponents just one touchdown each.It also has forced six turnovers in each of its playoff games, including six interceptions Monday night against North Scott."Our defense loves it when we have to carry (the team)," said Crawley, who had two picks against North Scott. "You know, if our offense gets it rolling, and our defense keeps playing the way it's been playing, we're going to be hard to beat."They have been hard to beat for the better part of a month."Stay positive throughout the whole thing. There was never any doubt," Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis said. "We knew that the first part of our schedule was tough. We played all those teams tough. We lost to Linn-Mar by three, we lost to Wash by seven. City High was 21-0 at half, and it ended up 21-0. So we knew we were difficult (to play against), and that's what we fed off of.""We were just talking about that on the field," Haycraft said. "We put a new offense in this year, and it took awhile to get things going. But the coaches know what they're talking about, know their stuff. Coaches believe in players, and players believe in coaches. We all came together, figured things out, and we're all just playing the best ball of our lives right now."