Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West High and Cedar Rapids Kennedy staged an old-fashioned run-first, ask-questions-later game Friday night.

The Cougars were the more successful and came away with a 27-20 victory at Trojan Field in the opener for both 5A teams.

Kennedy nearly wore out running back Jazan Williams, rushing him 31 times for 170 yards and two touchdowns.

At one point in the fourth quarter Williams tapped his helmet to let the bench know he needed a breather.

Message not received.

He ran three more times before a ferocious rush by West High ended the Cougar drive.

Two critical Trojan interceptions bookended the game.

On the first series of the game West High quarterback Jack Wallace was intercepted by Dominic Mann, who returned the ball 25 yards for a touchdown with less than 2 minutes elapsed.

Wallace was picked off on West High’s last-gasp drive in the final quarter, this time by Jeron Senters, who returned the ball to the West High14 with only 1:58 to play.

Kennedy ran out the clock.

Yet in between those two turnovers West High showed a lot of resilience and took advantage of mistakes, especially penalties, by the Cougars.

Undeterred, West tied the score at 7 in the first quarter by putting together a 67-yard drive aided by three big Kennedy penalties.

Wallace hit Christian Janis on an 8-yard crossing route for the TD.

West High’s defense stopped the Cougars, largely due to a 10-yard quarterback sack by Mason Applegate.

Kennedy’s ensuing punt went just eight yards to give the Trojans possession at the Kennedy 45.

The Trojans drove for a go-ahead TD.

On fourth-down-and-7, Wallace scrambled for a first down, and then Applegate rolled over the left side for a 25-yard touchdown run.

Wallace, a freshman, is in his first year as a starter.

“It was pretty good; my team was behind me,” Wallace said. “And again at the end of the day the game came down to the last drive, and that was on me. But I think we’ll improve and go on to get some W’s.”

After giving up a pick-six to start the game, West led 14-7 with 9 minutes left in the half.

“They have real grit,” West coach Garrett Hartwig said. “We have so many new faces, they showed us the grit we were hoping they’d have. They’ve given us something to work with. We’ve got a group that we know what’s in them.”

Kennedy tied the game at half with a key fourth-down conversion from the West High 27. Needing seven yards to keep the drive going quarterback Carson Bleitz rolled out and hit C.J. Coker with a pass at about the 5, and he bulled his way into the end zone.

Field position aided the Cougars on their third touchdown drive. They took over at the West 44 and just pounded it in with seven running plays and led 20-14.

But West High responded with an impressive 73-yard TD drive aided by a personal foul on Kennedy and a 23-yard Wallace to Nate Gudenkauf pass down the sideline.

“I feel like we were confident,” Wallace said. “We got the pass going in the second half and I feel like it came down to a few plays. We have a lot of grit; we have a lot of toughness. We just need to clean up a few things and we’ll be good.

But Kennedy drove deep into West High territory, and even though that drive came up short the Cougars had the Trojans in terrible field position.

West couldn’t move the ball and punted.

Two Williams runs ate up the 37 yards needed to score and take the lead for good.

West High rushed for only 76 yards and passed for 109. Kennedy rushed for 191 yards and passed for 45.

                               CRK               West

First downs              14                  12

Rushing-yards          44-191          29-76

Comp-Att-Int           3-8-0             10-20-2

Passing-yards           45                 108

Punts-avg.                2-31              4-40

Fumbles-lost            0-0                0-0

Penalties-yards        8-60               7-43

CR Kennedy       7  7   6  7  –  27

West High           7  7  0  6   –  20

CRK – Dominic Mann 25 interception return (Luke Bradley kick)

ICW – Christian Janis 8 pass from Jack Wallace (Matt Jetton kick)

ICW – Mason Applegate 25 run (Jetton kick)

CRK – C.J. Coker 27 pass from Carson Blietz (Bradley kick)

CRK – Jazan Williams 4 run (kick failed)

ICW – Wallace 1 run (kick failed)

CRK – Williams 2 run (Bradley kick)

RUSHING – West High: Mason Applegate 9-45, Taylon Mann 6-26, Davontae Morris 6-9, Nate Gudenkauf 1-4, Christian Janis 1-1, Jack Wallace 6- (-9). CR Kennedy: Jazan Williams 31-170, Colin Flannagan 1-11, Luke Bradley 1-7, Carson Musil 1-5, Jason Senters 2-2, Carson Blietz 7-1, team 1-(-5).

PASSING – West High: Jack Wallace 10-20-2 108. CR Kennedy: Carson Blietz 3-8-0 45.

RECEIVING – West High: Nate Gudenkauf 2-35, Christian Janis 5-25, Seth Overton 1-23, Mason Applegate 1-18, Noah DeSaulniers 1-7. CR Kennedy – CJ Coker 1-27, Senters 1-11, Hayden Klett 1-7.

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