Kennedy Football

Hillyer named to Register all-state team

Corbin Woods, Craig Murtha, Reggie Schulte, Seth Fahnle and Ryan Persick from Xavier High School were named to the Des Moines Register all-state football teams Sunday.

Alex Hillyer of Kennedy, Jarred Edmonds of Prairie, Cam Rathje of Prairie and Trev Biery of Marion also were saluted on the honor squads.

Woods was named to the Register's Elite Team, which honors players from all classes. He caught 59 passes for 1,168 yards and 15 touchdowns as the Saints went 13-1 and reached the championship game in Class 4A. He also was first team all-state in Class 4A.

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Cougars have 4 on all-MVC team

Cedar Rapids Prairie quarterback Jace Hanna has been named the Athlete of the Year in the Valley Division of the Mississippi Valley Conference for the 2012 campaign.

One of the people he topped for the award is Xavier quarterback Reggie Schulte, and they'll meet Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A playoffs at Xavier.

Xavier claimed six spots on the Valley Division's top unit with Schulte, Corbin Woods, Seth Fahnle, Emeliano Martinez, Craig Murtha and Ryan Persick.

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Clock strikes midnight for Cinderella Cougars

CEDAR FALLS - Kennedy senior Alex Hillyer cried as the left the UNI-Dome floor late Monday night.

They were tears of sadness, but also tears of pride.

"I can't believe it's over," he said softly as he walked slowly toward the locker room, his right elbow raw and bloodied. "We made a good run."

Teammates put their arms around him as he left the field. Later, the Cedar Falls Tigers paid their respects, patting him on his shoulder pads as they passed by.

"Great game, man," one of the Tigers said. "Hell of a game," said another.

Hillyer carried the ball 29 for 118 yards, scored two touchdowns, intercepted a pass and made a slew of tackles for the Kennedy Cougars in their Class 4A playoff game against No. 8 Cedar Falls in the UNI-Dome, but it wasn't nearly enough.

Cedar Falls broke three long touchdown runs of 89, 80 and 78 yards and stopped the Cinderella Cougars, 35-15, in the second round of the playoffs.

Kennedy went farther than anyone thought possible a month ago when they were sitting with an ugly 0-and-5 record. Instead of folding, they ticked off five straight wins and gave the Tigers a good battle for much of the night before falling short.

Hillyer ended his senior season with 1,657 yards on the ground, a school record by a considerable amount, and registered 20 touchdowns in a memorable campaign.

"We had fun while it lasted," he said.

Hillyer was the last Cougar to reach the locker room, where Coach Tim Lewis gathered the club for some heartfelt remarks.

"Gentlemen," Lewis began, "I'm really, really proud of this football team. Had somebody told me after the fifth game of the season that we'd play 11 games and finish our season in the UNI-Dome, I'm not sure what I would have said.

"I never quit believing in you. If you've got to lose, you lose in the UNI-Dome in the 11th game, fighting your ass off. And that's exactly what you did."

The Cougars (5-6) won their last four games of the regular season to reach the playoffs, then upset Muscatine 20-17 last Wednesday to make the Sweet 16.

"You should walk away from your high school careers with absolutely no regrets," Lewis said. "And that's an awesome, awesome thing.

"I think you've learned a valuable life lesson, and that's to never give up. Great effort. I'm proud of you guys. We're going to walk out of here with our heads held high."

The three long touchdown runs by Cedar Falls spelled the difference in the game.

Eli Berregaard broke loose for an 89-yard touchdown, Brayden Longnecker rambled for an 80-yard score and Jake Buck had a 78-yard touchdown. It was good running by the Tigers, but also poor tackling by the normally hard-hitting Cougars.

Those three plays long TDs accounted for 247 yards for Cedar Falls, which finished with 470 yards of total offense. Buck scooted for 148 yards, Berregaard collected 141 and Longnecker had 111 as all three Tigers topped the century mark.

Hillyer countered with 118 yards, but it was some of the toughest 118 he's ever had to get. He didn't have much breathing room until he popped for a 39-yard touchdown with 3:24 left in the game.

Kennedy finished with 210 yards of total offense, less than half the amount collected by Cedar Falls. Quarterback Riley Fergus had a rough night, going 4-for-16 through the air for just 37 yards and an interception.

The Kennedy-Cedar Falls contest was the nightcap of a playoff doubleheader in the UNI-Dome and did not start until 9 p.m. The clock struck midnight for the Cinderella Cougars a little early at 11:09 p.m., when their glass slipper finally fell off.

"First of all, let me congratulate the Kennedy Cougars," said Pat Mitchell, the Hall of Fame coach of the Cedar Falls Tigers. "That coaching staff ... to be zero-and-five and put that team back together at 5-and-0 is tremendous.

"Hat's off to them," he said. "They did a great job. The players did a great job."

Cedar Falls (10-1) will visit No. 4 Pleasant Valley (11-0) in the quarterfinals Friday night. The winner of that game plays the winner of Friday's Prairie-Xavier game in the state semifinals on Nov. 9 at the UNI-Dome.

"Our defense played well. We're real happy with it," Mitchell said. "We seem to get a little bit better every week."

CEDAR FALLS 35, KENNEDY 15

CRK        CF

First Downs         12         15
Rushing             48-173     41-383
Passing             4-16-1     5-11-2
Passing Yards       37         87
Punts               8-41.4     3-44.0
Penalties           3-17       3-25
Fumbles/Lost        0/0        2/1

Kennedy       0   7   0   8 - 15
Cedar Falls   7   7   7  14 - 35

SCORING PLAYS

CF - Brayden Longnecker 26 pass from Brian Cook (Jacob Newton kick)
CRK - Alex Hillyer 1 run (Eric Bertroche kick)
CF - Eli Berregaard 89 run (Newton kick)
CF - Jake Buck 78 run (Newton kick)
CF - Longnecker 80 run (Newton kick)
CF - Berregaard 2 run (Newton kick)
CRK - Hillyer 39 run (Hillyer run)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING
KENNEDY: Hillyer 29-118, Moa 5-25, Fergus 8-12, Hall 5-9, Wedo 1-9.
CEDAR FALLS: Buck 22-148, Berregaard 12-141, Longnecker 2-111, Geisler 1-1, Team 1-minus 1, Ferguson 2-minus, Cook 1-minus 16.

PASSING
KENNEDY: Fergus 4-16-1, 37 yards.
CEDAR FALLS: Cook 5-11-2, 87 yards.

RECEIVING
KENNEDY: Martin 2-21, Hall 1-8, Smetzer 1-8.
CEDAR FALLS: Longnecker 3-60, Boettger 2-27.

Cougars upset Muscatine, 20-17

MUSCATINE -- After four quarters of pulse-pounding, hard-fought football, Wednesday's Class 4A playoff game between Kennedy and Muscatine came down to the final second.

Muscatine placekicker Daylan Oldfield lined up for a 42-yard field goal to tie the game and potentially put it into overtime.

Oldfield, who earlier kicked a 52-yard field goal, made good contact, but the ball immediately sailed into the teeth of a blustering wind, falling well short of the goalpost.

And Kennedy players and coaches rushed the field in celebration as they hung on for a 20-17 victory at the Muscatine High School Field.

The win was the fifth straight for Kennedy (5-5) and sends the Cougars into a second-round game against Cedar Falls (9-1) at the UNI-Dome on Monday night at 8:45.

This was a game where Kennedy was an underdog, facing a prolific passing attack on the Muskies’ home field. The Cougars threw out pretenses, and simply played football. The Kennedy defense came up with several big plays, and the offensive unit did their usual ground and pound, but also mixed in some effective passes.

“It is hard to describe how I feel right now,” said defensive/offensive lineman Austin Holzer. “Going from 0-5, to right now, I am at a loss for words.”

“We knew it was going to be a battle tonight,” said Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis. “Muscatine is a great team with a very explosive offense. Our defense stepped up when they needed to and we got out of here with a win."

With the victory, Lewis moved ahead of Kennedy coaching great Don Knock as the all-time Kennedy wins leader.

“Someone told me the other day, and that is the only reason I know. I am just happy we got out of here with a win, that’s a big win for these kids.”

On an unusually balmy and windy October night, Kennedy started strong. The Cougars received the opening kickoff and marched down the field for the game’s first score. The usual rushing suspects Alex Hillyer and Miles Moa each gained good chunks of yards as the Cougars ate up clock and drove down the field.

Then, Riley Fergus ran a bootleg to the left and found a wide-open Partick Martin for a 19-yard touchdown.  The Cougars took six minutes off the first quarter clock and jumped to an early lead.

With the way the Cougars ran the ball, they were able to successfully utilize the play-action pass.

“I read somewhere that said we have no passing game and all we do is run the ball,” said Fergus. “So it’s just one of those things where you have to step up and accept the challenge.”

Fergus passed for 84 yards and a touchdown.

The Muskie’s powerful passing attack didn’t start as such. On their first drive of the game, quarterback Jon Crowe threw an easy interception right to Cougar linebacker AJ Carter. Carter returned the ball to midfield, setting the Cougars up nicely. But Kennedy was unable to capitalize, settling for a missed field goal.

Then, Crowe and his aerial crew got it together. On the next drive, he found several different targets, gaining huge chunks of yards. He capped it with a one-yard touchdown pass to Drake Kulick, knotting the score at 7-7. Crowe finished the game with 246 yards through the air.

“We knew their passing attack was going to be really good," said Fergus, who also plays free safety for the Cougars. “They got a few big ones on us.”

With less than one minute remaining in the first half, Kennedy was threatening in Muskie territory. A barrage of bootleg passes mixed with power runs put the Cougars inside the 10-yard line with 30 seconds left. Hillyer took a toss the right and basically walked in for a touchdown. A missed extra point made the score 13-7.

But the half wasn’t over. The Muskies got the ball with 20 seconds left, and Crowe flicked a few easy completions, setting them up in field goal range. Oldfield nailed this one from 52 yards to bring the game within 13-10.

The third quarter was a stalemate, as both defense were trading blows. Kennedy forced a fumble and intercepted another Crowe pass, preserving its precious lead.

“Our defense was phenomenal,” said Holzer. “All the talk was that they were going to be able to throw the ball and we wouldn’t be able to stop them, but our defense really stepped up when we  needed to.”

Going into the fourth quarter, with the score still 13-10, Kennedy received the ball and put together the eventual game winning drive. As had been the trend of the night for the Cougars, they ran for a few first downs, and then Fergus passed for one.

“The plan going in was that we were going to throw just enough to keep them on their heels,” said Lewis. “We did it just enough tonight to keep them back a bit.”

Hillyer pounded in a 2-yard touchdown to make the score 20-10 with seven minutes left in the ballgame.

Kennedy forced Muscatine to turn the ball over on downs with four minutes left. With the ball and a 10-point lead, Kennedy could have won the game with a few first downs. Instead, the Cougars went three and out, and were forced to punt, giving Muscatine the ball back with three minutes.

Crowe marched his team down the field, and scrambled in for a touchdown with 2:09 left, making the score 20-17.

With less than a minute remaining, the Muskie defense proved to be valiant, and forced Kennedy to punt again.

Muscatine got the ball at Kennedy’s 44-yard line with 15 seconds on the clock. Crowe completed a 15-yard pass to Tyler Lloyd and spiked the ball to stop the clock at seven seconds. Crowe completed another 15 yarder to Lloyd and hurried to spike the ball again, stopping the clock with one tick left on the clock.

Muscatine was at the 25-yard line and had a chance to tie the ballgame and send it into overtime. The rest is history.

“I am just happy to get out of here with a win,” said Lewis. “That is a great football team that we just beat, and it doesn’t really matter how you win at this stage as long as you get the win.”

KENNEDY 20, MUSCATINE 17


CRK                MUS
First Downs                             13                    11     
Rushes-Yards                       47-161             25-100         
Passing                                 7-11-1             18-26-2
Passing Yards                          84                   246
Punts                                      3-40                3-41
Fumbles-Lost                          1-0                   2-1
Penalties                                6-30                 5-25

Kennedy        7       6       0        7    --    20
Muscatine      0      10       0        7    --    17

SCORING PLAYS

CRK -- Patrick Martin 26 pass from Riley Fergus (Eric Bertroche kick)
MUS -- Drake Kulick 1 pass from Jon Crowe (Daylan Oldfield kick)
CRK -- Alex Hillyer 5 run (kick failed)
MUS -- FG Oldfield 52
CRK -- Hillyer 2 run (Bertroche kick)
MUS -- Crowe 7 run (Oldfield kick)


INDIVIDUAL STATS

Rushing
CRK: Alex Hillyer 30-121, Miles Moa 12-30, Riley Fergus 3-3, Terrance Hall 2-7.
MUS: Jon Crowe 12-25, Austin Moss 8-44, Drake Kulick 3-25, Jerson Neda 2-6.

Passing
CRK: Fergus 7-11-1 84 yards
MUS: Crowe 18-26-2 246 yards

Receiving
CRK: Jacob Frazier-Flores 3-40, Patrick Martin 2-20, Terrance Hall 1-19, Miles Moa 1-5.
MUS: Tyler Lloyd 7-91, Drake Kulick 4-12, Jake Shoultz 3-82, Luke Rauenbueler 3-51, Austin Moss 1-15