Although he's been Kennedy's leading rusher, senior scatback Miles Moa says he's been unhappy with his season so far.

“I had a rough start,” he said Friday night after leading the Cougars to a 35-14 win over Jefferson at Kingston Stadium.

“I wasn't reading the blocks right and kept missing my assignments. Just wasn't producing like I wanted to.”

That all changed in a flash when, on Kennedy's first play from scrimmage, he scooted 29 yards for a score.

“First one of the year,” the 5-foot-9 speedster pointed out. “It felt good. It had been awhile since I'd been in the end zone.”

Moa scored twice more on runs of 25 and 49 yards as Kennedy (4-2, 2-1) rolled up a 28-7 lead over the J-Hawks early in the fourth quarter and coasted home.

For the night, he piled up 183 yards on 20 carries. Coming in, he had gained 363 yards in five games.

“I had a talk with Coach (Tim) Lewis and coach (Brian) White,” he explained. “They told just to focus and trust in myself. Once I got that first score, it gave me a lot of confidence.”

For Jefferson (1-5, 1-3), the game started out like too many they've had this season. Right off the bat, they shot themselves in the foot.

After receiving the opening kickoff, they were called for illegal procedure on their second play. Then quarterback Layne Sullivan threw his first pass into a crowd and was picked off by Logan Daughetee at the 29.

“The story of our season," said Jefferson Coach Brian Webb. “Untimely penalties and poor execution.

“Layne is a great athlete and a tremendous competitor. But that was a bad play on his part. He shouldn't have thrown the pass.”

The game was barely a minute old, and already the J-Hawks were in the hole.

Undaunted, Sullivan marched them down the field on the next possession. With a mix of short passes and keeper plays, he moved them to the Cougars' 20. On fourth down, however, ace field goal kicker Nick Rocha missed wide right.

It was only his second misfire of the season. Another try later in the second quarter was blocked.

On its second possession, Kennedy moved to the 20 after a 42-yard gallop by Terrance Hall. The drive was stymied when Jefferson's Brandon Wiederin intercepted a Derek Jacobus pass at the 6-yard line.

Jacobus atoned for the mistake by scampering 26 yards for a touchdown with 4:31 left in the half.

Kennedy soon scored again when Killian Magee ran a blocked punt into the end zone, but the play was called back because the Cougars had 12 men on the field.

“I was a little frustrated with our game,” said Lewis. “I was happy for the win, of course.

“But we had some breakdowns that need to be corrected. We missed too many tackles. And Sullivan's a great player, but we gave up way too many yards.”

Indeed, the senior signal-caller connected for 274 passing yards with 15 completions out of 40 attempts. Two went for scores in the second half, one a short one to Dakota Tomkins and the other a 67-yard bomb to Bryce Lund.

Webb said his quarterback's numbers should have been much higher.

“Again," he said, “we had almost as many dropped passes as we did completions. We left points off the scoreboard.”

Just before halftime, for instance, the J-Hawks had a 9-yard TD run by Sullivan called back for a penalty. The drive stalled when Nick O'Connell was stacked shy of the goal line on fourth down.

“Our kids play hard, and we do a lot of things well,” Webb said. “But we keep making the same mistakes over and over.”

For Kennedy, four wins should assure a place in the playoffs. Lewis, however, is far from satisfied.

“We don't want a bad seed,” he said. “We've been down that road before. We need to keep rolling.”

KENNEDY 35, JEFFERSON 14

CRK        CRJ
First downs               16                17
Rushes-yards          47-345          34-114
Passing yards             30               274
Comp-Att-Int           2-7-1          15-40-2
Fumbles-lost             1-0               0-0
Punts-avg              5-43.6           3-29.3
Penalties-yards         8-81             2-10

Kennedy     7   7   7   14 - 35
Jefferson    0   0   7     7 - 14

Scoring plays

K – Moa 29 run (Schulz kick)
K – Jacobus 26 run (Schulz kick)
K – Moa 30 run (Schulz kick)
J – Tomkins 6 pass from Sullivan (Rocha kick)
K – Moa 49 run (Schulz kick)
J – Lund 67 pass from Sullivan (Rocha kick)
K – Hall 1 run (Schulz kick)

Individual statistics

Rushing
K – Moa 20-183, Blank 3-16, Wedo 9-35, Hall 9-88, Jacobus 6-23.
J – Sullivan 21-69, Koering 4-18, Lund 4-19, Gesling 1-5, Floyd 1-10.

Passing
K – Jacobus 2-7-1-30.
J – Sullivan 15-40-2-274.

Receiving
K – Shannon 1-11, Heitland 1-19.
J – O'Connell 2-19, Baxter 1-1, Moncivais 5-87, Lund 2-82, Furnish 1-12, Koering 1-19, Tomkins 1-6.