Andy Henry had a dream.

In that dream, he grabbed the opening kickoff at new Linn-Mar Stadium and raced for a touchdown to help the Lions christen their $10 million park in style.

Dreams do come true.

Henry sprinted 95 yards with the opening kickoff Friday night and No.8 Linn-Mar squashed Kennedy, 42-14, in the first varsity football game ever played in the Lions' new den.

"Yeah, I definitely dreamed about it," he said. "But I didn't know I was going to return it like that. I don't think anybody got close to me."

Kennedy did not lay a finger on Henry, which is pretty much how it went all night for the struggling Cougars.

Linn-Mar (2-0) led 35-7 at halftime and ignited a continuous clock when it took a 42-7 lead with 5:53 left in the third quarter. This was a Mississippi Valley Conference blowout of major proportions before roughly 5,500 fans.

The Lions held Kennedy (0-2) to 123 yards of total offense and were three times better than the visitors. Linn-Mar finished with three times as many yards (369 to 123) and three times as many points (42 to 14).

"That's about as picture-perfect as you can put it," said Linn-Mar quarterback Mark Atwater. "We were clicking all the time. It was awesome, it was great."

Atwater connected with Zach Martins for a pair of touchdown passes and also ran for a 20-yard score. He finished 12 of 17 for 173 yards before calling it a night on offense with 4:20 left in the third period and the Lions cruising 42-7.

"To get out of here with a score like this, we're pretty happy," said Linn-Mar Coach Bob Forsyth.

The Lions waited impatiently in their locker room for Forsyth to finish a TV interview so they could sing and dance the hokey-pokey, something Forsyth borrowed from former Iowa Coach Hayden Fry after he worked for Fry as a graduate assistant in the early 1990s.

Forsyth emerged from the dance party with a big smile.

"Like I just told them, this game was won on Monday," he said. "We started getting ready on Monday and they stayed locked in the whole week and didn't deviate from that.

"It was one of the best weeks we've ever had around here for practice and I'm just urging them to do it again next week. It just turned out great for us tonight."

It turned out awful for Kennedy. The Cougars gained only 146 yards in a 28-0 loss to Xavier last week, then managed only 123 markers against the stingy Lions.

"I'm not saying that I thought we'd be 2-and-0 right now," Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis remarked, "but I didn't think we'd have back-to-back butt-whippings like we've gotten the last two weeks."

Henry caught the opening kickoff on his 5-yard line, veered to his right and was gone, lickity-split. "I told you the kid can fly," said Atwater.

It took 12 seconds for Henry to score the first touchdown at the new stadium, delighting the home folks who filled nearly all the 5,000 spots on their side of the field. Kennedy appeared to have about 500 fans on the east side.

The Cougars had a quick three-and-out on their first possession and punted the ball away. Atwater promptly led Linn-Mar on a 57-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 15-yard scamper by Mitch Wantock to make it 14-0 with 6:25 left in the first quarter.

Kennedy scored on a 2-yard run by Alex Hillyer on the first play of the second quarter and pulled within 14-7, but the rest of the night belonged to Linn-Mar.

The Lions scored three straight touchdowns in the second period to make it 35-7 at halftime, ending any suspense on opening night at the shiny new arena.

Brandon Ophoff scored on a 7-yard run to make it 21-7, Martins caught a 20-yard TD pass from Atwater to make it 28-7 and Atwater scored on a 20-yard jaunt to make it 35-7.  Quinn Treiber was 6-for-6 on PATs for the Lions.

The second half was an afterthought.

"We're not playing good football right now, and I don't know the reason for that," said Lewis, perplexed by his club's weak start. "As I've told the players, the coaching staff takes full responsibility. We are not getting them ready to play football on Friday night. And I don't know why."

Lewis questioned his team's toughness. "That's what it seems like to me," he said.

The Cougars suffered heavy graduation losses, but Lewis said they had a good off-season.

"It's hard in this league to lose that many players and come back and expect to pick up where you left off, but we had higher expectations," he said. "We thought we'd be better."

Kennedy began the 2010 campaign with three straight losses, but reached the quarterfinals of the Class 4A playoffs and finished with a 7-5 record. Lewis said his team needs to improve in a hurry to have any hope of duplicating last year's success.

"I told the guys, we are in for a battle every week," he said.

Kennedy scored a consolation touchdown with 28 seconds left in the game on a 1-yard run by Trevor Heitland.

The Cougars ran the ball 35 times for 38 yards against the tenacious Lions. Quarterback Chico Lizarraga completed 8 of 15 passes for 85 yards, but operated under heavy pressure much of the game and was sacked four times.

"We really got after it tonight defensively," said Atwater, who also plays linebacker. "Man, that's the best we've played, probably, in the three years I've been here. I think defensively that was a great performance."

Linn-Mar plays Dubuque Wahlert (2-0) at Loras College next Friday. Kennedy faces Washington (2-0) at Kingston Stadium.

LINN-MAR 42, KENNEDY 7

CRK      L-M

First Downs     9        21
Rushing         35-38    32-196
Passing         8-15-1   12-18-0
Passing Yards   85       173
Punts           5-32.2   0-0.0
Fumbles/Lost    0/0      2/2
Penalties       6-45     10-70

Kennedy    0  7  0  7 - 14
Linn-Mar  14 21  7  0 - 42

LM - Andy Henry 95 kickoff return (Quinn Treiber PAT)
LM - Mitch Wantock 15 run (Treiber PAT)
CRK - Alex Hillyer 2 run (Jordan Holzer PAT)
LM - Brandon Ophoff 7 run (Treiber PAT)
LM - Zach Martins 20 pass from Mark Atwater (Treiber PAT)
LM - Atwater 20 run (Treiber PAT)
LM - Martins 5 pass from Atwater (Treiber PAT)
CRK - Trevor Heitland 1 run (Holzer PAT)

INDIVIDUAL STATS

KENNEDY

Rushing: Heitland 16-50, Hillyer 10-18, Williams 2-1, Jahlas 1-1, Lizarraga 6-minus 32.
Passing: Lizarraga 8-15-1, 85.
Receiving: Jahlas 3-24, Hillyer 2-34, Heitland 1-12, Williams 1-8, Struss 1-7.

LINN-MAR

Rushing: Wantock 12-92, Atwater 6-55, Ophoff 5-44, Trabucco 2-23, Martins 1-6, Luerkens 1-5, Burbridge 2-1, Davis 1-0, Team 2-minus 30.
Passing: Atwater 12-17-0, 173; Team 0-1-0, 0.
Receiving: Henry 4-81, Hutchins 3-29, Martins 3-27, Redmond 1-24, Luerkens 1-17.