Cedar Rapids Kennedy junior running back Terrence Hall saw daylight and led the Cougars to a 28-24 win over Cedar Rapids Prairie Friday at John Wall Memorial Field.

Hall led a powerful Kennedy rushing attack with 99 yards on 13 carries. Miles Moa added 91 yards and Logan Wedo 79 yards as the Cougars ground it out, especially when it mattered the most, to improve to 2-0.

"We weren't going to let them stop our run game," Hall said. "We were going to pound it down their throat. That's what we do. That's what we work on in practice. It pays off."

Kennedy trailed 24-14 late in the third quarter, but responded with a pair of long, clock-killing, grind-it-out drives that ended with touchdown runs by Hall.

"That's what we do," senior lineman Austin Holzer said. "We run the ball, then run the ball some more. That's our offense."

The Cougars churned up the black pebbles of the Field Turf with a 12-play, 75-yard drive followed by a 10-play, 72-yard drive, throwing the ball just four times.

"They were tough," Prairie Coach Mike Morrissey said. "It was a matter of them controlling the line of scrimmage, that was the big thing. They were phsyical enough to make big plays when they needed to."

Hall even got to do a little coaching. Early in the game, the junior noticed on plays out of the Stacked-I, when he was the second blocker, there was a lot of daylight.

"I told Coach when we kept running 21 blast, and I saw the fullback hit the linebacker, it was a guarenteed five yards," Hall said. "I said, 'Coach, ya know, give it to me. It's a guaranteed five yards. First down after first down.' Coach said, 'You know what, I'm going to go with it.'

"And it was working. They couldn't stop it."

Hall had just one carry in the first half, but ran 12 times for 86 yards in the second half. And 10 of those times, he gained at least five yards.

"That's one of the things with the Stacked-I we really like," Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis said. "It gives us three or four, with the QB, legitimate running threats.

"A lot of teams will key the fullback, so that opens up that running play for that Z-back. It worked out nice for us."

It was also a nice redemptive week for Hall, after he fumbled his first carry last week.

"He's such a good kid and had a good week of practice," Lewis said. "It was good to see him have some success."

The Cougars scored the final 14 points of the game, but the Prairie Hawks had been looking good, up 24-14 after a 3-yard touchdown run by junior quarterback Trey Beckman with 3:56 left in the third quarter.

The Prairie offense showed a lot of life. Senior tailback Mitch Christensen ran for 120 yards on 18 carries for Prairie (1-1).

And the Prairie Hawk passing game - a staple last season but off-line in Week 1 - got into gear led by senior receiver Mitch Dellamuth, who had six catches for 124 yards, including two for touchdowns.

"It was going pretty good," Dellamuth said. "We got the passing game going, which we didn't do last game.

"But we had some people going down. They were able to stay in the game and give full effort."

Cramps and a few injuries hurt both teams, but Prairie in particular. Senior Joseph Landon was helped off early in the third quarter and Dellamuth missed time.

"We left some opportunities on the board," Morrissey said. "We had some costly penalties, some costly plays, and beat ourselves at times."

Prairie was moving in Cougar territory midway through the fourth quarter, with a 1st-and-10 at the Kennedy 20, when a motion penalty, a tackle for loss by Kennedy's Jordan Lunsford and three incomplete passes stifled and ended the drive.

Beckman finished 15-of-35 for 159 yards. His only interception came late in the game.

Prairie got the ball back with 2:33 to play, trailing by four, and 70 yards from the end zone. On 3rd-and-10, Beckman was picked off by Jacob Shannon, effectively ending the game.

"We had been playing them a little bit soft, and that was hard on our secondary," Lewis said. "We didn't want to give them too much cushion, but at the same time, we wanted to keep things in front of us."

Prairie led for much of the game. On their first offensive play, Beckman hit Dellamuth on a 52-yard play-action bomb to put Prairie up 7-0.

When Kennedy evened it up on a TD run by QB Derek Jacobus, Prairie came right back on its next drive to score. Beckman was 4-of-5 on that drive for 64 yards, including another scoring strike to Dellamuth.

Kennedy evened it up again on a 38-yard pass from Jacobus to Drew Heitland to make it 14-14.

Prairie took a 17-14 lead into halftime on a 20-yard field goal by Sam Drysdale, after failing to score a touchdown on 1st-and-goal from the Kennedy 10.

"Those are things that happen," Morrissey said. "You try to make the most of situations and things that happen."

Prairie converted a big 4th-and-8 at the Kennedy 27 on a 14-yard pass from Beckman to Dellamuth to set up the 3-yard run by Beckman that put the Hawks up 24-14 with 15:56 to play in the game.

But the Cougars had the last say.

"That's big for the offensive line to know it's on me, it's on the offensive line to get the ball in the end zone every time," Holzer said.

Kennedy, which started 0-5 last year before winning out to make the playoffs, is now 2-0 and travels to Iowa City West (2-0) next week. Prairie has to rebound at Xavier (2-0).

KENNEDY 28, PRAIRIE 24

CRK      CRP
First downs         24        18
Rushes-yards    53-283   26-130
Passing yards      103      159
Comp-Att-Int    8-12-0   15-35-1
Fumbles-lost        1-0      1-0
Punts-avg.        4-39.0   3-42.7
Penalties-yards    4-40     8-60

Kennedy      7   7   0  14 - 28
Prairie        14   3   7    0 - 24

Scoring plays

CRP - Mitchell Dellamuth 52 pass from Trey Beckman (Sam Drysdale kick).
CRK - Derek Jacobus 3 run (Mark Schulz kick).
CRP - Dellamuth 11 pass from Beckman (Drysdale kick).
CRK - Drew Heitland 38 pass from Jacobus (Schulz kick).
CRP - FG Drysdale 20.
CRP - Beckman 3 run (Schulz kick).
CRK - Terrence Hall 10 run (Drysdale kick).
CRK - Hall 8 run (Drysdale kick).

Individual Statistics

Rushing

Kennedy - Terrence Hall 13-99, Miles Moa 15-91, Logan Wedo 13-79, Derek Jacobus 11-12, Jay Blank 1-2.
Prairie - Mitchell Christensen 18-120, Trey Beckman 8-10.

Passing

Kennedy - Derek Jacobus 8-12-103-0.
Prairie - Trey Beckman 15-35-159-1.

Receiving

Kennedy - Drew Heitland 7-91, Jacob Shannon 1-12.
Prairie - Mitchell Dellamuth 6-124, Kentrel Smith 3-31, Jesse Vizzini 3-21, Drayton Zimmerman 2-36, JoJo Simpson 1-7.