The Kennedy Cougars shook off several layers of frustration Friday night and stormed into the Class 4A playoffs with an impressive 48-28 victory over Waterloo West at Kingston Stadium.

The Cougars will enter the postseason tournament Wednesday night with a lowly 2-7 record, but they managed to claim the No. 3 seed from Class 4A District 5 and will play a No. 2 seed from another district in the opening round on the road.

Kennedy suffered a string of near-misses during the regular season against Iowa City West, Jefferson and Cedar Falls that could have given them a winning record, but they shoved all that disappointment aside Friday night and will get a new chance in the playoffs.

"This win meant lots," said Kennedy quarterback Sammy Lizarraga, who had three touchdown passes Friday. "We have qualified 10 straight times for the playoffs with this win. It continues quite a tradition for us."

Jay Blank carried the ball nine times for 115 yards and Tyler Dralle ran 24 times for 113 yards as the Cougars rolled up 323 yards on the ground. Blank scored twice, including a 68-yard scamper, and Dralle also found the end zone.

Shaun Beyer caught two TD passes and Drake Brewster snagged another for the Cougars.

"We wanted to be diverse on offense and showed that tonight," said Kennedy Coach Brian White. "We need to be more productive in the red zone and our offensive line did a great job tonight.

"We just hadn't been finishing in many of our games, but tonight we finished in the red zone."

Kennedy, Jefferson and Waterloo West all finished with 2-3 records in District 5, but Kennedy got the No. 3 seed for the playoffs, Jefferson claimed the No. 4 seed and Waterloo West was eliminated.

"I am so excited for our kids," said White. "We had some competitive losses and we are all 0-and-0 now as we head to the playoffs.

KENNEDY 48, WATERLOO WEST 28

WW          CRK

FIRST DOWNS        12          21
RUSHES-YARDS       26-61       56-323
PASSING-YARDS      156         130
COMP/ATT/INT       12-23-0     8-14-0
FUMBLES-LOST       1-1         0-0
PUNTS-AVERAGE      5-36.0      3-38.7
PENALTIES-         2-10        5-60

WATERLOO WEST     7   14   0  7 - 28
KENNEDY           14  14  13  7 - 48

SCORING PLAYS

CRK - TYLER DRALLE 10 RUN (MARK SCHULZ KICK)
CRK - SHAUN BEYER 6 PASS FROM SAMMY LIZARRAGA (SCHULZ KICK)
WW  - TAYSHAUN COOPER 80 KICKOFF RETURN (ADIJAN MUHAMEDAGIC KICK)
WW  - COOPER 36 PASS FROM DEVON MOORE (MUHAMEDAGIC KICK)
CRK - JAY BLANK 10 RUN (SCHULZ KICK)
CRK - BLANK 68 RUN (SCHULZ KICK)
WW  - TREY BURT 33 PASS FROM MOORE (MUHAMEDAGIC KICK)
CRK - TERRANCE HALL 1 RUN (SCHULZ KICK)
CRK - DRAKE BREWSTER 33 PASS FROM LIZARRAGA (KICK FAILED)
CRK - BEYER 6 PASS FROM LIZARRAGA (SCHULZ KICK)
WW  - TREY BURT 13 PASS FROM MOORE (MUHAMEDAGIC KICK)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING

WATERLOO WEST - TYRONE MOORE 5-11, JAMES DRAINE 12-79, DEVON MOORE 7-(-29)
KENNEDY - TYLER DRALLE 24-113, LOGAN WEDO 8-45, JAY BLANK 9-115, GARRETT KUBOVEC 7-28

PASSING
WATERLOO WEST - DEVON MOORE 12-23-0, 156 yards
KENNEDY - SAMMY LIZARRAGA 7-12-0, 98 yards; TYLER DRALLE 0-1-0, 0 yards; SHAUN BEYER 1-1-0, 32 yards

RECEIVING
WATERLOO WEST - TREY BURT 8-90, LINCOLN CONREY 2-19, JIN-KALI BURKETT 1-14, TAYSHAUN COOPER 1-36
KENNEDY - SHAUN BEYER 4-53, TYLER DRALLE 2-12, DRAKE BREWSTER 1-33, JONAH MOES 1-32