Josh Jahlas spied a chance.

Jahlas, a senior linebacker for the Kennedy football team, had as his assignment Friday night to keep an eye on Dubuque Wahlert quarterback Riley McCarron, a versatile runner and passer who led the Mississippi Valley Conference in total offense.

So after McCarron, who also plays cornerback and performs on special teams, returned a punt to the Kennedy 14 late in the first half with a chance to give Wahlert a two-score cushion, Jahlas said he was especially vigilant.

"We were in dime coverage, so I was 'spying' on McCarron," Jahlas said. "I really wasn't in coverage, I was just shuffling across the middle and he just threw it right to me. I just caught it and ran."

Jahlas intercepted McCarron's pass and returned it 34 yards to the Kennedy 47. Eight plays later, Chico Lizarraga tossed a 19-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Heitland that started a 29-0 Kennedy surge and the Cougars ended the regular season with a 36-14 win at Kingston Stadium.

Kennedy (4-2, 5-4) tied Iowa City High for second place in the Mississippi Division of the Mississippi Valley Conference. The Cougars lost to the Little Hawks (7-2) during the regular season, but get another shot at them Wednesday night in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Bates Field in Iowa City.

"I've been probably more nervous than I have been in a long time because I so wanted this group to have a winning record," Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis said.

Heitland ran for 164 yards and two touchdowns and caught a touchdown pass, and Alex Hillyer had 133 rushing yards and two touchdowns for Kennedy. The Cougars rushed for 287 yards, passed for 172 and the defense did a good job most of the night pressuring McCarron to keep him from making magic on the Kingston Stadium carpet.

"Their pass defense was better than I had expected," said McCarron, who ran for 90 yards - 70 on a touchdown run - and passed for 133. "They put pressure on me all night and I think, sometimes, we just made mistakes."

Hillyer's 14-yard touchdown run gave Kennedy a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, but Wahlert bounced back with two scores to take a 14-7 lead with 3:57 left in the first half. The latter score came on McCarron's 70-yard scamper.

Kennedy worked the ball back to its 40-yard line before being forced to punt. McCarron gathered it in, burst up the middle, then cut to the outside and raced down the sidelines before he was finally pushed out of bounds at the Kennedy 14.

There was 1:28 left on the clock and the Golden Eagles took a timeout to give their quarterback a breather that allowed the Cougars to consider the consequences.

A Wahlert touchdown would give the Golden Eagles a 21-7 lead they probably would take into the locker room at halftime.

"I knew we had to get a stop," Jahlas said. "We were down seven at that point. If they would have scored they would have been up 14 and I don't know what would have happened after that."

Lewis said he felt momentum start slipping away after Wahlert scored to take its 14-7 lead.

"Our sideline was dead silent," he said. "So that (Jahlas' interception) was huge to get some confidence back."

McCarron said he saw a receiver open in the end zone.

"I just underthrew it, didn't put anything on it, and threw it right to (Jahlas)," McCarron said. "It was just a big mistake. It turned the game and gave them all the momentum."

Heitland hauled in the tying touchdown with 19.6 seconds left in the half. He also caught a 24-yard pass in the drive and finished with six catches for 84 yards.

"They played a very inspired, very sound, second half," Wahlert Coach Mike Mahoney said of Kennedy. "We fell down a hole and couldn't get back up.

"They have two great backs and we said all week if we're going to win, we got to shut those guys down, we can't let them break off big runs. And they did just that."

Kennedy ran for 169 yards in the second half. Heitland had 130, Hillyer 52 and the rest of the team minus-13.

"We've had a tendency of not coming out ready to go in the second half," Heitland said. "We had a lot of momentum after Josh's interception."

Hillyer's 1-yard run with 4:28 left in the third quarter broke the tie and capped a 13-play, 78-yard drive. There were two big fourth-down plays during the drive. Hillyer burst 19 yards on fourth-and-1 from the Wahlert 44 and Lizarraga tossed a 26-yard pass to Jahlas on fourth-and-13 that carried to the Golden Eagles' 1.

Heitland burst 19 yards on fourth-and-1 for a touchdown with 5:52 left in the game, then put the game away with a 60-yard dash to paydirt with 3:48 left.

Wahlert (3-3, 5-4) also qualified for the playoffs. The Golden Eagles play at Iowa City West (7-2) on Wednesday.

KENNEDY 36, DUBUQUE WAHLERT 14

Dubuque Wahlert     0   14   0     0   -   14
Kennedy                 7     7   7    15   -  36

CRK - Alex Hillyer 14 run (Jordan Holzer kick)
DW - Sam Koenig 1 run (Koenig kick)
DW - Riley McCarron 70 run (Koenig kick)
CRK - Trevor Heitland 19 pass from Chico Lizarraga (Holzer kick)
CRK - Hillyer 1 run (Holzer kick)
CRK - Heitland 19 run (Holzer kick)
CRK - Heitland 60 run (Tommy Kaiser pass from Riley Fergus)

Team Stats

First downs -- DW 12, CRK 20

Rushes yards -- DW 31-150, CRK 44-287

Receiving yards -- DW 133, CRK 172

Comp-Att-Int -- DW 14-27-1, CRK 13-25-0

Punts-avg. -- DW 5-32.2, CRK 3-35.3

Fumbles-lost -- DW 1-0, CRK 0-0

Penalties-yards -- DW 4-25, CRK 3-10

Individual Stats

Rushing -- DW: Riley McCarron 12-90, Sam Koenig 16-61, Jake Decker 2-1, Team 1-(-2).

CRK: Trevor Heitland 13-164, Alex Hillyer 27-133, Shane Williams 1-3, Chico Lizarraga 2-(-11), Team 1-(-2).

Passing -- DW: McCarron 14-27-1-133. CRK: Lizarraga 13-24-0-172, Team 0-1-0-0.

Receiving -- DW: Brady Williams 6-81, Josh Tranel 5-23, Kyle Steines 2-19, John Burgmeier 1-10.

CRK: Heitland 6-84, Josh Jahlas 2-32, Hillyer 2-16, Jacob Frazier-Flores 1-28, Jonah Heskje 1-6, Williams 1-6.

Sophomore score - Wahlert 35, Kennedy 20