Disappointment turned to domination Friday night for the Kennedy football team.

The Cougars, reeling with five straight losses to start the season, steamrolled Jefferson, 44-0, for a happy homecoming in a Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division game at Kingston Stadium.

Senior Alex Hillyer ran 23 times for 159 yards and three touchdowns for Kennedy (1-5, 1-2). Senior Riley Fergus completed 6 of 12 passes for 97 yards and two touchdowns. Senior Patrick Martin caught three passes for 64 yards and a touchdown.

"It was a great team effort," Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis said. "I'm proud of the kids for hanging in there. I think a lot of times when you have the expectations that we did to start the season and you go 0-5, a lot of kids jump ship.

"I think they've been hearing negative things in the hallway, and maybe even at home. But they just kept buying in to what we were selling."

The Cougars rolled up 242 yards of rushing offense and 339 total yards.

"The offensive line has been doing a good job all year," said Hillyer, who scored on runs of 38, 3 and 10 yards. "They were opening up big holes."

"This was a huge game for us," Fergus said. "Getting that zero off our backs was really important."

As good as the offense was, the defense played even better.

Jefferson (1-5, 1-3) was held to minus-23 yards rushing in 27 carries and had 48 total yards. The J-Hawks did not achieve a first down until midway through the third quarter, when they trailed 30-0.

"It's very disappointing," Jefferson Coach Brian Webb said. "I thought our kids were ready to play, but it just comes down to execution and fundamentals.

"I sound like a broken record, but you have to be able to block, you to be able to tackle. You have to be able to do those fundamental things that we're struggling to do right now."

The result was total domination by the Cougars.

"We had a lot of fun," said Fergus, who also plays some linebacker in addition to quarterbacking the offense. "Our coaches did a good job of staying on us this week and we got a lot of good senior leadership that lit a fire under us. We were just flying around having a lot of fun."

Kennedy did something it hasn't done all year to start the game. After winning the pregame coin toss, the Cougars chose to receive the opening kickoff.

"We usually defer and I've been telling coach we need to take the ball so we can get some points and get ahead," Hillyer said.

It turned out to be a wise move. Hillyer took the opening kickoff and returned it 43 yards to the Jefferson 37.

The Cougars drove to the Jefferson 18 and on fourth-and-3 elected to try a 37-yard field goal.

"When I called for the field goal a couple of coaches kind of looked at me funny," Lewis said of his decision to let Eric Bertroche attempt the field goal. "I wanted points on the board. I wanted, for the first time this year, to be ahead in a game. I wanted to get some momentum."

Bertroche banged the ball through the uprights for a 3-0 lead barely two minutes into the game.

And Kennedy unleashed its defense.

Jefferson went three-and-out its first two possessions and punted.

Kennedy got the second punt on its own 38. Four plays later, Hillyer scampered 38 yards for a touchdown and a 10-0 lead with 2:12 left in the first quarter.

The rout was on.

An interception by Kennedy's Donovan Kosman gave the Cougars the ball back at the Jefferson 40.

The Cougars had a third-and-15 from the 45 when Fergus arced a bomb over the head of Jefferson corner Blake Bernhauer and into the hands of a leaping Martin, who gathered the ball at the 10 and spun untouched into the end zone for a 17-0 lead one play into the second quarter.

Hillyer's 3-yard plunge gave the Cougars a 24-0 lead at halftime.

Hillyer scored on a 10-yard run in the third quarter, and Fergus threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Miles Moa 45 seconds into the fourth quarter that started a continuous clock.

The Cougars finished their scoring on a 51-yard interception return by Triston Christopher with 7:19 left in the game.

"We'll see if we turned the corner," Lewis said. "We'll see if they enjoyed that enough tonight to do it again."

Kennedy plays at Waterloo East next Friday night.

Jefferson hosts Washington at Kingston Stadium next Friday.

KENNEDY 44, JEFFERSON 0

First downs -- CRJ 6; CRK 18  
Rushes-yards -- CRJ 27-(-23); CRK 40-242        
Passing yards -- CRJ 71; CRK 97   
Comp-att-int -- CRJ 8-20-2; CRK 6-13-0   
Punts-avg. -- CRJ 7-37.4; CRK 2-37.5   
Fumbles-Lost -- CRJ 1-0; CRK 0-0  
Penalties-yards -- CRJ 5-34; CRK 8-65

Jefferson            0      0      0     0   --     0
Kennedy            10    14     6    14  --    44

CRK - FG Eric Bertroche 37
CRK - Alex Hillyer 38 run (Bertroche kick)
CRK - Patrick Martin 45 pass from Riley Fergus (Bertroche kick)
CRK - Hillyer 3 run (Bertroche kick)
CRK - Hillyer 10 run (kick failed)
CRK - Miles Moa 10 pass from Fergus (Bertroche kick)
CRK - Triston Christopher 51 interception return (Bertroche kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing
CRJ -  Michael Moncivais 5-30, Hunter Kloubec 1-0, Ben Koering 1-(-1), Tim Larson 1-(-1),  Nick O'Connell 7-(-14), Layne Sullivan 11-(-24), Team 1-(-13)
CRK - Alex Hillyer 23-159, Terrence Hall 6-52, Miles Moa 9-40, Riley Fergus 2-(-9)

Passing
CRJ - Sullivan 8-20-2-71
CRK - Fergus 6-12-0-97, Hillyer 0-1-0-0

Receiving
CRJ - Moncivais 3-16, Kloubec 2-33, Peter Watson 1-12, Colton Cortez 1-7, Will Orr 1-3
CRK - Patrick Martin 3-64, Jacob Frazier-Flores 1-16, Moa 1-10, Hillyer 1-7

Sophs -- Kennedy 20, Jefferson 13