Kennedy High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

No. 3 Cougars roll to 4A quarters

Dalles Jacobus treasures each opportunity he gets to take the field for the Kennedy football team.

The unquestioned emotional leader for the Cougars, Jacobus and his teammates have been on a mission from the opening day of practice. The "family" mantra has been well-publicized this year.

Also well-known is the way the Cougars approach each game.

"It's fun," the senior lineman said. "You get your guy, drive him off the ball and let (Tyler) Dralle do what he does."

Kennedy did just that Monday night at Kingston Stadium. With Jacobus and the rest of the line and receivers leading the way. Dralle rushed unofficially for 142 yards on 28 carries, scoring four touchdowns as the No. 3 Cougars moved to 11-0 with an impressive 49-7 win over North Scott in a second-round Class 4A playoff game.

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Wash tops Jeff, gets Kennedy next

The Washington Warriors have been waiting for two long months to get another shot at the Kennedy Cougars.

Now it's here.

TJ Vogel fired three touchdown passes Monday night as the Warriors topped Jefferson, 42-21, in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs at Kingston Stadium for their 23rd victory in their last 25 games.

Washington (10-1) will battle Kennedy (11-0) in the quarterfinals Friday night at Kingston Stadium, with the winner earning a trip to the Class 4A semifinals in the UNI-Dome.

Kennedy nipped Washington, 28-24, in the second game of the regular season on Sept. 4. Now they'll meet again in a high-stakes showdown of Metro powers.

The Warriors were hoping to draw the Cougars and their wish has been granted.

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White enjoys ride with 10-0 Cougars

Brian White always wanted to be the head coach of a high school football team, but after 20 years as an assistant he wondered if he'd ever get the chance to fulfill his dream.

He applied for the head coaching job at Cedar Rapids Washington when Paul James stepped aside to become the full-time athletic director after the 2005 season, but the Warriors hired a guy from the Chicago suburbs named Tony Lombardi.

Disappointed at not getting the position, White left the Warriors after 12 years and became an assistant coach at Cedar Rapids Kennedy in 2006. Tim Lewis was doing a good job as Kennedy's head coach and there was no reason to think anything would change.

White dug in and did his job with the Cougars.

"I was fine being a defensive coordinator for the rest of my career, if that's the way it was going to be," he said. "I had no problems with that."

Then things changed. Lewis announced after the 2013 season that he was stepping aside as Kennedy's head coach to become the strength and conditioning coach at the school, saying that he was his real passion in mentoring young student-athletes.

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Cougars swamp foes for regional title

Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s swift young swimmers were in first place before the regional meet even started on Saturday, and they just kept piling on the points throughout the afternoon.

In the early lead thanks to Jayden Lovell winning the regional diving title Thursday, the Cougar girls won seven of 11 swimming events in the fast Linn-Mar Aquatic Center pool to swamp the rest of the 10-team field.

Along with setting several school and pool records, Kennedy won its third straight regional championship with 469 points. Cedar Rapids Washington came in a distant second with 300.5 points.

“We’ve got a lot of young ladies who are both talented and motivated,” said veteran Kennedy Coach John Ross.

“They all did well individually today. More importantly, we did really well as a team.

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Lovell wins regional diving title

Jayden Lovell of Cedar Rapids Kennedy won the regional diving title Thursday night at the Linn-Mar Aquatic Center.

Lovell finished with 390.60 points. Brookyn Corey of Linn-Mar placed second at 361.05 and Katie Culver of Linn-Mar was third at 360.15.

Lovell automatically qualified for the state diving meet on Friday, Nov. 6 at the Marshalltown YMCA.

The six regional champions from across the state, along with the next 24 divers with the best regional scores, will gather for the state meet.

Corey, Culver, Skylar Meyers of Jefferson and Amara Taylor Washington all qualified for the state meet.

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Warriors, J-Hawks collide in Round 2

The Washington Warriors and Jefferson J-Hawks began the 2015 high school football season back in August when they collided in the season-opener at Kingston Stadium.

Now one of them -- either the Warriors (9-1) or the J-Hawks (7-3) -- will see their season come to an end when they collide again in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs at 8 p.m. Monday at Kingston.

Washington topped Jefferson, 27-14, on Aug. 29 in the opener. The game was tied in the fourth quarter before the Warriors scored twice to claim the victory.

Both clubs won their playoff openers Wednesday night, with the Warriors skinning Cedar Falls 28-21 and the J-Hawks rolling to a 61-43 victory over Dubuque Senior after a slow start in Mount Vernon.

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Cougars nearly perfect in 59-0 romp

Perfection is impossible to achieve in a high school football game, but the Kennedy Cougars came awfully close Wednesday.

The fourth-ranked Cougars spanked Clinton, 59-0, in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs on a cold, blustery night at Kingston Stadium to cruise into the Round of 16.

Kennedy will host another game at Kingston Monday night.

Tyler Dralle broke the school record for most rushing yards in a season with another spectacular performance, Nick Duehr completed all 10 of his passes for 226 yards and four touchdowns, Shaun Beyer showed once again why he's considered one of the most versatile players in Iowa and the defense pitched its third shutout of the season.

But perfect? No.

Kennedy missed three PATs and lost a fumble, so perfection eluded them.

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Football playoff pairings set by IHSAA

It took until 2 a.m. Saturday morning, but the first round of the high school football playoffs were finally announced by the IHSAA.

Six Metro teams have qualified for the playoffs for the second straight year. Four of them are set to play home games in the opening round Wednesday night, although Jefferson's "home" game will be in Mount Vernon due to overcrowding at Kingston Stadium.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Cedar Rapids Washington both claimed Class 4A district championships and will play in a doubleheader at Kingston.

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Cougars cap improbable perfect regular season

WATERLOO – The final chapter of the first perfect regular season in Cedar Rapids Kennedy football history was written with the same fine ink the Cougars used on their journey here.

Stellar, unbending defense, dominating running, timely play action passing and exceptional third down execution on both sides of the ball told the familiar story of Kennedy overwhelming yet another opponent.

In fittingly imperfect, gloomy playing conditions Friday night -- a steady cold mist and light fog -- the Cougars capped off their improbable and historic historic 9-0 season with a 39-13 jet sweep past an undermanned Waterloo West team at Waterloo Memorial Stadium.

With Nick Duehr throwing for two touchdowns and Shaun Beyer sprinting for 166 yards off big wildcat formation plays, the Class 4A District 5 champion Cougars (9-0, 5-0) roared past the Wahawks and into Wednesday's first-round playoff game.

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