Fired-Up Kennedy Wins, 34-7

You can prepare your team on offense and you can prepare your team on defense. But it would have been nearly impossible for El Dorado Coach Rick Jones to get his team ready for the emotion Kennedy showed up with Friday night.

Playing with the inspiration of fallen former teammate Brandon Ketsdever, the 17-year old shot and killed after a plastic pumpkin theft Monday night, the Fighting Irish whipped El Dorado, 34-7, in an Empire League game at Valencia High.

Kennedy players held a pregame, players-only meeting to dedicate the game to Ketsdever, who was a senior at Kennedy and played football last season before switching to water polo this year. Many current players remained close with him.

“The kids were really emotionally up,” Kennedy Coach Mitch Olson said. “They were really ready to play. There were guys in there with tears in their eyes who you normally wouldn’t see that from.”

The most inspired performance came from slot back Steve Yaden, who caught six passes for 60 yards, rushed three times for 22 yards and a touchdown and returned a punt 57 yards for a touchdown. He had a 74-yard punt return called back because of a clipping penalty.

“He’s a dude,” Olson said of Yaden. “He was our go-to guy tonight.”

Yaden had his number called a few more times than usual because receiver Jaiya Howze was out with bruised ribs. Howze should return next week.

El Dorado (3-4, 0-2 in league play) could not get much done against the emotionally charged Fighting Irish (4-3, 1-1). It was a classic case of one step forward, two steps back for the Golden Hawks, who committed three turnovers, dropped four catchable passes and allowed eight sacks. Poor snaps in shotgun formation created four of those sacks.

The loss of running back Nick Zehner hurt. He left with a bad back after the first El Dorado drive. Zehner entered the game with 769 yards.

“He’s a big part of our offense,” El Dorado Coach Rick Jones said. “That forced us to do some things we’re not used to doing.”

Kennedy quarterback Geoff Etherson completed seven of 11 passes for 139 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown to Rhema McKnight. McKnight also had a 47-yard run on a reverse to set up the second of two Kelvin Beatty touchdown runs.

El Dorado scored midway through the fourth on a 12-yard run by Roger Guydon.

The touchdown was set up by Greg Reese’s 56-yard kickoff return.