Kennedy Scores Early, Often to Rout Villa Park
No need for a recount, Kennedy won this one from the start.
The Fighting Irish scored 31 first-half points and walloped Villa Park, 45-14, in a first-round Division VI game Friday at El Modena High.
Kennedy (8-3) didn’t look like the third-place team from the Empire League, forcing three first-half turnovers and scoring on five of its first six possessions to put an early clamp on Villa Park, which had won its first nine games before ending the season with two losses.
“They just came after us,” said Villa Park’s Bryan Arguello. “We were ready, but those turnovers killed us.”
Villa Park (9-2), which had five turnovers in a 14-7 loss to Foothill last week, turned the ball over five more times, including a fumble on the fourth play of the game.
Kennedy, using its a no-huddle offense to perfection, took advantage just over two minutes later, when Geoff Etherson hit Jaiya Howze with a five-yard touchdown pass.
A 50-yard strike from Etherson to Rhema McKnight set up Kennedy’s next score, a one-yard run by Kelvin Beatty with six minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Villa Park quarterback John Henry Jackson, who was intercepted four times against Foothill last week, had three more passes intercepted against the Fighting Irish. The first came on the Spartans’ third possession and Clavon Jubrey returned it 62 yards to the Villa Park 18.
On the next play, Beatty appeared headed to the end zone on a run up the middle, but he fumbled at the three.
The ball continued to bounce Kennedy’s way as McKnight grabbed it out of the air and ran the final three yards for a 21-0 lead with just under a minute remaining in the first quarter.
Alex Vasquez stretched the lead to 24-0 with a 40-yard field goal early in the second quarter, then Beatty scored the second of his four touchdowns on another one-yard run. The drive proved somewhat costly for the Fighting Irish, who lost Howze for the game with a knee injury on the first play.
Kennedy, which came into the game with a two-game losing streak, stayed with its no-huddle offense to start the second half, but were content to hand off to Beatty, who scored on second-half runs of 30 and seven yards and finished with 157 yards in 20 carries.
