By Chuck Mingori

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Kennedy  Catholic Lancers came to conquer and the North Creek Jaguars became victims by a lopsided score of 56-22 in Saturday night high school football playoff action at Renton Memorial.

The No. 3 ranked Lancers (10-0) will continue their quest for a state championship  this Friday against Wenatchee (7-3) at a neutral site yet to be determined.  North Creek, a Bothell area team that competes in the KingCo, fell to 6-3-1 with the season-ending loss.

The Jaguars put up a good fight, but  they simply could not keep pace.   The high-scoring Kennedy Lancers were led by junior quarterback Sam Huard, who passed for 438 yards and six touchdowns.  JFK scored quickly and often, particularly in the first half, and built up a comfortable cushion that held up the rest of the way. 

Huard spread the passing attack around finding six different receivers. Wide receiver Junior Alexander had seven catches for 241 yards and three touchdowns to lead the way.

“When you punch them in the mouth, a lot of teams don’t know how to recover from that,” said junior Thomas Tran, a three-year starter at center, commenting afterward as players and fans celebrated the team’s big victory.

Huard’s father, Damon, the former University of Washington and NFL quarterback, gave his son high praise for the first-half performance, as the younger Huard  threw for five touchdown passes and Kennedy built up a 42-14 lead.

“First half, A-plus. Second half, a little dicey. But they got it done,” said Damon.  “It’s a playoff game and it’s an awesome win for the school for sure…A little, 800-kid school competing against  the big boys.”

The Lancers used to play in the now-defunct 3A/2A Seamount League before moving up to the 4A classification and competing in the NPSL.

Kennedy scored first Saturday after forcing North Creek to punt on its first possession.

The Lancers’ drive started at their own 34 and ended when Huard found Jabez Tinae open on a 13-yard scoring strike. Huard completed 6 of 8 passes on the drive, totaling 60 yards through the air.

The Jaguars drove 82 yards on their second possession to tie the game at 7-all as quarterback Jack Carlton passed to a wide-open Abe Woodard, who broke free to complete a 13-yard score.

Huard demonstrated why he is the No. 1 rated junior quarterback in the country when Kennedy found itself in a hole and facing third-and-37. The talented signal-caller lofted a spiraling pass into the left corner of the end zone, where Alexander caught the ball in stride over his shoulder for a 40-yard touchdown.

A fumble recovery by the Lancers’ Kieran Collins returned the ball to Kennedy at the Jaguars’ 22.  A Kennedy false start moved the ball back five yards, but Zaire Lozolo found the end zone from the 27 when he broke loose up the middle on a run, breaking a tackle at the five to cross the goal line. Lozolo  was the Lancers’ leading rusher with 72 yards on seven carries and two scores.

Jaraye Williams broke up a pass play on defense to stop the Jags on fourth-and-five at the Kennedy 24. Two plays later, Huard went deep again to Alexander. The pass sailed high and long, easily covering some 50-plus yards in the air (probably more), with Alexander hauling the catch in over his shoulder around the Jags’ 25 and breaking away to reach the end zone.  The Kennedy lead stood at 28-7 with 9:52 remaining in the second quarter.

Penalties again pushed Kennedy back on its next possession and the Lancers faced third-and-18 from their 27. This time Huard connected with Justin Baker. The 5-10, 175-pound speedy wide receiver hauled in a pass on the run, found some daylight and was gone down the right sideline to complete a 73-yard pass play.  Kicker Michael Snyder was perfect again on the PAT.

Return man Tyrone Woodward gave the visitors something to cheer about when he returned the Lancers’ kickoff 93 yards to cut the Jaguars’ deficit to 35-14.

Lozolo recovered an attempted onside try by the Jags, who kicked off from their own 25 due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the North Creek score. The Lancers’ quarterback was blind-sided and tackled hard by North Creek linebacker Nick Mitchell, but Huard’s 21-yard scramble on third-and-18 put the ball at the Jags’ 22.

On third-and-goal, Huard went to junior Reed Schumpert for a 10-yard score and a 42-14 advantage with 4:05 left in the first half.

A blocked punt by Mitchell of North Creek gave the Jaguars a two-point safety to open up the second half scoring as the ball rolled out the back of the end zone. After receiving the kick from Kennedy, North Creek was on the move toward another potential score, but an interception by Noah Rushing stopped the threat at the Lancer 20.

Kennedy’s explosive offense moved the Lancers near a score again, thanks to a 13-yard scramble by Huard, a 17-yard draw play to Leland Ward, and pass plays covering 19 yards more  to Alexander and 15 to Ward. But the North Creek defense stiffened and stopped the drive at the 17.

An interception by Zane Thornton gave the ball right back to Kennedy at the Jaguars’ 37, and the 5-9, 195-pound Lozolo scored his second touchdown when he plowed into the end zone from six yards out for a 49-16 lead.

The Lancers scored once more early in the fourth quarter on Huard’s sixth touchdown pass of the game. This 48-yard  score came on a pass thrown to Alexander, who not only outdueled defenders to make the catch,  but stopped, turned around to the outside and outran defenders from some 20 yards out to the goal line.

North Creek added  six  points with a running clock in the fourth quarter on a 14-yard pass play from Carlton to John McAteer, but the two-point conversion pass failed.

The Kennedy Lancers boast a lot of younger individual talent to go along with such senior standouts as star linebacker Sav’ell Smalls and California-bound Justin Baker.  

“We’ve really bonded,” said Tran, the 6-2, 300-pound center for Huard. “I can trust the next man. If I get injured, we’ve got another man up… We don’t get mad at each other, we just play through the whistle and we play hard…we spend hours at the school just getting ready for every single game, because every game is a championship opportunity.”

Baker finished Saturday’s game against North Creek with three catches for 78 yards and a score. Tinae hauled in four passes for 60 yards and a score with Schumpert making three receptions for 36 yards and a score along with a touchdown called back due to penalties. Ward rushed for 46 yards on six carries to go along with his two catches for 23 yards.