Kennedy quarterback Derek Jacobus made up for lost time Friday night, leading the Cougars to a 14-10 victory over Cedar Rapids Washington at Kingston Stadium.

It was the first season-opening win for Kennedy since 2008, and it was engineered by a player who missed the entire 2012 campaign.

Jacobus sat out last fall with a shoulder injury he suffered during the pre-season while working as a receiver.

"He missed the game a lot," Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis said. "But he's a great kid, and a great athlete.

"He's going to get in there and do what's working."

Nothing much was working for the Cougars early. They fumbled inside their own 5-yard-line on their very first offensive play of the season, giving Washington a quick 7-0 lead on a short Johnny Dobbs touchdown run.

And the next three times Kennedy had the ball, not much happened.

Then Jacobus and the Cougars got the ball with less than 2 minutes until halftime, and on the first play Jacobus took a quarterback sweep for 45 yards to the Warrior 32.

"Nothing was going right," Jacobus said. "We didn't have a snap on their side of the 50. I saw a hole, took it. Big play there."

Every hit was cathartic for Jacobus.

"It was great," he said of playing again. "You can't play scared. After that first hit I was like 'alllllllllright.'"

Jacobus followed his big run with some strong passing, connecting with Miles Moa for 5 yards and Jacob Shannon for 11 yards before putting Kennedy on the board with a 25-yard scoring strike to Moa with 15.4 seconds left before intermission. It was 10-7 Washington at half.

"That was huge," Jacobus said. "We were down by three still, but it seemed we were back in it. We knew we were back in it."

Kennedy used its Power-I formation to drive down the field in seven plays at the start of the third quarter and go ahead 14-10. Moa had three carries for 48 yards on the drive, but it was finished on a 3-yard touchdown run by junior Logan Wedo.

"I thought our kids hung in there," said Washington Coach Paul James, now in his second stint with the Warriors. "Defensively the two drives on either side of halftime really killed us. We shut them down pretty well other than that."

Kennedy's Power-I worked well in the hot, humid season-opener. Moa had 108 yards on 16 carries and Jacobus added 58 rushing yards to go with 61 passing yards.

"We put it in in the late '90s, and every year we go back to it." Lewis said of the Power-I. "This is what we do. We've come to grips with that."

But what won the game for Kennedy in the second half was its defense.

Washington managed just 22 rushing yards in the second half. The Warriors missed sophomore running back Johnny Dobbs, who hurt his ankle after running for 27 yards on 8 carries in the first half. He left the stadium on crutches.

"Mason Taylor is a good back, but having two that we can roatate is important," James said. "And having Johnny out on defense, that affected us."

Taylor finished with 27 yards on 9 carries. Junior fullback Connor Vincent had 42 yards on 7 carries.

The loss of Dobbs put a lot of pressure on junior quarterback Reid Snitker, who ran for 34 yards and threw for 103 yards in his first varsity start.

"We drove down the field pretty good, but had a couple fumbled snaps," Snitker said. "That takes away another down that we could've gotten a first down, or a score.

"Fatigue kind of got to us. We've got to be mentally tougher next time."

James was returning to the sidelines as the head coach for Washington for the first time since 2005. The Warriors were 3-6 last season and have installed a new offense to go with the new/old coach.

"I was happy with our effort," James said. "We've got a lot of young kids on offense. Our quarterback hasn't played a whole lot of quarterback. He's a free safety for us. So we're learning and getting better."

Washington got the early 10-0 lead thanks to the Kennedy fumble and a 26-yard field goal by Gunnar Lenzen. But the Cougar defense got mean against the pistol formation when the Warriors got behind.

Austin Holzer had a big tackle for loss and Prince Kollie had a drive-ending sack for Kennedy. Kennedy's Triston Christopher also had a big sack on Washington's final drive.

"The second half was great," Holzer said. "Our defensive line hit our angles hard, and made it hard for them to run counters, powers and traps."

Holzer said halftime adjustments by their defensive ends kept them from getting picked off on counters by the Warriors.

"They are quick on defense and physical up front," James said. "They've got some experience."

Kennedy has been notorious for slow starts and last year had to win five straight at the end of the season to make the playoff field in Class 4A.

Starting 1-0 is a revelation for the Cougars.

"It's a huge boost rather than starting out 0-1," Holzer said. "We've got to keep momentum going into the second week."

Kennedy plays next Friday at Cedar Rapids Prairie. Washington hosts Iowa City West at Kingston Stadium.

KENNEDY 14, WASHINGTON 10

CRW        CRK
First downs       14       11
Rushes-yards      41-129   31-170
Passing yards     103      61
Comp-Att-Int      6-12-0   4-11-0
Fumbles-lost      2-0      2-1
Punts-avg.        4-47.5   6-33.1
Penalties-yards   4-35    4-35

Washington      7  3  0  0  - 10
Kennedy         0  7  7  0  - 14

Scoring plays
CRW - Johnny Dobbs 3 run (Gunnar Lenzen kick).
CRW - FG Lenzen 26.
CRK - Miles Moa 25 pass from Derek Jacobus (Mark Schulz kick).
CRK - Logan Wedo 3 run (Schulz kick).

Individual Statistics

Rushing
Washington - Reid Snitker 14-34, Mason Taylor 9-27, Johnny Dobbs 8-27, Connor Vincent 7-42, Caleb Smothers 2-4, Kaine Cooks 1-(-5).
Kennedy - Miles Moa 16-108, Derek Jacobus 8-58, Logan Wedo 4-8, Terrence Hall 2-(-2), Jay Blank 1-0.

Passing
Washington - Reid Snitker 6-12-103-0.
Kennedy - Derek Jacobus 4-11-61-0.

Receiving
Washington - Clayton Bjornsen 3-42, Landen Akers 1-29, Johnny Dobbs 1-16, Lars Bjornsen 1-16.
Kennedy - Miles Moa 2-30, Drew Heitland 1-24, Jacob Shannon 1-7.