The Gainesville Leopards had a two year home game winning streak and were coming off a a 10-2 season last year. They were itching to prove themselves against a bigger, ranked opponent.
Kennedale was coming off an easier than expected win against 5A Crowley, 54-20, and they were flying high. {{more}}
It had the makings of a good football game. It was every bit that and more.
If last week the Kennedale offense deserved the game ball, this week the Wildcat defense earned it. ?It was won in the trenches,? according to Head Coach Richard Barrett.
The Cat’s defense held the Leopards to 170 yards total offense (131 rushing and 39 passing). But the Leopards on defense were no slouches either, holding Kennedale?s power offense to 279 total yards and 14 points.
?They are a really, really good football team, Barrett said. He went on to add, ?They play such good technique. They are so fundamentally sound.?
Kennedale premier running back Juwan Washington did pick up 193 hard fought yards for 6.7 yards a carry and one touchdown, but he was dogged every step of the way.
As the Leopards were keying on Washington, Cody Gillespie was able to pick up 49 yards on just 4 carries (12+ yards a carry) and one touchdown. It was Cody?s touchdown in the 2nd quarter that broke the deadlock giving the Wildcats the lead going into halftime, 7-0.
Gainesville scored their only touchdown of the night with a 20 yard pass by quarterback Mason Copeland (4-15-1) in the third quarter. This knotted the game at 7-7.
Derrick Williams sparked the Wildcats in the 4th with a 48-yards punt return before being chase down at the Gainesville 38-yard line. On fourth and goal Kennedale lost an opportunity to score on the drive when a Washington pass was dropped by an undefended Wildcat receiver in the endzone.
But, the pumped up Cats had a scent for the goal line. Getting the ball back in Gainesville territory, Kennedale drove the ball back to the one yard line. Washington took it over for the second and winning touchdown with 4:39 left to play.
The Cats?s defense, playing like it had all night, stopped a Leopards? comeback with an interception of a Copeland pass with 2:22 left in the game. Gainesville was never able to get out of their end of the field in the fourth quarter.
After the interception, Kennedale ran out the clock, sealing the victory.
?It was good for us, said Barrett. ? It was a good football team and it was a good win for us. What I liked about it, it was on the road. I always tell our kids we have to be ?road tough?. We got to go on the road and win games, close games. This was one of those. Now we get to go home and play a Dunbar team that is a really good, but we get to go home??
The game left the Leopards at 1-1 and Kennedale with 2-0 record, one of their best starts in several years.
Kennedale will play Fort Worth Dunbar (2-0) at home Friday night at Wildcat Stadium. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
TEAM STATS
|
Kennedale |
Gainesville |
| Total yards |
279 |
170 |
| First downs |
12 |
9 |
| Rushes/Yds |
50/279 |
37/131 |
| Average rush |
5.58 |
3.54 |
| Comp-Att-Int |
0-4-1 |
4-15-1 |
| Pass yards |
0 |
39 |
| Comp pct |
0 |
26.67 |
| Punts |
2 |
5 |
| Punting Yards |
71 |
178 |
| Punting Average |
35.5 |
35.6 |
| Fumbles-Lost |
1-1 |
1-1 |
| Penalties-yards |
3-25 |
4-45 |
Read more here: http://w
KENNEDALE
| Rushing |
Att |
Yds |
Yds/Att |
TD |
| Cody Gillespie |
4 |
49 |
12.25 |
1 |
| Juwan Washington |
29 |
193 |
6.66 |
1 |
| Jake Michener |
9 |
23 |
2.56 |
0 |
| Ronald Hayes |
8 |
14 |
1.75 |
0
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/1153/index.html?site=default&mkt=&Season=2014&tpl=Boxscore&ID=46886&Sport=1&TeamID=236&SearchType=Teams#storylink=cpy
|
