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Eagles fly past Rebels in the second half

WARREN — Issac Hadley was on a table in the Warren John F. Kennedy locker room following the game with his right ankle being examined.

The junior tailback gingerly walked off the field in the last few minutes of Saturday’s 28-14 victory over Crestview at Mollenkopf Stadium. The Eagles scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter.

Hadley’s injury wasn’t foremost on his mind.

“If this was a loss, it would hurt a lot more,” said Hadley, who had nine carries for 138 yards and a touchdown.

He might not feel the same if what happened in the first half continued.

Crestview built a 14-0 halftime lead shouldered by running of Andrew Yanssens, who had 15 carries for 145 yards and an early second-quarter score.

“I thought we got off the ball well,” said Crestview Paul Cusick, whose team drops to 2-2. “We anticipated they were going to angle. Guys got on them, body on body. Andrew does a good job of finding some space. Second half, they really didn’t change too much.

“They started making plays defensively. We didn’t stay on them. They were stuffing the holes.”

JFK coach Jeff Bayuk spoke to his team in the locker room about second-half adjustments. The Eagles (3-1) came off a 42-7 loss against Girard and an overtime victory against LaBrae the past two weeks. In both games, JFK started off slowly. It was no different Saturday as the Eagles had two interceptions and a fumble in the first two quarters.

Halftime was simple. No magic words. No antics. Just sage advice from Bayuk and his staff.

“Our coaches do a great job of not getting caught up in what’s going on,” he said. “They keep things close to the vest and talk about adjustments. We don’t jump up and down, scream and holler. We don’t do that. But we did tell our kids we can push this team off the ball. We just have to quit turning it over and give ourselves a chance.”

JFK didn’t turn the ball over in the second half.

Crestview had a squib kick which was handled by Kennedy’s Jarrett Likens and smothered at the Eagles 46.

On the first play of the third quarter, Hadley went off tackle and scrambled 54 yards for the team’s first touchdown with 11:54 left.

“Our guys have to learn how to respond,” Cusick said. “Don’t have a negative vibe there. I kind of felt, all of a sudden, we got down on ourselves. We had bad body language. You have to come back and play. Hopefully we learn from that and grow as a team.”

Crestview was held to three and out on the first drive of the third, giving it back to a momentum-driven JFK team.

Kennedy found itself at its own 23 and had a runs of 29 and 28 yards from Valent and Jordan Edmondson – putting the ball at the Crestview 20. Valent faced a fourth-and-11 with 7:45 at the Crestview 21. He scrambled around the backfield, trying to see an open receiver. Valent eventually found Burzynski in the end zone for the tying score. The drive went seven plays in 2:56.

“We basically ran a Hail Mary on that,” Valent said. “They abandoned him. He was wide open. I should’ve hit him earlier. I didn’t. He made a good catch on that.”

The Rebels didn’t have a chance to punt the next time around as Caleb Hill fumbled with 6:39 remaining two plays into the drive. Burzynski recovered the fumble, setting up the Eagles at the Crestview 36.

This JFK drive went six plays as Valent found Hyland Burton heading for the left corner of the end zone, timing a pass over Burton’s right shoulder for a 22-yard score. Kennedy led 21-14 with 4:43 left in the third – completing the comeback.

Defensively, the Eagles held Yanssens to 18 yards in the second half – keeping the bowling ball-like rusher in check.

“We started to catch on to that trap they were running,” Hadley said. “We clogged him up.”

Hill started the second half missing his first four passes. He was 4 of 5 for 20 yards at halftime, finishing 5 of 14 with an interception – including three straight incompletions late in the game.

“We were able to get another free hitter in the box,” Bayuk said of Yanssens. “He was hurting us so much in the first half. That helped a lot.

“Give credit to our defensive coordinator for that. A lot of credit to our offensive coordinator to the plays he made in the second half.”

Cusick told his team to not let Saturday’s result get them down. The Rebels have to focus their Week 5 opponent as they travel to East Cleveland Shaw this Saturday.

“We said we need to learn from this and move past this,” Cusick said. “You can’t forget about it, but you’ve got to learn what you did wrong and how are we going to fix it.

“We played great first half, but you have to play four quarters.”

As for JFK, it was without senior Thomas Yanovich, who was hurt in the Week 3 game with Girard. He sat out against Crestview. Bayuk said he has a lower-body injury and is questionable for the Week 5 matchup next Saturday at Steubenville Catholic Central. Yanovich goes back to the doctor on Tuesday and will be re-evaluated.

Valent added a 58-yard TD run with 5:07 remaining in the fourth.

Getting 231 yards rushing in the second half certainly helped. Kennedy had 81 yards rushing in the first half and finished with 312 at game’s end.

“The best defense you have is not letting the other team get the ball,” Bayuk said. “I’m very pleased with our effort, but we have a long way to go. It’s a lot easier to do it when you’re 3-1.”

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