Bloomington Jefferson's name goes on the Battle of Bloomington trophy this year after a 35-12 win at Kennedy on Oct. 21. It was the first rivalry game played at Kennedy's on-campus stadium, and the Jaguars (4-4) turned Kennedy's mistakes into a 35-0 lead by halftime. Kennedy fell to 2-6. Jefferson's football program has since announced that the teams will play each other again in the playoffs.
Kennedy started well. Xavier Boyd recovered a fumble on the second play of the game, but the Eagles couldn't score off it. Jefferson took the lead with less than 90 seconds left in the first quarter, when quarterback Joe Moore hit Gavin Vanoverbeke in stride for a 36-yard touchdown on fourth-and-9.
The second quarter is where the game got away from Kennedy. Gus Vollmuth caught 3 touchdowns in the half. Moore found him on a 4-yard play-action crossing route, and a 2-point conversion made it 21-0 with 2:11 left. Josiah Jogunoori returned an interception, and Cornay King ran in from 2 yards out with 38.7 seconds left. Noah Hammernik picked off another pass, and Vollmuth's 12-yard catch made it 35-0 at the break.
Moore completed 17 passes for 226 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. He threw for 187 of those yards and all 4 touchdowns in the first half. Vollmuth had 5 catches for 96 yards, and 7 different Jaguars caught a pass. Jefferson coach Marc Bachman said finishing off the first half was the difference compared with the week before.
Kennedy won the second half. Josh Amadi broke a 22-yard run, and Boyd followed with an 18-yard touchdown run to make it 35-6 with 2:10 left in the third quarter. Kennedy then recovered the kickoff. Jeremiah Borbor intercepted a pass, and Boyd scored from short range to make it 35-12 with 6:58 to play. On Kennedy's last drive, the Eagles fumbled about 2 feet short of the end zone.
Jefferson's defense was led by Vinny Smith with 8 tackles and Alex Liu with 7, and Liu had 1 of the team's 4 sacks. Paolo Espinosa and James Garin each recovered a fumble. Hammernik's interception was his fifth of the season. Miles Pieper ran twice for 64 yards.
Kennedy gets a rematch fast. Jefferson's football account posted that it will be "another B-Town Battle but this time at home," a playoff game at Jefferson on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 1:30 p.m. The Jaguars are asking fans to pack the stands and bring the noise. Kennedy lost by 23 on its own field and finished strong, so it will have something to prove. Jefferson will be trying to beat the same team twice in 10 days.
