Kennedy's Trevor Heitland gets taken down by the West High defense in the first half of their Friday October 8 ,2010 game. At the half Kennedy led West High 16-10 in Iowa City. (Becky Malewitz/The Gazette)

Safety came first, second and a third time Friday night for Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

The Cougars sacked Iowa City West three times in the end zone and unleashed a devastating ground game on offense and routed the Trojans, 37-10, in a Mississippi Valley Conference football game at Trojan Field.

Junior Trevor Heitland rushed for 157 yards, senior Rossi Adams 130, senior quarterback Jed Haycraft 65 and all three scored touchdowns as Kennedy (3-4) rolled up 378 yards of rushing offense.

West (3-4) was held to 186 total yards and had six turnovers.

“Kennedy controlled both lines of scrimmage,” West Coach Brian Sauser said.

West featured double-threat junior quarterback Charles Rogers, who entered with 1,049 yards passing and 424 rushing, but was held to 83 yards passing and 17 rushing.

“We knew he was quick and a tremendous athlete,” Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis said. “Our goal was just to keep him in front of us.”

The Cougars set the tone on the second play when Rogers was thrown for a 10-yard loss to the West 2-yard line. He muffed the snap on the next play and was nailed in the end zone for the first safety, just 1 minute, 34 seconds into the game.

“We figured we had to make him make the right reads,” said Kennedy senior Anthony Crawley, who intercepted two passes. “Our defensive unit, we were just getting so pumped up. We all came out and played as a team. That ultimately was the difference.”

A 24-yard touchdown run by Heitland and Adams’ 5-yard scoring run gave Kennedy a 16-10 lead at halftime. The Cougars took the second half kick and marched 67 yards before stalling. Nicholas Bruns kicked a 31-yard field goal.

The next two minutes spelled disaster for West.

The Cougars scored a safety when Rogers slipped in the end zone and fell down with 1:11 left in the third quarter, and a bad snap that Rogers recovered in the end zone forced another safety with 11:08 left in the game.

Kennedy’s Christian French did not play after cutting his arm in practice.

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