Kennedy surges to top Savanna

Kennedy fell apart early but gathered itself to beat Savanna, 35-12, Thursday in a nonleague game at Glover Stadium.

The Fighting Irish trailed after the first play of the game and committed turnovers on three of their first four possessions. But a solid defensive effort all night and a steadied offense in the second half made the defending CIF-Southern Section Southern Division champions 2-0. Kennedy beat Northwood, 29-0, last week.

Savanna is 1-1. The Rebels defeated Costa Mesa, 62-7, last week.

Savanna’s Dominique Williams returned the opening kickoff 95 yards to give the Rebels a 6-0 (they missed the extra point). Kennedy’s first possession included a bad snap for a 24-yard loss on the third play and an interception on the fourth. On the fourth play of the Fighting Irish’s second possession, they fumbled the ball away.

“Those things happen sometimes,” said Kennedy coach Mitch Olson after the game, when he was able to smile about it.

The Irish took advantage of a Savanna mistake, though, to quickly turn things around. On a Rebels’ pass headed for the end zone, Kennedy’s Eric Torres tipped the ball to teammate Christian Tekurio, who returned his interception 99 yards for a touchdown. Torres’ point-after kick gave the Irish the lead for good, 7-6.

Kennedy pushed its lead to 14-6 on a 6-yard touchdown run by running back Corey Smith, who finished with a game-high 148 yards on 14 carries.

The Irish made it 21-6 on their first possession of the third quarter when quarterback Zac Emde connected with receiver Jordan Collins on a 14-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-8 situation.

They scored on their next possession, too. Smith, headed for the end zone, fumbled at the Savanna 2. The ball bounced into the end zone, where it was recovered by Kennedy tight end Eli Tekurioto match his brother’s earlier touchdown and give the Irish a 28-6 lead.

Kennedy made it 35-6 on a 35-yard touchdown pass that perfectly led receiver Chris Triado into the end zone. Savanna scored with 4:28 left on a 10-yard run by Williams.

Savanna’s huge offensive output last week against Costa Mesa largely came from its running game, which included 146 yards and two touchdowns from Stephen Jones and 132 yards and a touchdown by C.J. White. Against Kennedy, Jones had 44 yards on 10 carries and White had 24 on three. Williams was the Rebels’ rushing leader, with 85 yards on nine carries.

“We played assignment football,” said Kennedy’s Eli Tekurio, who played defensive end and led the Irish with two sacks. He was in charge of tracking Savanna quarterback Marc Thomas in the Rebels’ option offense, with the duties of tracking running backs and receivers assigned to others. “That’s what we worked on all week,” he said.

Kennedy coach Mitch Olson thought the Irish improved significantly from last week to this week.

“We looked lot crisper and sharper in this one,” said Olson, who got his 145th victory, all at Kennedy. “We were pretty raggedy last week.”

Kennedy plays at Vista Murrieta next Friday. Vista Murrieta came into this week 1-0, and was 11-1 in 2006. Savanna plays La Quinta on Thursday at Bolsa Grande High.