GRANADA HILLS — The Kennedy football team had won nine games in a row while averaging over 40 points a game coming into Friday night’s City Section Division I semifinal game against King/Drew. The nine-game winning streak was snapped Friday night as the Golden Cougars were defeated by King/Drew, 35-23.
The win for King/Drew marks its first ever City Section football championship appearance in only the third year of the football program’s existence. The Golden Eagles will take on Palisades next week in the Division I championship game.
“These guys work really hard. They grind every day,” King/Drew coach Joe Torres said. “It feels amazing to get the win and take these guys that have been rolling with me the last couple years to a championship game.”
King/Drew jumped out to a 14-0 lead at halftime. Kennedy didn’t get much of anything going in the first half offensively with King/Drew’s defense not letting their backs or quarterback get out in space. The two first-half scores for King/Drew came on a 1-yard touchdown run from Jayden Mitchell and a 16-yard touchdown pass from Keenan Jackson to Damico Martin.
On Kennedy’s second possession of the game, Jahmir Torres, son of head coach Joe Torres, forced and recovered a fumble to give King/Drew the ball at the Kennedy 17-yard line to set up the Martin touchdown. Torres also had an interception in the second half and ran the ball 16 times for 135 yards.
“I love supporting my team in any way I can. I’m proud of my teammates and they know they can rely on me to make big plays,” Jahmir Torres said.
Kennedy’s versatile dual-threat quarterback Diego Montes struggled to get things going against King/Drew’s talented front seven led by SMU commit Chinedu Onyeagoro. Montes was sacked five times in the game, with Onyeagoro getting two of them to make it 20 total for him on the season now.
Montes found the end zone late in the third quarter on a 4-yard touchdown run to make the score 21-7 King/Drew. Jackson added another touchdown pass and run in the middle of the fourth quarter to help King/Drew jump out to a 35-7 lead after the Montes score.
Kennedy scored 16 points in a matter of 30 seconds toward the end of the game to make the final score 35-23. Justyn Sears scored on a touchdown run for the Golden Cougars with a little over three minutes left and then David Tejeda recovered the onside kick for Kennedy on the play after that.
Two plays after the onside kick, Josue Sandoval scored on a 5-yard touchdown run. Kennedy recovered the onside kick following the Sandoval score and King/Drew ran out the clock to win the game.
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Sandoval had 15 carries for 111 yards and the one touchdown for Kennedy. Jackson completed 10 of 14 passes for 105 yards with three touchdown passes and also ran the ball 11 times for 72 yards and one touchdown run for King/Drew.
“I’m really proud of the kids, every single year they show up and improve,” Kennedy coach Troy Cassidy said. “We tested ourselves in the preseason and got to win another league championship and finishing 10-3 is still another quality season for us.”