Kenwood is having a bounce-back season, and speedy junior Lawrence Carr is a big reason why.
Carr’s three long touchdowns, along with a big game from quarterback Kenyonte Louis, carried the Broncos to a wild 28-20 victory Saturday against Simeon at Gately Stadium.
Kenwood was trying to run out the clock when the game was called with 28.6 seconds left after players from both teams started scuffling near midfield.
‘‘You don’t want that type of stuff to happen,’’ Broncos coach Chris Goffer said of the abrupt ending. ‘‘But football is a violent gladiator sport. You just try to do whatever you can to prevent it from happening.’’
The ending didn’t take away from Carr’s epic performance.
The 5-10, 170-pounder, whose college offers include Maryland, caught two touchdown passes from Louis: a 60-yarder in the second quarter and an 82-yarder in the fourth. He finished with five catches for 197 yards.
In between, he ran back a kickoff 80 yards for another touchdown as time expired in the first half. That came after the Wolverines had tied the score at 14 on a two-yard touchdown run by Anthony Crooms Jr. with 7.8 seconds to play.
‘‘That’s a different beast we’re dealing with,’’ Louis said of Lawrence. ‘‘One of the top kids in Chicago, for sure, [and] in the state.’’
On the kickoff return, Carr said: ‘‘I just [saw] a wide-open hole. My teammates made the blocks for me, and I just scored.’’
Goffer has seen plenty of that in the last two seasons from Carr, who scored a team-high 14 touchdowns in 2024.
‘‘That’s Lawrence,’’ Goffer said. ‘‘Really works hard. He’s special with the ball in his hands.’’
So is Louis, a senior who sat out the first quarter for disciplinary reasons but still completed 11 of 19 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.
‘‘I hold my kids accountable,’’ Goffer said of Louis not playing till the second quarter. ‘‘So he was being held accountable, and he held his chin high and came in on fire.’’
Louis, who has a college offer from Kent State, trusted the Broncos to keep things under control until he entered the game.
‘‘I knew my team,’’ he said. ‘‘No matter what environment or predicament we [were] in, I knew we [were] going to come out and perfect our passing. Everybody thinks we [are] all run. They don’t know we can pass.’’
‘‘He can do it all for a quarterback,’’ Goffer said of Louis. ‘‘He’s like a five-tool baseball player. He could run it, he could throw it, he could catch it. Caught a touchdown last week.’’
Kenwood (4-1, 3-0 Public League Metro) has won four games in a row after a four-point loss to St. Francis. The Broncos already have matched their regular-season victory total from last season.
What’s different?
‘‘It’s my second year,’’ Goffer said. ‘‘We’re still building the culture. And a little bit better quarterback play.’’
Simeon (2-3, 2-1) had some good quarterback play of its own.
Crooms completed 14 of 25 passes for 230 yards and touchdowns of 32 yards to Raymond Liggins and 15 yards to Keylin Jones. He was intercepted once.
But Wolverines coach Sinque Turner was left to lament ‘‘too many mistakes on our end.’’
‘‘We allowed too many explosives,’’ Turner said. ‘‘We wanted to control the Kenyonte kid. But he did the work with his arm instead of his legs today.’’