Kennedy, Warren sparkle in win over New Trier

He's baaaaack.

Oh, sure, we knew that Greg Kennedy had technically returned to the Warren backfield after missing all of last season because of an off-field incident that had gotten him dismissed from school.

But now, it's really official.

Kennedy's not only back, he's BACK.

Two years ago as a sophomore, Kennedy sparkled in rushing for 1,144 yards and 13 touchdowns. After Saturday, he's on pace to shatter those numbers.

In his first game back in Blue Devil blue, Kennedy carried Warren to a 20-6 victory over host New Trier in the season opener for both teams.

Kennedy rolled up 196 yards on 25 carries and scored all three of his team's touchdowns.

"It's real nice to be back with all my teammates," Kennedy said. "I had something to prove. I had to set the tone and show everyone that I'm back and ready to play football."

Ready from practically the word go.

A broken rushing play by Kennedy netted the Blue Devils a three-yard loss on their first play from scrimmage. But any euphoria felt by the New Trier defense was immediately squelched when Kennedy took the handoff on the next play, juked left and right and zipped quickly past defenders on his way to the end zone 72 yards down the field.

"All I know is that my fullback and linemen were blocking and I saw a gap and shot through it and saw green grass," Kennedy said. "Touchdown. That's all that was going through my mind. Touchdown."

That thought would run through Kennedy's mind a couple more times during the course of the afternoon.

New Trier wound up closing the gap in the second quarter when Isaac Perlmutter capped off a six-play drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. A missed extra point kept Warren on top 7-6, which was the score at halftime.

After a scoreless third quarter, Kennedy got touchdowns on his mind again.

Warren needed just one yard to convert on fourth down in New Trier territory with about seven minutes remaining. But Kennedy provided much more than that when he broke a few tackles and sprinted down the sideline for a 32-yard touchdown.

That gave Warren a bit of breathing room at 13-6. On the Blue Devils' next possession, Kennedy and fullback Tom Lindal (15 rushes, 75 yards) effectively moved the ball down the field on alternating rushes. Kennedy finished the job with a 16-yard touchdown that capped an 80-yard drive and put Warren up 20-6 with 3:05 left.

"(Kennedy and Lindal are two very good backs," New Trier coach Matt Irvin said. "Last year, with (Lindal), it was 4 yards, 6 yards, 7 yards, 14-play, 12-play drives. Today, they had that and the home run threat (Kennedy) as well. It's a very effective 1-2 punch."

Speaking of effective, Warren's defense did its part to keep up with Kennedy and Lindal.

The Blue Devils made life downright difficult for New Trier quarterback Stu Brown. He still managed to complete 14-of-26 passes for 154 yards. But he was hurried and harassed most of the day. And Warren picked him off twice.

"It was a great game," said Warren linebacker Addison Clark. "You couldn't ask for much more than how we played. Coach (Dave Mohapp) always wants us to put the pressure on. That's our game plan every game. Early on, we got a lot of momentum and confidence from doing that."

Clark himself was especially relentless in his pursuit of Brown.

He sacked Brown on New Trier's third play of the game. Later in the same series, he was up in Brown's grill in what resulted in an incompletion and a call for the Trevians' punter.

Clark also recorded an interception, another sack and was in on various other disruptions over the course of the day.

"Addison is a good player. He just loves football and he plays hard all the time. He's focused," Warren coach Dave Mohapp said. "I think our defense did a nice job of trying to contain them.

"We wanted to try to put some pressure on them and not let them set up. They've got good receivers so you need to throw off their timing and I think we were able to do that. Our defense kept us in the game in the first half because offensively, besides Greg's big run, we weren't doing anything. We need to work on that."