Behind Harris, Cavs are A-OK

Kennedy 34, Springbrook 14: Senior leads Kennedy football to first win

Twyner ratified Harris’ faith by starting him at quarterback in the Cavaliers’ home opener against Springbrook on Friday night, and Harris returned the favor. The senior rushed for 203 yards and three touchdowns, threw for 46 yards, caught three passes for another 44 yards, and even returned punts — an electrifying 82-yard touchdown return in the first quarter was nullified by a penalty — as Kennedy defeated the Blue Devils, 34-14, in Silver Spring.

‘‘That was our focus tonight,” Twyner said. ‘‘We wanted to get Melvin as many touches as possible. We know that we aren’t a playoff-caliber team yet, but we are moving in that direction.”

They are moving in that direction in large part because their quarterback, a product of the White Oak youth football league system, knows the little things that it takes to win. In the opening quarter, after Kennedy defensive end Delano Ferguson sacked Springbrook quarterback Phoenix Butler-Poole and forced a fumble that was recovered by his teammate Kwabena Ofori, Harris took over at Springbrook’s 18-yard line. From his huddle, he saw that the player Blue Devils assigned to spy him was someone he had played against as a peewee player.

‘‘I knew right away what they were trying to do, but I knew that kid,” Harris said. ‘‘I knew that if I changed direction it would be [a problem] for them to stop me. That’s what I did.”

Harris wove through Springbrook’s defense for his first score of the day, an 18-yard touchdown run, and then let the Kennedy (1-1 overall, 0-1 in the county’s 3A Division) defense take over. Ferguson and Ofori consistently got penetration into the Blue Devils’ backfield, forcing another fumble in the second quarter that Ofori returned 65 yards for a touchdown, staking Kennedy to a 14-0 lead.

‘‘We know that’s what we have to do,” Ferguson said. ‘‘See ball, get ball, take ball. It’s our game. We weren’t too happy after the Damascus game, so we worked hard to correct everything.”

The only thing that Harris did not have going for him on Friday was his passing accuracy. Affected by a steady drizzle, he was just 3 of 12 for 46 yards with an interception —but in that case, the Cavaliers had a plan. Talented junior Kelsey Jackson came in to relieve Harris, and on top of throwing three balls to Harris, spread the ball around to several other Kennedy receivers. Senior Jhonny Lopez had five catches for 91 yards and Jackson hit Clarence Claiborne in the end zone from the 35-yard line for the first touchdown pass of his career.

‘‘We know that Kelsey is a good quarterback,” Twyner said. ‘‘He could start for several teams in the county. We are going to keep trying to figure out a way to get them both into the game.”

‘‘They were flying around and we came out flat,” Springbrook coach Rob Wendel said. ‘‘Our tailbacks are still trying to break out and make some big plays, and until they do we just have to go with the hot hand, but no one on this team quit. That guy [Harris] just ate us up.”