By LIONEL TIPTON
ROSE HILL, Kansas – Clearwater just had trouble keeping up with the Joneses on Friday night.
And because of that, Rose Hill began the tenure of Reece Petty with a 23-0 victory over Clearwater.
Senior Keedrin “K.J.” Jones and junior Kai Kirchhoff-Jones provided the rushing attack, combining for 118 yards on the ground on 28 carries.
Not to be outdone, senior linebacker Leven Jones picked off an Indians pass and raced it back 78 yards for a second-quarter touchdown – one of Rose Hill’s three on the night.
He got the interception, and though the skies may have been cloudy, he found himself staring at a lot of daylight. It was a bit of instant atonement for missing a pass on an earlier play.
“Before that, I had a missed pass,” Leven said. “So, I didn’t catch the ball. I could have shut down right there, but something inside of me like a fire said, I need to go. I need to go for my team and not just for myself.
“I saw the ball coming, and I knew he was going to pass the ‘out’ route. I took initiative for that; it’s my pride in me (and) I got the ball.”
And the new coach’s opening-night reviews from his players proclaim success.
“Coach Petty, he’s been great,” K.J. Jones said. “He came in and changed the program for us. We also got (strength coach) Rashard Daniels – he’s made us faster, stronger.
“Coach Petty builds around his players.”
Jones had a breakout season a year ago, but with a similar rushing night from Kirchhoff-Jones, teams won’t be able to key on just one Rockets running back.
“I had some foot injuries this summer, but Kai’s always there (and) Kai’s been there,” Jones said. “I mean, we’re like brothers. Since I got here, he’s been here, and we probably have the best two-back set in (Class) 4A.”
But even though they posted similar rushing outputs, Kirchhoff-Jones said it’s not a competition.
“We have no competition,” he said. “We’re selfless. There’s no competition for us. We just go in there and keep pushing forward, get as many yards as you can. We fix our assignments. If we mess up, we just keep going.”
Leven Jones has an overflowing calendar, practicing wrestling once he’s done on the football field.
“(I’m) just trying to adapt,” he said. “We’ve got Remi (sophomore Remington Merlau), and me and him switching out every day.
“So, he’s getting better (and) I’m getting better at defense, trying to lock into that (in Petty’s system) and get better.”
Petty said afterward that he was pleased by his team’s performance,
“The defense played good,” he said. “We got a shutout (and) four turnovers.
“Our defense played amazing, and then we made a few plays on offense and capitalized on that.
“We talk about being a process-oriented team, so it’s a day-by-day thing.”
Petty is confident that if any adjustments need to be made, his players will be up to the task.
“We’ll go and watch the film, and we’ll figure out the mistakes that were made, correct those and keep moving forward,” he said. “We’ll continue to figure out what we’re going to be good at offensively and keep doing our thing on defense.”
The play of Jones, Jones and Kirchhoff-Jones wasn’t surprising, Petty said.
“They’ve been getting better all summer long,’ he said, “and they have that experience from last year.”
Scoring was difficult to come by, thanks to a steady rain that stifled the offensive plans of both teams.
The Rockets (1-0 overall, 1-0 AVCTL Division IV) managed to get two more scores on long passes from junior quarterback Zander Ford to senior receiver Kooper Dees, covering 22 and 65 yards.
In addition to their offensive exploits, Jones and Kirchhoff-Jones intercepted Clearwater freshman quarterback Talen Tjaden three times in the fourth quarter, preserving the Rose Hill shutout.
Kirchhoff-Jones had the first pickoff on a fourth-down pass in Clearwater territory and returned it to the Indians 36.
A fumble gave the ball back to Clearwater, and Jones stepped in front of an Indians receiver at the Rockets 15 for the first of his two picks.
Rose Hill couldn’t sustain the drive and punted. The kick didn’t get out of Rose Hill territory, being downed at the Rockets 41. The Indians did manage to get a first down and drove to the Rose Hill 23, but Jones was again in the right place at the right time and picked off Tjaden again, this time in the end zone.
The game could hardly be called a thing of beauty, as the Rockets were held scoreless in the second half. So, there might be a few things Petty wants to work on this week.
Rose Hill may have to up its game in the coming weeks, facing two powerful Division IV foes.
The Rockets will travel to Wichita Collegiate next Friday, then return home the following week to face an Andale team that scored 104 points in its opener at El Dorado.
Rose Hill is home for three of the first four games, capped by a Sept. 26 Homecoming game against El Dorado. The Rockets then go on the road for three of their final four regular-season contests, at McPherson, Wellington and Independence.
But the Joneses, Petty and the rest of the Rockets aren’t worried. They are confident in their new coach’s system and know they can do better in less soggy conditions.
“Andale is Andale, but if we play our game, I believe we can beat Andale,” K.J. said.
Ford put up some decent passing numbers despite the elements. He completed six of nine first-half passes for 153 yards and the two TDs. In the second half, he tailed off a little, hitting on only one of five passes for 5 yards.
However, he did vastly better than Tjaden’s four interceptions.
In fact, the Clearwater passing game suffered all night, as Tjaden completed more passes to Rose Hill (four) than his receivers (two). He completed just the two passes out of 14 attempts for a total of 44 yards, giving the Indians just 163 yards total offense in the game.
The Indians had little success on the ground, gaining just 119 yards on 33 carries. They also had other problems and were constantly plagued by snaps that went over Tjaden’s head. A bad snap deep in Indians territory led to Rose Hill’s first points, as Tjaden was tackled in the end zone for a safety.
Clearwater did a little better in the second half offensively, but once a drive showed signs of clicking, the Indians went to the air and, well, you know the rest.
For now, the Rockets are riding high, but a number of challenging games will test how well Petty’s system works.
Rose Hill 23, Clearwater 0
Clearwater 0 0 0 0 – 0
Rose Hill 9 14 0 0 – 23
RH – Safety, Clearwater quarterback Tjaden tackled in end zone
RH – Dees 22 pass from Ford (Herrera kick)
RH – L. Jones 78 interception return (Herrera kick)
RH – Dees 65 pass from Ford (Herrera kick)
RUSHING – Clearwater: Manheim 6-43, Wells 9-31, Blevins 4-15, Wulf 3-12, Whitney 1-8, Tjaden 9-6, Woods 1-4. TOTALS: 30-119 Rose Hill: Kirchhoff-Jones 14-63, K.J. Jones 14-55, Merlau 2-6, Ford 1-1. TOTALS: 31-125.
PASSING – Clearwater: Tjaden 3-14-4-44. Rose Hill: Ford 7-10-0-158; Kirchhoff-Jones 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING – Clearwater: Whitney 3-44. Rose Hill: Bentley 3-63, Dees 2-87, K.J. Jones 1-6.
