Staff photo / Joel Whetzel Kennedy’s Ambrose Hoso (27) chases down Perkins quarterback Logan Lesch Friday night at Austintown Fitch High School. Kennedy earned the win with a 20-12 victory. Hoso forced a fumble on a strip sack in the fourth quarter.

AUSTINTOWN — With his Warren JFK team welcoming a high-octane Sandusky Perkins squad to town Friday night, third-year coach Dom Prologo had a simple challenge for his squad.

“Honestly, I told our kids all week I have a 4×1 team, too. Go show me who’s best,” he said.

The Eagles answered the call, as the Kennedy defense held Perkins to just 12 points and 253 yards in a 20-12 victory over the Pirates at Austintown Fitch High School. The Pirates previously had scored at least 40 points in each of their three victories.

“We came into this game and said they have a 4×1 team that can run, and so do we,” Prologo said. “I think tonight, we saw that our 4×1 team is a little faster than theirs. The second thing we said was this is Youngstown, Ohio, and we play smash mouth, physical football, and that’s what we’ve got to do tonight is play physical football. That’s not what (Perkins) wants to do, and that’s what we want to do.”

Kennedy (4-0) kept the Pirates (3-1) out of the end zone until Perkins’ final drive of the game, and consistently harassed Pirate quarterback Logan Lesch. The junior completed just 14 of 32 passes for 135 yards and was picked off three times — once apiece by Antonio Smith, Thomas Valent and Aidan Rossi. Ambrose Hoso added a strip sack, which was recovered by Caleb Hadley.

Valent and Rossi intercepted their passes on Perkins’ first two drives of the third quarter, and both resulted in Kennedy touchdowns. Rossi intercepted Lesch on the Pirates’ first drive from scrimmage at the Perkins 23, and then a few plays later, Hadley snuck into the end zone to knot the game up at 6-6.

Then, on Perkins’ next drive, Valent picked Lesch off and returned it to the Perkins 26. The drive was in danger of stalling, as JFK faced a fourth and 9, but Hadley hit Rossi for an 18-yard gain to the Perkins 5. A few plays later, Rossi plunged into the end zone from a yard out to give Kennedy a 13-6 advantage.

“(The turnovers) were very critical. We knew we needed something,” Rossi said. “We always talk about how big plays win big games, and that’s something I thought we did really well tonight. I think that’s a big reason why we came home with a win.”

After the JFK defense stood tall again by forcing a Pirate punt, Smith added the exclamation point. The tailback cut back through a huge hole and erupted for a 70-yard touchdown run that put JFK up 20-6.

“We play physical; we wear teams down,” Rossi said. “A lot of teams see that late start, and they think we’re in trouble, but we’re not. That’s just how we play. We wear the other team down, and at the end of the game, we look at the scoreboard and that’s what happens.”

Smith led all rushers with 149 yards and a score on 20 carries. Rossi nabbed three passes for 39 yards, while Devonte Taylor snagged two receptions for 35 yards. Hadley went 6-of-13 for 83 yards in the air.

Perkins, meanwhile, was paced by Lesch’s 82 yards rushing, while tailback Dom Zahel chipped in 36 yards on 10 carries. The Pirates’ lone touchdown came on a 19-yard pass from Lesch to Braylon Collier with 1:49 to go.

“Our defense has been together for years, and these guys are our war dogs,” Prologo said. “I knew our defense was going to stand up, and they (Perkins wasn’t) going to put up 60 or 40 on us. We say every week, ‘Defense go out and do your thing, and then offense figure it out.’ And we did.”

With the win, Kennedy is off to its first 4-0 start since 2016, the year the Eagles won the state championship.

Of the team’s confidence, Prologo said, “I think you saw it down here (during the postgame celebration) — we couldn’t be any more confident that we are right now.”