Staff photo / Brian Yauger Kennedy’s Aidan Rossi (7) celebrates the Eagles’ 21-7 win over Newark Catholic Saturday night alongside Caleb Hadley (11). The Eagles have now advanced to the state title game for the second time in three years.

ORRVILLE — The quintessential Kennedy football game is simple. Power through in the running game and play lockdown defense.

With a familiar opponent, the same team that took the Eagles out of last year’s state semifinal matchup, Kennedy knew it had to play its absolute best.

The Eagles were pushed and pushed by Newark Catholic on both sides of the ball Saturday night, but Kennedy stuck to their gameplan and powered to a 21-7 victory in the Division VII state semifinals to punch their ticket to the stat championship for the second time in three years.

“That’s a well-coached football team over there,” Eagles coach Dom Prologo said. “They’ve got a lot of tradition. They do a great job. There’s a lot of pride in what they do and they gave us all we could handle that’s for darn sure.”

Kennedy struck first in the contest, with Antonio Smith breaking off a 62-yard run to put the Eagles up. With how the defenses were trading off on each offense’s drives, it looked as if points were going to come at a premium.

Kennedy’s “Blue Storm” defense, limited a Newark Catholic team who averaged around 37 points-per-game and hadn’t scored less than 17 heading into Saturday, to just a single touchdown.

That Green Wave touchdown at the end of the third quarter only added more fuel to the fire of an already energized Eagles squad.

Just a few minutes after that tying score, Kennedy quarterback Caleb Hadley powered his way through to the endzone on a 1-yard sneak for the go-ahead score.

The Eagles’ offensive line carved the way for Hadley as he pushed through the pile.

“They loaded the box and we knew it was going to be a battle up front, mano a mano, our offensive line versus their defensive line,” Hadley said. “I just followed my offensive line, they did all the hard work and I got in.”

With seven minutes remaining, the Green Wave still had plenty of time to rebound, but in the final two minutes Kennedy forced three turnovers.

An Ambrose Hoso interception on one drive, then on Newark Catholic’s following possession, a bone-crushing hit on the Green Wave quarterback led to a fumble, which was scooped up by Marcus Komora and returned to the house to seal the deal.

On Newark Catholic’s final possession of the night, Smith iced the game for Kennedy with a game-sealing interception. The Eagles knelt down to wind the clock down.

“I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates,” Kennedy senior lineman Pat Valent said. “Everyone’s a little banged up, bumps and bruises, that’s what you expect in week 15. Everyone just fought through it and no one ever quits. That’s what playing for Kennedy is about and I’m so proud of everyone.”

Having lost to this exact team in this exact game last year, Kennedy was licking its chops.

“That’s our Blue Storm, we pride ourselves on that,” senior Tommy Valent said. “All week long, we have film after practice, long nights, a long week of preparation.

“We didn’t need any motivation because last year, when I saw my best friends’ faces after this game, we knew this game would be circled, and we knew that we’d have to give it our all and that’s exactly what we did. We played a complete four-quarter game.”

Kennedy gets another shot at revenge next week in the season finale in Canton. The New Bremen Cardinals dispatched the Eagles 31-0 in 2020’s state title game and Kennedy is ready for the fight.

“We’ll enjoy this on the bus ride home, but as soon as we get back we’ll be watching the 2020 game,” Prologo said. “Then by tomorrow morning we’ll have as much film as we need.”

Kennedy’s tilt with New Bremen is set for Saturday at 3 p.m. at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton.

byauger@tribtoday.com