Staff photo / Greg Macafee. Garfield’s Eric Geddes (7) evades Kennedy’s Marcus Komora (6) during Saturday’s game at Leopards Stadium.

LIBERTY — Through the entire first quarter and for most of the first half, Warren John F. Kennedy was able to go toe-to-toe with Garfield in what began as a back-and-forth contest.

As the afternoon wore on, however, the Eagles wore out.

After taking a five-point lead into the second quarter, Kennedy couldn’t sustain its momentum as the G-Men used a fast start to the second half to pull away for a decisive 61-26 victory Saturday afternoon at Liberty High School.

“We’re not going to make any excuses about numbers or who’s coaching or playing at Kennedy,” JFK coach Damon Buente said. “The fact of the matter is we had a couple opportunities (to stay in the game). We came out (of halftime) with an onside kick, we didn’t get the football and Garfield executed. They scored on big plays, they took advantage of the momentum and they deserved to win.”

The Eagles (1-1) struck immediately, as Noah Elser housed the opening kickoff from 92 yards out to put JFK up 7-0.

From there, the battle was on. Garfield (2-0) answered on its second play from scrimmage with a 70-yard touchdown reception by Deacon Sommer, who caught a bubble screen from Eric Geddes and took off up the sideline.

Kennedy replied with a 5-yard Jaylen Murray touchdown run, which was followed by a 54-yard strike from Geddes to Leo Grandizio.

Finally, Freddy Bolchalk hit Elser for a 39-yard touchdown that sent Kennedy into the second quarter up 19-14.

Elser finished with four receptions for 70 yards and that touchdown, coupled with his special teams score.

“Noah brings a sense of hope that at any given moment, he can score a touchdown,” Buente said. “Anytime he touches the football, if it’s a kickoff return, a pass conversion, anytime, he can give us a big play and put six points on the board. He’s brought a level of excitement and consistency, and he’s a worker.”

“Those things happen,” Garfield coach Mike Moser said of Kennedy’s fast start. “It’s never going to be easy. I have a lot of respect for Coach Buente and the program he has. They caught us, and they punched us in the beginning, but we got up off the canvas, and our kids did respond.”

For as fast as the first quarter began, the second quarter was much more defensively focused — at least at first. Kennedy forced a critical turnover on downs at its own 37, but Garfield’s defense responded with a three and out.

Finally, late in the second quarter, the G-Men struck in rapid succession. Geddes plowed in from a yard out to put Garfield up 20-19, and then after a Grandizio interception, he scored again, this time from five yards out that extended the Garfield advantage to 27-19.

The G-Men nearly struck a third time as the half expired, but Kennedy’s defense held a pair of Keegan Sell runs out of the end zone, and then Marcus Komora came up with an interception on Garfield’s final play of the half to keep the Eagles to within eight points entering the intermission.

“This (loss) wasn’t due to a lack of effort. It wasn’t due to a lack of will. Our guys were fighting on that goal line stand, and you go into halftime and we demonstrated that hey, we’re here, we’re excited and we belong in this game. We just didn’t execute in the second half,” Buente said.

As Buente mentioned, Garfield seized momentum for good out of the break. After a Kennedy onside kick went out of bounds, Sommer bolted for a 50-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. That began a 26-point onslaught in the third quarter that sent Garfield into the fourth with a 53-19 advantage.

“That was a significant moment in the game,” Buente said of the onside kick and quick score by the G-Men. “It’s so hard when you have (to face) the ball control offense of Garfield. … When you’re down, it’s very hard to come back from that.”

The teams traded scores in the fourth, with Kennedy scoring on a 7-yard Jaylen Murray run and Garfield on a 37-yard Collin McGranahan run.

Murray ran for 63 yards and two scores on 17 carries, while Trevon Hall led Kennedy with 80 yards on 12 carries.

Garfield picked up 106 yards and two touchdowns on five carries from Sommer, and Geddes added 103 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground to go with an efficient 6-for-7 day passing that included 233 yards and four touchdowns.

Grandizio caught four passes for 138 yards and three scores, while Sommer added his 70-yard touchdown reception.

Of Geddes, Moser said, “He’s a leader for us on both sides of the ball and on and off the field. He played really well today.”

Kennedy visits South Range on Friday, while Garfield hosts Normandy next.

jwhetzel@tribtoday.com