Seton’s ‘Flying Cougars’ dominate defensively in 40-0 shutout

The Cougar isn’t an animal that flies, but an exception might be made to the Seton Catholic Cougars’ football team.

“Oh man,” Seton football coach Will Ephraim said, “we created a new breed, right? Flying Cougars.”

Those Flying Cougars is what Ephraim highlighted in a dominating defensive performance Saturday to earn the program’s first-ever shutout — a 40-0 win over Fort Vancouver.

The coach will have to check the record books again, too, because Ephraim’s pretty sure the two defensive touchdowns scored also is a program first. That came courtesy of two fumble recoveries for scores Griffin Young (43 yards) and Elijah Volk (35). Volk’s scoop and score with 7 minutes, 40 seconds to go in the fourth gave the Cougars their largest lead.

“We’re not big,” Ephraim said, “but we have the guys that can fly around. We want to use our strength, which is our speed, and get to the ball to make something happen.”

And Seton did.

It capitalized on five lost fumbles by the 3A Trappers (0-1), and got to back-up quarterback Isaac Martinez and the run game a number of times for negative yardage. Senior Aidan Kirby led Seton with three sacks.

Senior Taj Muhammad scored three touchdowns, including first-half receiving touchdowns of 40 and 7 yards to help Seton to a 21-0 halftime lead, despite eight first-half penalties. In all, four different Seton players scored touchdowns.

Muhammad, also a starting cornerback on defense, said based on Saturday’s result, it could be

“We were excited to get out and show our talent,” he said. “You can’t really expect to have a shutout, but if you go hard enough, you can get it.”

Leg cramps kept Muhammad sidelined for a lot of the second half; his first carry of the game came on a 3-yard touchdown run to open the fourth quarter.

But in his absence came plenty of productivity by a number of underclassmen. One of them was two-way starting freshman CJ Hamblin, who finished with 48 yards rushing on nine carries and three catches for 51 yards.

Tyler Runkle led Fort with 28 yards rushing on 13 carries, and back-up quarterback Isaac Martinez finished with 3 of 7 for 38 yards. Fort’s longest offensive play came on a 21-yard catch by Anthony Wilhite.

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Seton Catholic 40, Fort  Vancouver 0

Fort 0 0 0 0—00

Seton 7 14 6 13—40

First quarter

SC — Taj Muhammad 7 pass from Tyvauntae Deloney (Moore kick)

Second quarter

SC — Muhammad 40 pass from Deloney (conversion failed)

SC — Griffin Young 43 fumble recovery (Myles McGovern pass from Deloney)

Third quarter

SC — Mikey Silveira, Jr. 40 pass from Deloney (conversion failed)

Fourth quarter

SC — Muhammad 3 run (Moore kick)

SC — Elijah Volk 35 fumble recovery (kick failed)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Seton Catholic: CJ Hamblin 9-48, Tyvauntae Deloney 9-40, Mikey Silveira, Jr. 1-5, Elijah Volk 4-24, Myles McGovern 2-15, Luke Pitzer 1-7, Taj Muhammad 1-3; Fort Vancouver: Tyler Runkle 13-28, Austin Real-James 1-(-4), Isaac Martinez 10-23, Ethan Esparza 4-15, Niko Liufau 2-(-2).

PASSING — Seton Catholic: Tyvauntae Deloney 8-17-1-144, Luke Price 0-2-0-0

RECEIVING — Seton Catholic: Taj Muhammad 2-47, Mikey Silveira, Jr. 3-46, CJ Hamblin 3-51; Fort Vancouver: Nick Laurenza 1-11, Anthony Wilhite 2-27.