Seton Catholic’s football team might be young on experience, but Saturday’s 19-8 season-opening victory over Chimacum showed a lot about the Cougars for returning varsity player Elijah Volk.
“We don’t need a lot of experience to come together and play with heart,” said Volk, who had the team’s first two touchdowns. We had an excellent game.
“This win means a lot for us.”
The Cougars (1-0) opened the season with a victory of the third straight year. Volk scored the game’s first two touchdowns on scores of 5 and 4 yards and the defense held Chimacum (0-1), out of Jefferson County, to three red zone trips and a shutout for three quarters.
Of Seton’s 27 players, 16 are new to high school football, head coach Dan Chase said.
One of them is sophomore Sean Emberlin, who had an interception return for a 38-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that made it a three-score game.
The defense shutout Chimacum for three quarters and held the Cowboys to three red zone trips. The team’s continued growth is a bright spot for the Cougars, and not a surprise for Volk.
“I’ve seen us play more as a unit,” he said, “and execute our assignments a lot better.”
Key moments
Defense gets the stop(s): Seton capitalized on five Chimacum turnovers, getting three fumble recoveries and interceptions by Emberlin and Nolan Hannam. Chimacum’s longest play drive of the game — 14 plays — ended with Hannam’s interception at the Seton 26. Later in the game, Chimacum got down to the Seton 8-yard line before a fumble recovery by Isaac Washington turned the ball back over to the Cougars.
Hear a whistle?: One of the quirkiest plays of the game came on Seton’s first drive of the third quarter. That’s when a reception by Seton was fumbled, and scooped up by Chimacum’s Anson Jones, first assuming it was an incomplete pass. He handed the ball to the line judge, hesitated, then, because he didn’t hear a whistle, ran down the sideline for 25 yards. The call of a fumble recovery stood, but later on the drive, Chimacum fumbled the ball back to Seton.
Key players
Luke Pitzer, Seton Catholic: A former receiver for Seton now starts at quarterback. In his first varsity start, the senior threw for 145 yards. His longest pass went to Griffin Young for 59 yards that set up Volk’s second touchdown that made it 13-0 Seton at halftime.
Elijah Volk, Seton Catholic: Volk had 44 rushes on 11 carries, but also was a key target for Pitzer. The junior had two catches for 11 yards and made an impact on defense.
Anson Jones, Chimacum: The game’s leading rusher had 112 yards on 27 carries, and also scored the Cowboys’ fourth-quarter touchdown on a 5-yard run.
Quotable
“The constant hustle we had,” said Elijah Volk on what impressed him most about his team’s performance Saturday. “Even though we gave up that one touchdown, we shut them out for three quarters. THey got close two or three times, but we just kept going hard and kept pushing.”
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SETON CATHOLIC 19, CHIMACUM 8
Chim 0 0 0 8 – 8
Seton 7 6 0 6 – 19
First quarter
SC — Elijah Volk 5 run (Lance Stuck kick)
Second quarter
SC — Volk 4 run (kick blocked)
Fourth quarter
SC — Sean Emerlin 38 INT return (kick failed)
C — Anson Jones 5 run (Jones run)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Chimacum: Anson Jones 28-112, Clayton Smith 8-(minus-9), Kyle Caldwell 9-22, Carson McConnell 2-6; Seton Catholic: Luke Pitzer 15-49, Elijah Volk 11-44, Dax Clifton 3-28, Alex Arredondo 1-4.
PASSING — Clayton Smith 4-7-2-56, Anson Jones 0-1-1-0; Seton Catholic: Luke Pitzer 6-10-1-145
RECEIVING — Bjorn Danaan 3-43, Ason Jones 1-13; Seton Catholic: Lance Stuck 3-75, Elijah Volk 2-11, Griffin Young 1-59.
