White Salmon runs past shorthanded Seton Catholic

CAMAS — Seton Catholic’s second-year program needs all hands on deck to have a shot at victory.

Friday night at Doc Harris Stadium, the Cougars were without one of their leaders, and it showed in a 64-8 Trico 1A League loss to Columbia (White Salmon).

Junior starting quarterback Will Noce-Sheldon sat out with a thumb injury suffered in last week’s loss to Toledo, relegating him to cheerleading duties as classmate Thomas Martin got his first career start behind center.

“I had a lot of jitters at the beginning,” said Martin, who finished 7-of-23 for 57 yards with three interceptions. “I was used to running at wide receiver, but the guys put a lot of faith in me. I was good to go after the first whistle.”

Martin doesn’t represent the dual-threat presence that Noce-Sheldon does in the Cougars’ read option, and the Bruins (4-2, 3-2) bottled up Seton halfback James Henkels (24 carries, 48 yards) as a result.

Martin hit on a few big plays in the passing game, and freshman Ryan James (9 carries, 31 yards, TD) got untracked on the fly sweep in the second half. But it wasn’t nearly enough to keep pace with the Bruins.

“(Will) was missed, but the guys who came in did a good job throughout the week, practicing and preparing,” said Cougars coach Dan Chase, whose team fell to 1-5 overall, 1-5 in Trico play.

“This is definitely a learning season for us. We’ve got a lot of freshmen with responsibilities on them, and they’re responding very well. This will encourage them to keep at it and to prepare themselves for the future.”

White Salmon ran only 19 plays on offense, but it scored three special-teams touchdowns and also returned an interception for another score.

WHITE SALMON 64, SETON CATHOLIC 8

White Salmon 14 29 14 7–64

Seton Catholic 0 0 0 8– 8

First quarter

WS — Jared Garwood 42 punt return (Gabe Guzman kick)

WS — Tanner Rabinowitz 4 run (G.Guzman kick)

Second Quarter

WS — John Stephens 3 run (G.Guzman kick)

WS — Stephens 22 run (G.Guzman kick)

WS — Nathan Bell 30 run (G.Guzman kick)

WS — Safety, punter downed ball in end zone

WS — Garwood 58 kickoff return (kick failed)

Third Quarter

WS — Omar Guzman 65 kickoff return (G.Guzman kick)

WS — G.Guzman 33 interception return (G.Guzman kick)

Fourth Quarter

SC — Ryan James 2 run (James Henkels run)

WS — Rabinowitz 12 run (G.Guzman kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: White Salmon, Stephens 4-57, Rabinowitz 4-28, Bell 2-32, Josh Lewis 3-36. Seton Catholic, Henkels 24-48, R.James 9-31, Dylan Cole 7-28, Thomas Martin 3-(minus 17), Justin James 1-(minus 5), team 1-(minus 20).

PASSING: White Salmon, Rabinowitz 3-6-1-92. Seton Catholic, Martin 9-23-3-57.

RECEIVING: White Salmon Ryan Earls 1-43, Stephens 1-42, Garwood 1-7. Seton Catholic, J.James 4-24, Cole 4-31, Henkels 1-2.