Cape Cougars Stay Undefeated

On Saturday afternoon, the Cape Cougars and the South River Seahawks met in a battle that many felt was between the top two teams at 11-U in the Anne Arundel Youth Football Association.

Before the game, South River (2-0) had yet to be scored on and Cape (1-0) had two weeks off due to the weather closing fields in the county. The layoff didn’t seem to slow the Cougar offense as they broke their second play from scrimmage for a 51-yard touchdown run by Zack Doyle, who followed his blockers Peyton Stickle and Kyle Leite around the left side then cut back to the right to give the Cougars a quick 6-0 lead. 

The Cougar defense was aggressive and tackled in bunches, forcing the Seahawks to punt three times in the first half. Inside linebackers Liam Eden and Dylan Duvall attacked the Seahawks power running game early and often.  

The Cougars struck once again in the first half on a Tyler Vermillion 2-yard touchdown run up the middle behind back-up center Ken Cazahuatl, who replaced the starting center that left with a bruised knee just a few plays earlier. 

The Seahawks were not going down without a fight. With time running down in the first half, the South River quarterback rolled right and looked back left to find his left tight end wide open for a 30-yard touchdown strike. The extra point was good and the Cougars led 12-8 going into the half. 

In the second half, it was the Seahawks who struck first, taking advantage of one of the three Cougar turnovers to score on a quarterback scramble. South River ran in the attempt to take a 15-12 lead into the fourth quarter.  

In the final quarter, the Cougars stuck with their power running game even though South River often put 10 defenders within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage—and it paid off. The Cougar offensive line of Johnny Scaturro, Mike McKercher, Liam Eden, Ken Cazahuatl, Peyton Stickle, Kyle Leite, Joey Gibbons and Ronnie DeMarino started to wear out the South River defense. 

The Cougars took the ball on a six-and-a-half-minute 60-yard drive that ended with a Zack Doyle 15-yard touchdown run with only one minute left on the clock. Zack also ran in the extra point making the score, 19-15 in favor of Cape. 

Zack led all rushers with 132 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns. The final Doyle Cape touchdown would prove to be the game winner as the Cougar defense was able to stop the Seahawks final desperation drive capped off with a Jake Lilly interception on the games final play.  The Cougars go to 2-0, while South River drops to 2-1.  

After the game, Head Coach Larry Stump said he was very proud of all the kids. 

“This was a very physical game and we were fortunate to come out on top," Stump said. "They [South River] are a well-coached team and they have great players. I wish them the best the rest of the year, but we deserved this win.”

The Cougars play their next game Tuesday night at 7:45 p.m. at Davidsonville Park to make up a game canceled due to weather from earlier in the year against the Gators.

Broadneck Patch would like to thank Cougars Head Coach Larry Stump for contributing this report.