The Seahawks started the game with two key defensive players, Eddie Nolan and Nick Landstrom, out due to injury and illness. But that didn’t seem to slow down the Seahawks’ strong offense led by Chase Forrest and key players Ryan Taormina, Jake Favreau, Luke Napolitano and Ricky Zak.
Favreau drove home the first TD early in the game to set the tone. The first quarter ended with the Seahawks up, 7-0, but Seahawk Cole Martin was sidelined with an ankle injury sustained on the second play of the game.
In the second quarter, Favreau ran for 16 yards. Then a pass from Forrest to Napolitano brought the Seahawks down to the Cerritos two-yard line. Favreau again punched it over the line for the score, but at a great cost: he injured his shoulder when he hit the ground after being tackled, and exited the game. Taormina ran for a two-point conversion.
The Seahawks offensive line (Colin Duffy, Grant Moore, Timmy Strader, Ian Redman and Blake Bauer) opened up huge holes for the running backs to gain large chunks of yards. Taormina was on fire in the third quarter and had a 35-yard run where he broke two tackles along the way. Napolitano caught a 20-yard pass from Forrest to set Newport up with a first-and-goal. That led to a TD run by Taormina. Adam Davis provided the extra point.
The Seahawks defense (Jordan Binder, Brad Hostetler and Andrew Boukather) was strong in the third quarter.
Still on fire from his touchdown run, Taormina sacked the Steelers quarterback deep in the backfield.
The Seahawks will play Inglewood Saturday. Taormina was the Seahawks Player of the Week for his extensive success on both offense and defense.
