St. Augustine has been particularly known this season for its explosive passing attack, but stole the show Saturday with his shutdown defense as much as anything.
The Purple Knights (6-1, 3-1) allowed Archbishop Rummel (4-3, 2-2) an early 62-yard run and subsequent field goal, but little else in their eventual 26-3 victory — marking the first time since 2022 in which the Raiders failed to score a touchdown.
“This is Catholic League football, man,” coach Robert Valdez said. “This is Catholic League football at its best. This is two great programs. We got after it. I mean, it was a slug fest, and we had the make the plays and we had to make some adjustment and we just had to deal with adversity, but guys kept plugging and kept playing hard. Hats off to both teams. We just made a couple plays down the stretch to give ourselves a cushion.”
St. Augustine converted a muffed Rummel punt return in the second quarter into an eventual goal-line touchdown and 7-3 lead on a fourth-down leap by quarterback Vashaun “Tig” Coulon — the first of the senior’s four scores, two passing and two rushing.
And the the Purple Knights’ pass game finally clicked at its best on back-to-back possessions late in the third and early in the fourth.
Coulon led Verchaun Simms Jr. on a rail route deep down the left sideline, then hit Miguel Whitley coming back across the end zone for the score.
And an apparent Chad Jones Jr. pick-six called back on offsetting penalties set up a Coulon strike to Derrick Bennett to open the margin up to 19-3.
“We gave ’em short fields, and then not being able to get first downs,” Rummel coach Nick Monica said. “If you don’t get first downs, then we don’t have a chance to flip the field. You know, getting points is one thing, but not being able to get a first down, we can’t even flip the field and make ’em drive. I think they had three touchdowns on the plus-side of the field. You can’t win that way.”
The quick, active St. Augustine defensive continued its near-shutout effort throughout, including pressure from sophomore edge rusher Darren Coates Jr. and company up front and an interception by sophomore corner Armon Allen to go with Jones’.
And Coulon eventually added the final nail in the game’s coffin with another short touchdown run to cap a drive on which freshman running back Cohann Davis was particularly effective gashing his way for yards.
Coulon finished 18-for-27 for 172 yards and rushed for 44 yards, according to NOLA.com, along with the four total scores.
Junior running back Coryan Hawkins led Rummel with 84 yards on five carries, including the early 62-yarder to set up a 35-yard Robert Montalvo Vargas field goal.
“Just movement,” Monica said of the challenges presented by the Purple Knights’ defense. “I thought our tackles got their butts whipped, and we couldn’t run the ball. And that’s where it starts. We’re not a team that can throw it 30 times and win. So if our stat line looks like that, it means we didn’t do very well. And we didn’t. They whipped us up front, and they outplayed us.”