Lightning aiming for second win

Rick Devereux

After Sage Hill School had a record-setting game against Midway

Baptist last week, Coach Tom Monarch is happy with the team’s

performance but would still like to see individual improvement Friday

against Villanova Prep.

“We played a terrible first quarter [against the Patriots],” he

said. “Once we settled down and made some adjustments, we played much

better. Hopefully that will carry over to next week.”

Sophomore running back Don Ayres rushed for 179 yards and two

touchdowns, setting a new Lightning single-game rushing record, and

junior Keya Manshadi rushed for 98 yards with two scores. Manshadi

also added two interceptions for touchdowns to give Sage Hill the

42-14 win, marking the largest margin of victory in school history.

Monarch singled out the play of his younger athletes as ones who

contributed to the win.

“I thought [freshman quarterback] Jamie McGee played extremely

well. He made some mistakes, but he will improve,” Monarch said.

“[Freshman inside linebacker] Dylan Milstein had some big hits and

played really well.”

Monarch said he needs the underclassmen -- Sage Hill (1-0) has

freshmen or sophomores at seven different starting positions -- to

continue to play well for the Lightning to put together their first

two-game winning streak since the first two games in the program’s

history in 2002.

Villanova Prep (1-0) beat Desert Christian, 49-12, last week

behind the running of Nick Scolari (146 yards, three touchdowns) and

Sean Forster (132 yards, one TD).

Monarch said he will prepare for the Wildcats in the same way he

prepared for the Patriots.

“Just like the Midway game, we want to force them to pass to our

secondary,” he said. “If we can make them one-dimensional by taking

away their running game and forcing them to throw into the strength

of our defense, I think we will win.”

When Sage Hill has the ball, Monarch is expecting the defenders to

key on Ayres and Manshadi, which could leave other play-makers open.

“It doesn’t take Einstein to realize we need to get the ball in

[Manshadi’s] hands. We knew we wanted to put it in his hands from day

one,” Monarch said. “But we have a unique team where [sophomore wide

receiver] Braden Ross might be the one with the huge game. Or Ayers.

Or McGee. You just never know.”