Sage Hill effort not enough

Bryce Alderton

The Sage Hill School football team spent most of its energy keeping

itself within nine points of explosive Brethren Christian High for

three quarters in Saturday night’s Academy League opener for both

teams.

The Lightning, however, had little juice left in the tank by the

fourth quarter and the rugged host Warriors snapped the visitors’

five-game winning streak with a 30-7 victory at Clark Field.

The Lightning (6-2) held the Warriors (7-1) well below their

scoring average (46.4 points entering the contest), but failed to

muster much offense themselves despite holding the ball for 33

minutes, 58 seconds.

Don Ayres’ 1-yard plunge tied the game at 7 with 2:34 remaining in

the first quarter and capped a 10-play, 78-yard drive after Brethren

went 15 yards in five plays on their opening possession. Senior

Jeramy Knepper, Brethren’s standout tailback/receiver/punt returner

scored the first of his three touchdowns with a 1-yard jaunt on the

drive after teammate Jeff Shakespeare blocked a punt on Sage’s

opening possession.

Knepper, the CIF Southern Section’s second-leading receiver,

finished with 146 yards on five catches, including a 66-yard

touchdown strike from Derrick Conner to put the Warriors up for good,

14-7, with 37 seconds left in the first half.

Conner completed 9 of 14 passes for 271 yards with two touchdowns

and one interception.

Jamie McGee, Sage’s freshman quarterback, spent most of the game

eluding Brethren’s oncoming rushers, but managed to complete 6 of 15

passes for 120 yards and one interception.

“We had to mix-and-match a little on offense,” Sage Coach Tom

Monarch said.

McGee found junior Keya Manshadi for two completions totaling 94

yards in the first half. Manshadi sat out the previous two contests

with a strained upper calf. Manshadi added 49 yards on 12 carries in

the first half as the Lightning went into intermission trailing,

16-7.

The score stayed that way until Brethren scored on consecutive

possessions spanning the third and fourth quarters. The Warriors went

43 yards in five plays after recovering a Sage fumble. Knepper, who

Coach Bruce Eien said is being recruited by “all the Ivy League

schools,” capped the scoring with a 6-yard blast.

Manshadi, winded from playing both offense and defense, sat out

the second half. As a precaution, Monarch said Manshadi left to go to

a hospital to see if he sustained a concussion.

The Lightning were also felled by injuries to starting receiver

Braden Ross (ankle), who caught two passes for 19 yards, and tailback

Dylan Milstein (collarbone), which both occurred in the third

quarter.

“It’s a battlefield out here,” Monarch said. “I looked back [in

the fourth quarter] and our sideline looked like a Civil War camp.

“It’s like David and Goliath when we face these types of teams. We

were handicapped, but that is football. It is a physical game. I take

nothing away from Brethren Christian. I’m proud of the defense and

happy we held [Brethren] to 30 points or less.”

McGee slid to intercept Conner’s pass on the first play from

scrimmage following a Sage kickoff in the second quarter.

On Brethren’s previous possession in the quarter, Manshadi raced

toward the sideline and knocked the ball loose from Conner’s grasp

before recovering on the Sage 3-yard line.