‘Bread and Butter’ on Sage Hill’s plate

Sage Hill School has played some of its best football of the season in its first two league games.

The Lightning want to keep that trend going even as they step outside the Academy League realm for a week, playing host to Animo High tonight at 7 in a nonleague contest.

Sage Hill Coach Tom Monarch said the game is a good chance for the Lightning (4-3, 2-0 in league), ranked No. 8 in the CIF Southern Section Northeast Division, to practice fundamentals.

“My primary concern is just fundamentals and execution,” Monarch said. “Nothing tricky. We’ll really just practice our bread and butter, offensively and defensively. We won’t deviate from that too much.”

Animo, from Inglewood, is a freelance school that is 0-8. The Aztecs have been shutout three times, and all of their losses have been by at least 34 points.

Monarch said that records can sometimes be deceiving, and that the Aztecs seem to have good size on their offensive line.

“But I think we have more speed on both sides of the line, and that’ll be the difference,” he said.

Nevertheless, the Lightning are battle-tested. Monarch said that fact should make sure that Sage Hill doesn’t underestimate its winless foe.

“That was the advantage of having a tough nonleague schedule: we’re not overconfident,” he said. “Maturity prevents overconfidence. We’ve come from behind a few times to win games, and we’ve had some games that we lost in the fourth quarter. We’ve had the whole spectrum so far.”

The Sage Hill offensive line of Cody Gates, Ryan Ramming, J.J. Schumacher, Joey Puishys and Dan Kernan has been gelling lately. Last week against Brethren Christian, Lightning tailback Don Ayres and fullback Max Torres each ran for over 100 yards in Sage Hill’s comeback, 35-21, win.

“They’re not breakaway speed types, but it’s a good one-two punch,” Monarch said. “I think they complement each other extremely well.”

Ayres’ 186 yards on the ground was a season-high for the senior.

“We’ve been working the line pretty hard in practice,” Monarch said. “In conjunction with that, they’re communicating a lot better. You have to have communication on the line. You have to anticipate what your teammate is going to do and react accordingly.”

The defense also stepped up late against Brethren Christian. After allowing three touchdowns in the first half, the Lightning gave up none in the second half.

“We just eliminated the momentum-builders,” Monarch said. “That’s what Brethren had in the first half to stay alive. It challenged our DBs to step up and make the big plays; it put that on their shoulders.”

After tonight against Animo, the Lightning are at Capistrano Valley Christian on Nov. 4 and play host to first-place rival St. Margaret’s on Nov. 10.

A win in either of those final two Academy League games should clinch an already-likely CIF Southern Section Northeast Division playoff berth for Sage Hill.