Sage shows little mercy on Animo

NEWPORT COAST — If Sage Hill High coach Tom Monarch was worried about his team getting up for a nonleague game, he shouldn’t have.

The Lightning (5-3) had no trouble with Animo(0-9) as they cruised to a 63-26 rout Friday.

Braden Ross opened the scoring for the Lightning when he intercepted the Aztecs quarterback two-yards deep in his own end zone and ran it back for a 102-yard return.

“Tonight we came out with some intensity,” Tom Monarch said. “We knew we wanted to air it out early because we’ve been running the ball so much lately, we knew that we could probably jump on them early.”

Animo was controlling the clock for much of the first quarter giving the Lightning offense the ball with 49 seconds left in the period.

Only able to run two plays before the gun, Sage Hill wasted no time in the second quarter.

Jaime McGee hooked up with Don Ayres on the first play for a 43-yard strike that put the Lightning up 14-0.

McGee wanted the ball back and took the matter into his own hands when he picked off the Aztecs and returned the ball 21 yards.

Preston Oklejas’ caught a McGee pass in the corner of the end zone four plays later and the rout was on.

The stingy Sage Hill defense finally allowed a score 20 minutes in on a fourth-down pass from Michael Lyles Jr. to Calvin Kyles Jr., making the score 21-6.

After a 39-yard kickoff return by Tom Multari, Ross turned a 10-yard rout into a 40-yard touchdown when he broke one tackle then juked another defender on his way to the end zone.

On the Lightning’s next two offensive possessions McGee hit Ross for a 40-yard touchdown and Oklejas from 21-yards out.