TWO-MINUTE DRILL

There are some things you just don’t see in a game film — like how a defense will decide to cover your wide receivers come game time. La Quinta High made the mistake of matching up under-sized corners against taller Estancia wideouts like Ryan Redding (6-foot, 175 pounds) and Eddie Tomasek (6-1, 180).

Eagles quarterback Mike Morley hit Redding four times for a game-high 106 yards in Estancia’s 28-13 nonleague win Friday at Orange Coast College. Redding lined up on the right side of the formation much of the night and found himself looking down on La Quinta corners.

“There was a mismatch, size-wise, and we wanted to counter their weakness a bit,” Eagles Coach Mike Bargas said.

Morley hit Redding for a two-point conversion in the right corner of the end zone in the first half, but also connected with Redding on high throws of 39 and 36 yards. Both times Redding leaped to make the catch.

“On the game’s first snap we saw that,” Morley said of the size advantage. “They knew we were going to pick on their smaller guys, but I think it worked out for us.”

 No longer unbeaten, where does Sage Hill School (4-1) go from here?

Clean up its act.

After turning the ball over every which way, from an interception to on downs to seeing the punter mishandle a snap and get dropped on his 20-yard line to the punt returner fumbling inside the 20, first-year coach Pete Anderson reminded the Lightning of what’s next.

“You know that St. Margaret’s is on the horizon,” he said of the Academy League rivalry game, two more nonleague games before opening league against the No. 1-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Northeast Division. And the Tartans have never lost to Sage Hill.

“You could argue whether there is such a thing as a good loss,” Anderson said. “I really don’t think there is, but it’s good for us to be tested and humbled and I’d rather have our first loss come here in a nonleague game to make you realize you’re vulnerable.”

Bakersfield Christian (5-0), ranked No. 1 in Central Section Division V, made it seem like the Lightning have a lot of holes. On the stats sheet, Sage Hill had a negative 31 yards rushing on 17 attempts. The positive, passing with 134 yards, but only nine completions out of 34 tries, and two were intercepted.

“We had several passes batted down, which is just a testament to their [defensive] line,” Anderson said. “They’re [defensive backs] were quality. They’re caliber was a notch above what we normally see in the Academy League.”

 Newport Harbor junior tailback Michael Helfrich started and starred in place of injured Ben Frazier (torn knee ligament), rushing for 90 yards on 24 carries, including touchdowns of one and eight yards. He also caught two passes for 20 yards.

But the performance in the Sailors’ 28-14 nonleague road victory Friday was hardly unexpected for the 6-foot, 178-pounder who also starts at free safety.

Helfrich had rushed for 59 yards and one TD on 15 carries in the first three games this season after producing a combined 401 yards and three TDs on 55 carries in the final two games last fall. He amassed 281 yards and three TDs on 33 carries in the 2006 finale against Fountain Valley.

 After watching his team rush for 105 yards on 42 carries in Friday’s 20-9 nonleague loss to Santiago, Costa Mesa Coach Jeremy Osso has asked for improved play out of his offensive line. Part of that, he said, is just getting tougher.

“We have to get nasty on the offensive line, and we still have yet to do that,” Osso said. “There’s maybe two guys on the whole line that have that nasty streak, the rest are kind of nice guys.”

The matter wasn’t helped when senior right tackle Jorge Sandoval missed the game with a family member in the hospital.

“We told him family’s more important than football,” Osso said.

 A few dozen Bakersfield Christian fans brought noisemakers including cowbells to Friday’s game against Sage Hill, but Lightning quarterback Jamie McGee was unmoved.

“When I’m in the game, I don’t really hear anything,” McGee said after the Lightning’s 47-0 nonleague loss. “They’re just cowbells.”

The Bakersfield Christian defense was a little more difficult to ignore, however, as the Eagles sacked McGee four times.

“They kind of put eight or nine in the box and we just couldn’t counter,” said McGee, who finished nine for 34 for 134 yards passing, upping his season total to 1,381 yards. “We were just trying to do quick, short passes, but sometimes it was hard to get it over the defensive line.”

 After using nine different runners in its 41-7 loss to Newport Harbor in the Battle of the Bay, Corona del Mar scaled back against South El Monte. The trio of JD Abbott, Austin Raiger, and Tyler Harmon combined for 162 rushing yards in the Sea Kings’ 22-14 nonleague win Friday at Newport Harbor High with Abbott leading the way with 77 yards and two touchdowns. The threesome accounted for all but two of the Sea Kings’ rushing attempts.

 The Costa Mesa running game was bolstered with the return of Antwon Byrd, a junior tailback who had been nursing a hip flexor injury. Byrd, who came in on the Mustangs’ third series, had 15 carries for 50 yards before aggravating the injury midway through the third quarter.

The Santiago defense did a good job, though, stopping the big plays of Byrd and his fellow Mustangs. Of the 42 Costa Mesa rushing plays, just two went for more than seven yards, both of those being 11-yard runs by Robbie Gemayel.

“The whole thing we try to do with Antwon is that he’s our game-breaker,” Osso said. “When they slow him down, it definitely puts us in a hole, but I thought Robbie and Cody De La Mater played great at tailback too.”

De La Mater had the Mustangs’ lone touchdown on a two-yard run.

 Costa Mesa sophomore Brian Waldron had one interception against Santiago.

But not at quarterback, where he was four of 11 for 54 yards. The interception came at safety, where the two-way starter picked off a Cavaliers pass in the fourth quarter.

The interception led to the Mustangs’ only touchdown of the game.

 McGee’s favorite target, after Bakersfield Christian’s secondary bottled up his top two wide receivers, Nick Witte and Michael Higgins, was Preston Oklejas.

Oklejas caught six of McGee’s nine completions, finishing with 83 yards.

Witte and Higgins each had one reception after Witte came into the game averaging 6.7 per contest and Higgins had averaged 5.2.

 At halftime of Newport Harbor’s 28-14 nonleague win at Dana Hills Friday night, a moment of silence was observed for Megan Myers, a 14-year-old Dana Hills freshman cross country runner who collapsed and died during a cross country race Wednesday.

Students displayed a banner on the field that read “Dana loves you Megan, We’ll miss you.”

A memorial service for Myers is scheduled Wednesday from 4-6 p.m. at Coast Hills Community Church, located at 5 Pursuit, Aliso Viejo.

A memorial fund has also been set up and donations may be made by mail to: Dana Hills High School, 33333 Street of the Golden Lantern, Dana Point, 92629, Attention: Principal Rob Nye.

 The Sailors’ third win of the season did not come without a loss, as a senior reserve was ejected from the game late in the fourth period for what one official told Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley was the use of profanity.

Brinkley went onto the field to protest the ejection with one official, talking for more than a minute, before returning to the sideline.

Per CIF Southern Section rules, the ejection means the player can not play in the Sailors’ final nonleague game Friday against visiting Mira Costa.

 Noah Molnar’s four interceptions against South El Monte made for the best game of the junior linebacker’s career at CdM.

“He did a good job,” CdM Coach Dick Freeman said. “He’s a pretty good athlete. We ran a two-deep coverage and he was one of the deep safeties on one, and he was an under-coverage guy on the other ones.

“He intercepted the pass. That’s kind of what we’re supposed to do.”

 When scouting South El Monte, one of Freeman’s biggest concerns was containing quarterback Jose Garay.

That concern proved to be justified. Garay scooted by Sea Kings defenders to gain 67 yards rushing.

“Their quarterback is great,” Freeman said.

— From staff reports