Sage ekes out win

NEWPORT COAST — Sage Hill School won the coin toss Friday, but deferred to receive the ball in the second half instead.

That was about the only non-aggressive decision both coaches made, as Sage Hill narrowly beat visiting Brethren Christian High, 20-13, in an Academy League opener.

“Coming into this week, this is kind of our fight to get into the playoffs,” Sage Hill Coach J.R. Tolver said. “We wanted to pull out all the stops today.”

Both teams combined for two onside kick attempts, three fake field goals, two fakes on would-be extra-point kicks and a fake punt pass play with no success.

But the game-changing aggressive play was a roughing-the-passer penalty on Brethren Christian that negated a 26-yard touchdown interception return by Ryan Randall.

“It was one of those ones you tell the kid to be aggressive,” Brethren Christian Coach Bruce Eien said of the potential touchdown that would’ve given the Warriors a 20-14 lead in the fourth quarter. “I know we’re protecting the quarterback, but it was close.”

Tolver added if he could have a do-over, he would’ve chosen to run instead of pass near their end zone.

Another game-changing play was a punt attempt Eien would like to have over as well.

With 6:36 left in the first quarter and trailing, 7-0, the Lightning’s Taylor Petty blocked the Warriors’ first punt attempt and recovered his own block at the four-yard line.

On the next play, Eric Cheng ran it in to tie the score.

But Randall, who had an interception prior to the roughing-the-passer play, made his presence known offensively, as he rushed 40 times for 212 yards and two touchdowns.

Sage Hill also countered with a strong collective running game of its own by rushing for a combined 236 yards led by Taylor Ross’ 134 yards on 16 carries.

“It was a ‘smashmouth, I’m going to line up my 11 against your 11 and we’re going to see who is tougher and stronger,’ type of game,” Tolver said.

He added that Ross has been asking for the ball the whole year.

“It was awesome,” Ross said of the coaches giving him more carries. “The offensive line blocked well, the coaches put us in good positions and we just executed.”

The Lightning’s normal workhorse, Dusty Orrantia, had been out the last two weeks because of mononucleosis and was used sporadically on defense and rushed once in the first half on a five-yard touchdown run.

But Orrantia said even though he probably feels like a three on a scale of one to 10, he really wanted to be the team captain that he is and play in this game.

“I’m a senior, we’ve got a new coach coming in, [Brethren Christian] beat us last year badly and we won with our hearts tonight,” he said. “I mean it was a constant battle between us and obviously the people who wanted it more won tonight.”

He added with the adrenaline, he was playing at seven, which was good enough for eight tackles and a forced fumbled on defense and 17 yards rushing on six attempts with two touchdowns.

“Dusty is one of our stronger runners if not the strongest runner,” Tolver said. “In a game like that, we had to get him in there.”

Sage Hill 20, Brethren Christian 13

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Brethren Christian 7-6-0-0--13

Sage Hill 7-7-0-6-20

FIRST QUARTER

BC – Randall 1 run (Levi kick), 9:08.

SH – Cheng 4 run (run failed), 6:22.

SECOND QUARTER

SH – Orrantia 5 run (Ross kick), 5:58.

BC – Randall 8 run (Levi kick), 1:38.

FOURTH QUARTER

SH – Orrantia 1 run (pass failed), 10:02.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

BC – Randall, 40-212, 2 TDs; Hallaian, 6-59; Peterson, 1-0; Brandon, 1-3; Duren, 1-minus 3.

SH – Ross, 16-134; Orrantia, 6-17, 2 TDs; Eric Cheng, 5-13, 1 TD; Mycorn, 2-8; Darren Cheng, 1-6; Etherton, 2-4; Petty, 0-0.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

BC – Duren, 1-4-0, 0.

SH – Mycorn, 3-12-1, 39.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

BC – Randall, 1-0.

SH – Petty, 2-39; Cheng, 1-0.