Sage handled again
If Brethren Christian High’s dominant Academy League football victory at Sage Hill on Friday had a cinematic theme, it could surely be “Gone in 60 Seconds.”
On six first-half touchdown drives, the Warriors used less than one minute on average to claim a 42-0 lead on their way to a 49-7 thumping.
Those six sequences averaged 3.5 plays and included scoring drives of one (twice), two and three plays.
“Oh, they are an unbelievable team,” Sage Hill Coach Abram Booty said of the Warriors (8-1, 1-1 in league), ranked No. 6 in the CIF Southern Section East Valley Division. “They line up like a collegiate team.”
Junior tailback Jordan Leonard matriculated the ball for 195 rushing yards and five touchdowns on just 10 attempts to lead the visitors, whose starting offensive guards and tackles average 284 pounds, including 330-pound junior guard Liki Seu.
Leonard’s scoring runs, which upped his season total to 27 rushing touchdowns, includes sprints of 51, 47 and 35 yards as his hulking linemen opened spacious holes.
Leonard did not play in the second half, during which the clock ran to minimize further damage.
The Warriors inflicted just that, however, on their first second-half possession, covering 87 yards on four plays, capped by a 76-yard run by Levon Lester to make it 49-0.
Sage Hill’s offense failed to reach the red zone, twice progressing inside the Brethren Christian 30-yard line, and finishing with 104 yards of total offense.
The Lightning defense, however, helped the hosts (1-8, 0-3) avert a shutout as senior DJ Henry scooped up a fumble and returned it 19 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the third quarter.
Henry nearly earned more yards with his defensive heroics than he did as the Lightning’s primary ballcarrier. Henry rushed nine times for 26 yards against a stout Brethren Christian defense that limited the Lightening to 32 yards on 17 rushing attempts.
Sage’s defense came up with three turnovers in all, including a leaping interception by senior cornerback David Dewey on the Warriors’ second play of the game.
Sage Hill senior linebacker Jake Fisher picked off another pass in a first-quarter that featured 10 combined possessions.
The Lightning punted seven times before intermission, at which time it had five of the six first downs it would earn.
While the speedy Leonard, who is now just 134 rushing yards from 2,000 this season, was gashing the Sage defense, junior quarterback Joey Gutierrez completed 10 of 13 passes to five receivers for 124 yards.
Brethren Christian, which is averaging close to 48 points per game this season, finished with 354 yards of offense on a mere 38 plays. Three of those snaps were kneel-downs at the end of each half. The Warriors also had would-be touchdown runs of 65 and 60 yards nullified by penalties.
Junior Miles McCord had the biggest gain of the night for the Lightning, returning a kickoff 58 yards to begin a possession that ended with an interception late in the third quarter.
Sage Hill, which has surrendered an average of 51.5 points in its last four games, has now lost seven straight games and 12 of its last 13. It was also the seventh straight league loss for the Lightning, who will conclude their season with a nonleague homecoming game against La Puente Bassett on Friday.
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Brethren Christian 49, Sage Hill 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Brethren 14 – 28 – 7 – 0 – 49
Sage Hill 0 – 0 – 0 – 7 – 7
FIRST QUARTER
BC – Leonard 35 run (Hardigree kick), 6:44.
BC – Leonard 51 run (Hardigree kick), 5:11.
SECOND QUARTER
BC – Leonard 11 run (Hardigree kick), 10:01.
BC – Sanchez 1 run (Hardigree kick), 9:00.
BC – Leonard 47 run (Hardigree kick), 7:28.
BC – Leonard 10 run (Hardigree kick), 2:32.
THIRD QUARTER
BC – Lester 76 run (Hardigree kick), 8:04.
FOURTH QUARTER
SH – Henry 19 rumble return (Rosoff kick), 11:43.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
BC – Leonard, 10-195, 5 TDs.
SH – Henry, 9-26.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
BC – Gutierrez, 10-13-2, 124.
SH – Sheetz, 6-17-2, 47.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
BC – Fuga, 5-73.