HAWTHORNE — While eating slices of pizza, everyone wondered what Sage Hill School had planned for next week.
Back at home with a bye week, with no football game scheduled, the Lightning will have a lot of free time.
The Lightning hit the road for the first time Friday night, going home happy with a 38-18 nonleague victory against Animo of Inglewood at Hawthorne High.
But before the Lightning hit the bus, quarterback Jamie McGee asked teammates of next Friday.
“What game are we going to?” he said after throwing for 269 yards and four touchdowns.
“Linfield, Linfield,” said linebacker Nazir Katbi, referring to Linfield Christian, Sage Hill’s next opponent.
Someone chimed in with a “Why would we drive to Temecula?” Laughter broke out.
No reason to travel again, just another nonleague game before the big Academy League opener against St. Margaret’s, the defending CIF Southern Section Northeast Division champ.
That’s the game Sage Hill Coach Pete Anderson said his team would attend and it will need the time.
“Lots of play, polish and really just take the next two weeks to just get us close to perfect as we can,” said the first-year coach.
Katbi didn’t know Sage Hill would scout St. Margaret’s game against Calvary Chapel, but it didn’t matter because Katbi made sure Sage Hill (5-1) bounced back after suffering its first defeat last week.
Katbi came up with one of three fumbles forced by the defense, stopping Animo (0-5) from moving the ball for most of the night. Only once did fleet-footed quarterback Ryan Lyles complete a pass. The other 17 attempts were knuckleballs going out of bounds, floating over receivers’ heads, or being batted down by the likes of Tom Multari.
Lyles used his legs, trying to end Animo’s 21-game losing streak. A program, getting its players from two charter school campuses, needed more than Lyles’ 127 rushing yards and one touchdown on 26 carries to finally win a game.
Nine times Sage Hill dropped Lyles behind the line of scrimmage. The defense was ready for him, especially Michael Higgins, normally a defensive back. He moved to the line to stop Lyles from getting to the sideline.
“We had Preston Oklejas, our tall receiver, he practiced [at] quarterback this week,” said Higgins of Oklejas, a 6-foot-5 receiver. “He’s fast and he can throw, so it was just like practice, except [Lyles] was a little faster.”
