Sage Hill shut out on road

NEWPORT COAST — Sage Hill School’s cafeteria apparently wasn’t the only thing that was shut down recently. The Lightning football team was also shut down by St. Margaret’s, 70-0, in what was the Academy League’s championship game Friday.

Sage Hill’s cafeteria closed after rodent droppings were found in the storage room Nov. 5.

But just like the cafeteria that was reopened the next day after the suspension, Sage Hill (7-3, 2-1 in Academy League) will start again with a clean slate next week since the Lightning qualified for a playoff spot by finishing second in league.

“The three teams we lost to this year – St. Margaret’s is 9-1 (3-0 in Academy League), Tri-City Christian is 9-1 and Linfield Christian is probably 10-0 – are good teams,” Sage Hill Coach J.R. Tolver said. “So we’ve lost to three pretty good teams. Now do we want to lose 70 to nothing? No, obviously not. But we’re healthy and we’ll find out who we’ll play in the playoffs Sunday.”

Tolver added despite the lopsided loss, he felt that his players kept competing, didn’t check out mentally and “never once did I feel like we were ready to get out of town with our tails between our legs.”

Sage Hill’s sophomore defensive back Taylor Petty was one of the players that didn’t give up. He intercepted St. Margaret’s quarterback Brennan Smith in the end zone for the Lightning’s only forced turnover Friday.

“You know what’s funny is that St. Margaret’s versus Sage is a rivalry,” Tolver said. “The reality of the situation is that we didn’t lose to St. Margaret’s tonight. We lost the Academy League championship, and that’s what we were playing for. We were playing for our first-ever Academy League championship.”

To get to the 7-3 record, five games better than last year’s 2-8 mark, Tolver said players like Taylor Ross, Dusty Orrantia, who led the Lightning with 17 yards on five carries, and Connor Gaughan, who led the team with seven yards receiving, carried the team this year.

He added that Sam Simon and Adam Donchess are unsung heroes because the offensive and defensive line has also carried the Lightning this season.

They all bought into the new direction provided by Tolver, the first-year coach.

St. Margaret's 70, Sage Hill 0

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Sage Hill          0-0-0-0--0