Show-stopping Sage

NEWPORT COAST — Jamie McGee has so many guys to pass to, it doesn’t really matter who the open receiver is for Sage Hill School.

McGee might as well be playing Madden NFL 08. For the accurate, strong-armed quarterback, it’s as simple as finding the open man and firing the ball to him. More often than not, he’ll make the catch, which was again the case Friday night in the Lightning’s 41-6 home win over a small Midway Baptist team that was a bit overmatched.

The senior quarterback for Sage Hill threw 10 times in the first quarter of play. He completed eight of those passes to three different players: Nick Witte, Preston Oklejas and Michael Higgins.

The result? Three touchdowns, a 20-0 lead and 149 passing yards for McGee after the first quarter alone.

“We came out passing, and I was just finding my guys,” McGee said. “After that, I think the team kind of let go and didn’t play as hard.”

Once the onslaught was over, Sage Hill (2-0) knew they could run the ball up the gut with Max Torres.

The senior fullback finished with 107 yards.

“Jamie was moving the ball around real well,” Lightning Coach Pete Anderson said of his quarterback, who accounted for five Sage touchdowns with four passing touchdowns and one rushing score. “The first few series were just real sharp. Usually you want to use the run to open up the passing game, but we were using the passing game to open up the run. We were kind of going backward in that respect.”

But for most of the game, Sage Hill was pushing forward down the field. And even as the offense stalled in the second quarter and most of the third, the Lightning defense held up.

“I thought Midway played a great game,” Anderson said. “They played with a lot of heart...they were causing us some problems with kind of an unorthodox blitz. But, eventually we were able to work it out.”

Midway Baptist (0-2), which has just 16 players on its varsity roster, tried to follow Sage’s blueprint.

The Patriots passed early and often, shuffling their quarterbacks A.J. Miller and Joe Altig in and out.

Most of duo’s hurried passes were incomplete, though. And two of them went to Lightning players.

Torres, who recovered a fumble to end Midway Baptist’s first drive of the game, had an interception late in the third quarter and returned the ball to the Patriots two.

A play later, McGee scrambled in to up the lead to 34-0.

Midway Baptist’s first big play of the night, a 76-yard touchdown pass to Joe Altig early in the fourth quarter, put the Patriots on the board.

But on their next possession, Sage Hill’s Tom Multari intercepted a pass near the sideline and took it back 95 yards for the game’s final touchdown.

It all came back to the first quarter, which was very different to the week prior, when Fairmont Prep went on a nearly 11-minute drive against the Lightning defense.

“Everybody had a good, strong first quarter,” Torres said. “We had a good couple of drives. We learned from last week that we had to come out strong, so everyone came out and did their job.”

Oklejas had two catches for touchdowns, including one on an inside slant late in the third quarter where he split two defenders.

Sage Hill will play at home again Friday at 7 p.m., when the Lightning will face Tri-City Christian.