Sage Hill wins again

NEWPORT COAST — For Sage Hill School, the most pressing question of the evening wasn’t “Where are Webb’s open receivers?”

The answer to that was easy: There weren’t any. Webb’s quarterbacks didn’t complete a single pass all night.

Instead, everyone seemed to be wondering, what the heck is a Gaul?

A Gaul, according to the Webb football coaches, isn’t just a weirdly named mascot. It’s a French viking.

It’s a question they’ve heard before, and the coaches left Sage Hill muttering about how the spelling had everyone clueless.

Vikings they may be, but the Gauls didn’t pillage anything Friday night. Undefeated Sage Hill toasted Webb, 48-3, for its fourth straight win of the season.

“Defense played just spectacular,” Sage Coach Pete Anderson said. “They really did a nice job, really shut down the opponent. Offensive line played extremely well, really gave Jamie [McGee] a lot of time. It’s just one of those games where the receiving corps had a rough night.”

A “rough night” for the receiving corps was 316 passing yards spread among five different receivers for five touchdowns.

Last week, senior quarterback Jamie McGee threw for 394 yards and five touchdowns in a 42-10 win over Tri-City Christian last week. Nick Witte has proven to be the go-to receiver. He had five receptions for 126 yards and three touchdowns. Over the past two weeks, Witte has compiled 320 receiving yards and five touchdowns on 14 catches (22.9 yards per catch).

“I think, for their expectations for themselves, they had dropped balls, which those guys just don’t do,” Anderson said. “We’ve got a few receivers kind of hanging their head because they’re a little disappointed in their performance. They’re a pretty resilient bunch, so I know they’ll be back, and they’ll get over it.”

Save for two unconventional kickoffs, Friday’s game against Webb (1-2) was surprise-free.

Sage Hill ended up getting the ball back sooner than expected when it bounced off the thigh of a Webb player and Nazir Katbi recovered, resulting in a touchdown on the ensuing drive.

The oddity gave Sage Hill a 14-0 lead entering the second quarter, and the Lightning led 26-0 at halftime.

The second kickoff — at the start of the third quarter — was a botched onside kick attempt by Webb, which Sage Hill also recovered.

Webb’s only score of the night was a fourth-quarter 41-yard field goal by Jon Frisby.

With passing attack that seemed to effortlessly click into place, Sage Hill’s running backs didn’t get much ground time.

Max Torres led all Lightning ballcarriers with 34 rushing yards and a touchdown on six carries.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].

FIRST QUARTER

SH – Witte 37 pass from McGee (Multari run), 8:23.

SH – Oklejas 10 pass from McGee (run failed), 4:50.

SECOND QUARTER

SH – Witte 26 pass from McGee (pass failed), 6:29.

SH – Witte 37 pass from McGee (pass failed), 3:39.

THIRD QUARTER

SH – Multari 21 pass from McGee (McGee run), 8:38.

SH – Jackson 13 pass from McGee (Ross kick), 2:29.

FOURTH QUARTER

W – Frisby 41 FG, 5:47.

SH– Torres 10 run (Ross kick), 9:08.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

W – Holder, 15-68; Rode, 8-27; Bride, 2-28; Chung, 6-minus-5.

SH – Torres 6-34, 1TD; Multari, 6-31; Higgins, 4-30; Ross, 2-11; Schumacher, 4-6; McGee, 1-minus-7.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

W – Waldo, 0-3-0, 0; Rode, 0-5-0, 0.

SH – McGee, 16-31-0, 316, 5 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

SH – Witte 5-126, 3 TDs; Higgins 4-86; Oklejas 4-43, 1TD; Jackson 2-40, 1TD; Multari, 1-21, 1TD.