Sage miscues costly

LOS ANGELES — Sometimes it’s the cracks in the foundation that prove to be the biggest building blocks.

The Sage Hill School football team might cling to that statement after falling, 26-22, in a nonleague game at Windward School on Friday.

The Lightning (1-3) had six turnovers, including three interceptions and one lost fumble on its first four possessions, to severely compromise the structural integrity of what might have been an upset win.

Twice Windward (2-1) produced touchdowns after taking over inside the red zone to seize a 13-0 lead that eventually became tenuous.

Sage Hill, which scored on four of the six possessions upon which it did not yield a turnover, and had a 331-275 advantage in total offense, was behind, 26-7, before making things interesting.

Helping fuel the comeback was some determined defense, some opportunistically explosive offense, and three Windward turnovers.

Sage, which never punted, drove to the Windward four-yard line before settling for a 30-yard field goal that made it 26-10 with 2:40 left in the third quarter.

On its first fourth-quarter possession, Sage used three plays, capped by a strong 30-yard scoring run by senior tailback DJ Henry, to close within 10 points with 10:05 left.

After Henry intercepted a fake-punt pass and returned it 15 yards to the Windward 25, Sage appeared poised to cut further into the deficit. But the ensuing pass was tipped at the line and intercepted to give the Wildcats four picks on the day.

Sage fumbled the ball away three plays into its next possession, only to have freshman linebacker Connor Hatzenbuehler recover a Windward fumble two plays later.

Finally, the Lightning cashed in, as junior receiver Jacob Copeland made a leaping catch between two defenders in the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown hookup from junior quarterback Caden Sheetz to finalize the scoring with 2:50 left.

Windward recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock to render Sage players and coaches both frustrated and encouraged.

“The boys fought hard in the second half, against a good football team,” first-year Sage Coach Abram Booty said. “We were down a couple touchdowns, which always gives you the chance to test the character of a team. And I was proud of the way [our players] fought. I’m excited about next week and the rest of the season.”

Copeland, who also ran away from defenders for a 39-yard touchdown reception to open the scoring for the visitors, finished with five catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns.

Sheetz, forced to roll out often, was sacked three times, and frequently hurried his throws due to pressure, finished with 230 passing yards. All but two of his completions produced at least 12 yards and six of those went for at least 20 yards.

After shifting to a six-man front and stacking the box with the secondary, Sage held Windward to two or fewer yards on 13 of 28 second-half rushing attempts.

“Our offense hurt our defense a little bit and we have to do a better job of protecting the ball,” Booty said. “Defensively, we played pretty well, though we gave up a couple big plays that we shouldn’t have on third-and-long situations.”

Windward got a chance to parlay back-to-back third-down plays into a touchdown with 17 seconds left in the first half, after the officials mistakenly counted the downs. Instead of fourth-and-goal at the four-yard line, which would have likely prompted a field-goal attempt, Windward cashed in its second third down play with a four-yard touchdown run to take a 19-7 halftime advantage.

“The kids played with everything they have and we’re going to build on that,” Booty said.

Windward compiled 201 of its total yards on the ground, including 11 carries of seven yards or more.

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Windward 26, Sage Hill 22

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Sage Hill 0 7 3 12 – 22

Windward 7 12 7 0 – 26

FIRST QUARTER

W – Webster 2 run (Geddes kick), 1:13.

SECOND QUARTER

W – Brandt 12 pass from Tremayne (kick blocked), 10:28.

SH – Copeland 30 pass from Sheetz (Rosoff kick), 5:48.

W – Kingsdale 4 run (run failed), 0:17.

THIRD QUARTER

W – Kingsdale 1 run (Geddes kick), 5:02.

SH – Rosoff 24 FG, 2:40.

FOURTH QUARTER

SH – Henry 30 run (pass failed), 10:05.

SH – Copeland 28 pass from Sheetz (kick blocked), 2:50.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

SH – Henry, 11-54, 1 TD.

W – Webster, 20-103, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

SH – Sheetz, 12-30-4, 230, 2 TDs.

W – Tremayne7-13-1, 74, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

SH – Copeland, 5-105, 2 TDs; Dewey, 4-84.

W – Brandt, 3-52, 1 TD.