Tartans hammer Sage
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — In a word, the Sage Hill School football series against St. Margaret’s has been, well, excessive.
The Tartans added to the excess on Friday, rolling up a 52-7 Academy League victory that upped their league winning streak to 37 games.
St. Margaret’s (6-1, 1-0 in league), ranked No. 4 in the CIF Southern Section East Valley Division and coming off its first loss, appeared motivated to put things back in order against the Lightning (1-7, 0-2).
The Tartans, who are now 14-0 against Sage Hill, created order by scoring on their first six first-half possessions and producing 395 of their 543 yards of offense before intermission.
Outside of Sage junior quarterback Caden Sheetz’s deep spiral to senior receiver David Dewey for an 80-yard touchdown bomb that pulled the visitors within 28-7 midway through the second quarter, the Lightning found few sparks, especially on offense.
The Lightning, who have now lost six in a row and 11 of their last 12, had only one possession of more than five plays (a nine-play series that ended in a lost fumble midway through the fourth quarter).
The visitors had all six of the game’s punts and lost a pair of fumbles.
Sheetz completed 14 of 21 passes for 153 yards, without an interception to account for most of the Lightning’s 215 yards.
Dewey caught six passes for 113 yards as the Lightning had just six offensive plays net double-digit gains.
Big plays were hardly scarce for St. Margaret’s, the reigning CIF East Valley Division champions which last lost to an Academy League foe in 2004. Five of the Tartans’ touchdowns came from outside the red zone and one of those was from the 20-yard line.
Junior quarterback George Krantz had 263 of the hosts’ 290 passing yards, completing 13 of 20 for four touchdowns.
Explosive senior Nick Shanks had nine receptions for 140 yards, including touchdowns of 32, 26 and 15 yards. He also converted a long lateral pass into a 63-yard touchdown run and tossed a touchdown pass himself on a fake field goal in the third quarter.
Senior Taylor Freitas had a scoring reception of 46 yards and was credited with a 45-yard touchdown run on another of those long laterals that put the Tartans’ superior athletes in space to create.
Senior Alfonso Corona, who has spent most of the season at offensive guard, had five rushing attempts for 34 yards to pace the Sage ground game that included 29 yards on six attempts from senior DJ Henry.
Corona, also the starting middle linebacker, and senior tackle Barry Valdez each had a sack to highlight an overmatched Sage Hill defense.
St. Margaret’s freshman Christopher Vartanian, who booted seven conversion kicks, capped the scoring with a 38-yard field goal.
Sage Hill did not move past its own 28-yard line until Dewey’s touchdown catch. The Lightning made only one other trip to the red zone, reaching the Tartans’ 20-yard line early in the third quarter, before a backward pass went off a receiver’s hand and was ruled a fumble that a St. Margaret’s defender recovered after a 12-yard loss.
In their last nine meetings, St. Margaret’s has now outscored the Lightning, 446-43. And Sage has scored more than one touchdown only twice in the series.
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St. Margaret’s 52, Sage Hill 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Sage 0 7 0 0 – 7
SM 14 28 7 3 – 52
FIRST QUARTER
SM – Shanks 32 pass from G. Krantz (Vartanian kick), 7:21.
SM – Shanks 26 pass from G. Krantz (Vartanian kick), 1:41.
SECOND QUARTER
SM – Freitas 45 run (Vartanian kick), 10:03.
SM – Shanks 63 run (Vartanian kick), 8:12.
SH – Dewey 80 pass from Sheetz (Rosoff kick), 6:22.
SM – Shanks 15 pass from G. Krantz (Vartanian kick), 5:16.
SM – Freitas 46 pass from G. Krantz (Vartanian kick), 2:04.
THIRD QUARTER
SM – Freitas 20 pass from Shanks (Vartanian kick), 4:18.
FOURTH QUARTER
SM – Vartanian 38 FG, 2:13.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
SH – Corona, 5-34.
SM – Chalmers, 12-77.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
SH – Sheetz, 14-21-0, 153, 1 TD.
SM – G. Krantz, 13-20-0, 263, 4 TDs.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
SH – Dewey, 6-113, 1 TD.
SM – Shanks, 9-140, 3 TDs.