High School Football: Eagles wallop Sage

SAN CLEMENTE — Capistrano Valley Christian sophomore Ben Sukut took the sweep right on the second play from scrimmage Friday night at San Clemente High.

Sukut did more just than sweep right. He dodged tacklers, and 55 yards later he was in the end zone.

For the rest of the night, Sukut let his older brother, senior Sam, join in on the fun.

Sam Sukut had five total touchdowns as the Eagles overwhelmed Sage Hill, 42-7, in the nonleague game.

“They’re fast, they’re physical and they’ve got a few kids that could probably play at JSerra, CdM, Newport Harbor,” Sage Hill Coach J.R. Tolver said. “That’s tough. As a team, we try to make up for each other’s weaknesses by playing consistent and playing assignment football. But I think what you saw today was that if we have a mental lapse against a team that has better athletes than us, we’re going to have a hard time recovering. That 55-yard touchdown they had on the [second] play of the game, essentially that’s what it was.

“We knew the play. We called out the play. We had a mental lapse where we didn’t contain like we were supposed to, and the kid is fast and he broke it.”

Capistrano Valley Christian, ranked No. 8 in the CIF Southern Section Northeast Division, improved to 3-0. Sage Hill, which last week snapped a 13-game losing streak with a win over Fairmont Prep, dropped to 1-2.

Capo Valley Christian took a 14-0 lead on its second possession. At first, it looked like the Lightning defense would hold. Senior Dashel Grammer and sophomore Alfonso Corona got back-to-back sacks, pushing Capo Valley Christian into a third-and-20 situation from its own 10-yard line.

But quarterback Riley Babick found Sam Sukut on a 90-yard screen pass for a touchdown.

Sam Sukut finished with 160 yards rushing and three touchdowns, as well as 118 yards receiving and two more touchdowns.

The Lightning defense settled down and made plays after falling in the early hole. On Capo Valley Christian’s third possession, Will Burns stopped Ben Sukut on a fourth-and-goal run play at the two-yard line, knocking the sophomore out of bounds.

Early in the second quarter, the Lightning’s Beau Roth was able to recover a muffed punt.

After Sage went three-and-out, the Eagles got the ball back. Their possession quickly ended, however, on a fumble caused by Corona, and recovered by senior Jack Bick.

But Capo Valley Christian was able to put together a long, sustained drive just before halftime.

Sam Sukut’s five-yard touchdown run capped the 15-play, 98-yard drive with 1:52 left in the half, giving the hosts a 21-0 advantage.

The Lightning never backed down, and moved the ball better in the second half. Sage Hill junior quarterback CJ McCord scored his team’s lone touchdown on a three-yard keeper late in the third quarter.

But the damage was already done.

“Offensively for us, we know that we don’t necessarily have a gamebreaker, somebody who can at any point in time take it 80 or 90 [yards],” Tolver said. “We have to play consistent football. We have to make catches, we have to make runs, we have to get five yards and move the chains and finish when we get an opportunity to finish. In the first half, we didn’t do much of that at all.

“In order for us to win games we’re going to have to have long drives and we’re going to have to score points, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

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Capistrano Valley Christian 42, Sage Hill 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Sage Hill 0 – 0 – 7 – 0 — 7

CVC 14 – 7 – 14 – 7 — 42

FIRST QUARTER

CVC – B. Sukut 55 run (Anderson kick), 11:13.

CVC – S. Sukut 90 pass from Babick (Anderson kick), 6:04.

SECOND QUARTER

CVC – S. Sukut 5 run (Anderson kick), 1:52.

THIRD QUARTER

CVC – S. Sukut 4 run (Anderson kick), 9:42.

CVC – S. Sukut 15 pass from Babick (Anderson kick), 6:56.

SH – McCord 3 run (Burns kick), 0:54.

FOURTH QUARTER

CVC – S. Sukut 18 run (Anderson kick), 8:16.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

SH – McCord, 3-15, 1 TD; Roth, 12-13.

CVC – S. Sukut, 21-160, 3 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

SH – McCord, 10-24-0, 58.

CVC – Babick, 9-12-0, 172, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

SH – Burns, 3-23; Hamilton, 5-19.

CVC – S. Sukut, 3-118, 2 TDs.