Sage Hill Loses to Tri-City Christian, 50-14

The campus at Tri-City Christian went dark on Thursday because of a power failure that hit the entire San Diego and South Orange County region.

The school's football team was out to create a power outage of its own on Saturday, looking to stop a Sage Hill Lightning squad that rolled to a 42-point victory over Fairmont Prep in its open a week earler.

For the Eagles, it was mission accomplished as Tri-City Christian cruised to a 50-14 nonleague victory at Army & Navy Academy’s John Maffucci Field in Carlsbad. They move to 1-1 on the season, as Sage Hill falls to the same record. But it wasn’t only the Eagles' precise execution in all three phases of the game that shut down the Lightning, it was the Lightning themselves.

In an effort to get the attention of his troops, Sage Hill coach JR Tolver yelled “sleepwalking” to them as they returned to the bench after giving up a 50-yard punt return for a touchdown, after producing a three-and-out offensive effort to start the game. 

"That’s the game of football," Tolver said. "I told my guys this is a day game, surroundings are different than we are used to and we came out flat. 

"I told them when it comes to football, it’s not about X's and O's.  If you want it to be about X's and O's, then go play Madden cause you can win with that. If you don’t come out to play football with emotion, you’re going to be in trouble, especially when you play against a good football team."

Aside from the efforts of senior running back/defensive back Charlie Kim, the Lightning had little else to show for their efforts. Kim had 114 yards in 21 carries and returned an interception 60 yards to the Eagles' 20-yard line.

But the Lightning, already ahead 14-7 at the time, couldn't take advantage of the Eagles' turnover. Instead, it turned in a downright ugly offensive possession that included a holding penalty, which put the Lightning in a third-and-23 situation.

The complexion of the entire game changed on that possession, as Sage Hill failed to convert on either third or fourth down, and gave the ball back to the Eagles, who then marched 77 yards to tie the score at 14-14.

“You know what, the difference was the whole game," Kim said in reference to not scoring on the possession after his interception. "We came out lacadasical and without aggression, that is where it starts.  We have to set the tone from the beginning and finish every single play. We didn’t do that today. That’s the difference."

A lack of execution on offense, along with special teams miscues and a defense that was left in bad field position made it seem too easy for Tri-City Christian, which amassed 314 total yards to only 178 for Sage Hill. Eagles quarterback Christian Rodarmel was 8 of 11 for 171 yards through the air. But it was the Eagles' ground game, including six different ballcarriers, inside the redzone that proved deadly for the Lightning as the Eagles scored on runs of two, three, four, seven and two yards.

Sage Hill never seemed to be able to get things going offensively.  Their only scoring came in the first quarter. Out of the wildcat formation, Kim, featured as the quarterback, took the rock 75 yards for a touchdown, bursting through a hole and racing down the sidelines untouched. 

After Ben Giese of Tri-City fumbled on the ensuing kick return, the Lightning took quick advantage of that mistake by putting together their best drive of the day.  On fourth and 10 from Tri-City’s 27-yard line, quarterback Ray Harrison threw a beautiful ball over the head of a defender and right in to the hands of Taylor Petty in the end zone. 

This would be the last hurrah for Sage Hill. Harrison's completion was the only one in six pass attempts. Petty also took snaps from center, but he managed to complete only one of nine passes for five yards.

"We didn’t come out with a sense of urgency, and that really hurt us," Petty said. "But I tell you what, we are going to come out this next week, and we are going to hit the next team we play in the mouth."

Up next for the Lightning is a long drive to Mojave High School on Friday for a 7 p.m. start.