Linfield Christian no stranger to Sage

When the Sage Hill School football team won at Linfield Christian of Temecula, 36-35, on Oct. 19, it was really nothing more than a nonleague win.

Exciting, sure, but the Lightning’s last-minute touchdown drive only served to give Sage Hill a momentum boost going into Academy League play.

Much more will be on the line tonight at 7:30, when the teams meet again in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Northeast Division playoffs at Sage Hill.

“At the seeding meeting, several coaches I talked to from our league said they were surprised we were paired with a team we’d played so recently,” Sage Hill Coach Pete Anderson said. “It’s unusual, but I’m not disappointed.

“We know they’re going to come with a pretty big vendetta, but we want to show them that [the nonleague win] wasn’t a fluke.”

Linfield Christian enters the postseason 7-3 after finishing second in its four-team league with a 2-1 record, just like Sage Hill did. Linfield showed it could bounce back from a tough loss like the one Sage Hill put on them, as the Lions got two close league wins — 21-20 over Riverside Christian on Nov. 2 and 23-21 over Hamilton on Nov. 9 — to close out their regular season.

Much of the bouncing done by the Lions, though, is bouncing outside by junior running back Daniel Musquiz. He has tallied 1,119 yards despite missing Linfield’s season opener.

Six separate times Musquiz has gone over 100 yards, and his 200 yards against Sage Hill on Oct. 19 was a season high.

“We focused more defensively,” Sage Hill quarterback/free safety Jamie McGee said. “[Musquiz] ran all over us. We’ve worked on our defense, our form tackling. Stopping the run is what we feel like we need to do to win.”

McGee, who has 7,681 passing yards and 83 touchdown passes in his four years as Sage Hill quarterback, has accumulated 2,520 of those yards this season.

His favorite targets this year are Nick Witte, who has 1,298 yards and 14 touchdowns, and Preston Oklejas, who has 688 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Both players caught touchdown passes in the wild win over Linfield last month, where McGee passed for 245 yards and three scores. That game also saw Sage Hill with an early 14-0 lead before falling behind, 35-20, in the fourth quarter.

“It was a weird game,” Anderson said. “But playoff football, you’ve got to bring your A-game for all four quarters.”

The Lightning are attempting to win their second CIF playoff game in school history. Sage beat Pasadena Poly, 28-27, in the first round of the 2005 CIF Southern Section Division XIII playoffs.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].