Football: Crean Lutheran too much for Sage Hill

If a dominating offensive performance in the final regular season game has any sway, Crean Lutheran should maintain strong hopes for an at-large berth in the in the Academy League East Valley Division playoffs.

The Saints amassed 765 yards on offense, including 602 yards rushing in rampaging through Sage Hill School, 77-41, Friday night at Sage Hill.

“It was fun for our boys to have a lot of success offensively,” said Crean Lutheran head coach Brett Mertens. “Offensive line though, I mean, that’s where it was tonight. We just ran ‘em over. O-line was just huge tonight.”

Senior quarterback Paul Sardo ran for four touchdowns and threw for another while running back Mark Sharp rambled for 225 yards on 17 carries with one touchdown. The Saints finish the regular season with a 6-4 overall record, 2-2 in Academy League play.

Sardo opened the scoring with touchdown runs of 7 and 10 yards in the Saints first two possessions in the first quarter. The Saints stretched the lead to 35-6 midway through the second quarter on touchdown runs by defensive lineman Youssef Nakhla and runningbacks Matthew Frisbee and Garrett Cox.

Despite the huge deficit, Sage Hill (3-7, 0-4) managed to keep the game entertaining with enough big plays scattered throughout to thrill the end-of-season homecoming crowd.

Lightning senior quarterback C.J. McCord hit senior Beau Roth on a crossing pattern that Roth broke for a 65-yard touchdown, bringing the home crowd to their feet. Just before half, after two more Crean Lutheran scores, Sage Hill sophomore David Dewey returned a kickoff 78 yards for a TD making the score 49-20 at half.

“We have a small roster and these kids are dead tired,” summed up Sage Hill coach Tom Kirchmeyer, “everyone goes both ways, no one comes off the field, we never quit and we played literally to the last second of the game.”

McCord scored on a 12-yard keeper to cap the Lightning’s first possession of the third quarter but the home-cooked momentum would end there. Two more Sardo rushing touchdowns made it 63-34 by the end of the third quarter.

In addition to Sharp’s 225 yards on the ground, Cox finished 116 yards on 10 carries and Frisbee had 101 on 17 carries. Sardo finished with 81 yards on the ground and 12 of 23 passing for 163 yards through the air.

—

Crean Lutheran 77, Sage Hill 41

SCORE BY QUARTER

Crean 14 – 35 – 14 – 14 — 77

Sage 6 – 14 – 14 – 7 — 41

RUSHING

CL – Sharp, 17-225, 1 TD.

SH – McCord, 8-43, 2 TDs.

PASSING

CL – Sardo 12-23-1, 163, 1 TD.

SH – McCord, 16-36-1, 321, 3 TDs.

RECEIVING

CL – Ellwein, 6-50.

SH – Roth, 3-94, 1 TD.