High Desert Football: Hesperia Christian upsets No. 1 ranked Sage Hill
Ayden Ortega kickstarted the Hesperia Christian football team on Friday night with a 70-yard kickoff return in the first quarter.
Two hours later, he delivered the final dagger to Sage Hill with a 49-yard rushing touchdown in a 48-27 victory.
Sage Hill entered Friday’s contest as the top-ranked 8-man football team in California, per CalPreps.com. Hesperia Christian entered as the No. 7 ranked team.
“We knew they were the No. 1 team and we knew we haven’t been performing how we want to so we just came out ready to fight,” Ortega said.
Ortega has a knack for showing up in big moments for the Patriots. Last season, Ortega scored five touchdowns in Hesperia Christian’s CIF-Southern Section 8-man Division II Championship win.
“He is,” Hesperia Christian head coach Alex Vander Weide said when asked if Ortega is built for big moments. “I always tell him that he has all the moments in front of him. That first kickoff return was incredible. He’s always good for something like that, especially in big moments when you need him and it just takes the pressure off everyone else.”
The Patriots led 14-12 after a first half in which the offense hardly saw the field. After the halftime break, Ortega once again took the pressure off his team by instantly scoring a 65-yard rushing touchdown on the first play of the second half.
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This gave Hesperia Christian a nine-point lead and allowed the team to get into a groove. The Patriots would end up scoring three unanswered touchdowns to jump out to a 22-point lead in the third quarter.
The second and third unanswered touchdowns were passing touchdowns to Caleb Audet.
Audet burned his man both times, allowing quarterback Arlan Koester to comfortably find him in the end zone for 30 and 32 yards, respectively. Audet added theatrics with the second catch, making a one-handed grab over the Sage Hill defender.
“It’s just amazing. He’s our best receiver on the team. I know I can throw to him and he will catch it,” Koester said.
Sage Hill cut the game to 14 points early in the fourth quarter leaving Hesperia Christian with a tough decision.
The Patriots had fourth down with four yards to gain from the team’s own 27 yard-line. With 11:25 to play, Hesperia Christian could have punted the ball away and trusted its defense. Instead, Vandeweide opted to go for it and, in poetic fashion, Ortega took it all the way to the house for a 53-yard touchdown.
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After a lengthy Sage Hill touchdown drive, Hesperia Christian again took over with a 14-point lead and less than four minutes to play. The Patriots were faced with another fourth-down decision at midfield and made the same call; Hesperia Christian picked up the first down and two plays later, Ortega delivered the final dagger.
Game ball
Ortega finished the game with four total touchdowns, three rushing and one kick-off return. Ortega carried the ball 10 times for 221 yards and also played a key role on defense in keeping Sage Hill’s passing offense at bay.
By the numbers
237 — The total number of yards gained on Hesperia Christian’s six offensive touchdowns. Hesperia Christian recorded 392 total yards of offense, meaning that 39.5% of the team’s offensive yards gained came on touchdown plays.
31 — The number of passing attempts for Sage Hill quarterback Jacob Weisberg. Weisberg completed 17 of those 31 attempts for 215 yards with two passing touchdowns. He also recorded a 10-yard rushing touchdown.
3 — The total number of offensive plays that Hesperia Christian ran in the first quarter. Because of Ortega’s touchdown, the team still led 7-6 heading into the second quarter.
They said it
“The last one I was telling myself that the smart play was to punt it,” Vander Weide said about the decision to go for it on both fourth-quarter fourth downs. “But I wanted them to prove to themselves that they could win it. That they could go out and impose their will on a team that knows exactly what we’re going to do — run it right up the middle. I need them to get that confidence and I need them to realize that we’re not the same down team that is always going to be in Division II.”
“I think it’s just adrenaline. We go play these not-as-tough teams and it’s not as engaging. But coming to this I’m ready to fight knowing I need to ball out for our team so we can all come together and play strong,” Ortega said about his trend of playing well in big games.
“This was our best week of practice we’ve had. We practiced hard for this team and we knew that we had to give it our all with everything we have,” Koester said.
What's next
Hesperia Christian begins Agape League play next week and will be at home against ACE. Vander Weide and his squad aren’t taking the dip in competition for granted and will use league play as a launching pad for the playoffs.
“If we don’t get better we are going to be out early (in the playoffs),” Vander Weide said. “We still have a lot of things that need to get better and that is what we need league for. To keep honing our skills, getting cleaner and hopefully still getting better by the time playoffs start.”
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Hesperia Christian upsets No. 1 ranked Sage Hill
