Sage Hill football strikes back against Chadwick to get revenge

Sage Hill's Ashton Ataii (9) breaks away from Chadwick defenders in an eight-man football game on Friday.

By Scott FrenchSpecial Contributor

Sept. 29, 2026 4:25 PM PT

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Sage Hill demonstrated in its first big showdown of the season why it is considered among the finest eight-man football teams in California. And then showed why it might be a bit early to tell.

The Lightning romped to a three-touchdown lead before three quarters were done in their Tri-Valley League opener but had to hold on at the finish to take down emerging archrival Palos Verdes Peninsula Chadwick, 42-36, in Friday evening’s early-season indicator.

There were many big contributors. Gunner Hall threw for 188 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 34 yards through just shy of three quarters’ work; Dylan Streiff caught seven balls for 161 yards and three scores, intercepted a pass (that led to his 76-yard completion for Sage Hill’s first lead; Caleb Kuo scored two touchdowns; Ashton Ataii totaled 139 yards and two touchdowns, one on a pass to Streiff; and Bryce Pruter made 25 tackles — a sack and three more for lost yardage included, plus an interception — to lead a defensive unit that, but for a storm of penalty flags, mostly corralled the visiting Dolphins.

(Eric Licas)

The victory, in the eighth meeting since the COVID pandemic, was certainly sweet. Chadwick won both encounters last year, pulling out a one-point decision in the regular-season finale and pulling away after halftime in a CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal shootout two weeks later.

Sage Hill coach BJ Crabtree called it “a great rivalry” and “a wonderful win.”

“This is amazing. This is all I wanted,” said Streiff, a senior mulling over several NCAA Division 3 offers. “Coming into the season, I was looking at this game — homecoming, at home, a chance to get back for our two losses last year — and this is honestly just the best feeling in the world.”

(Eric Licas)

What might top it? A Southern Section title. MaxPreps has Sage Hill No. 1 in the section — HS Ratings, whose numbers determine CIF Southern Section playoff brackets, ranks the Lightning fourth — and No. 2 in California.

“We’re not there yet,” said Crabtree, who has been in charge since the program shifted a decade ago from 11-man to eight-man. “These eight-man rankings don’t mean much early in the season. Our goal, every year, is to make the Division 1 playoffs. We’ve done it every year.”

Sage Hill is the only Tri-Valley team that’s never played in a section final. The league was the Southern Section’s best last year — Flintridge Prep won in Division 1, beating Chadwick in the semifinals, and Cate reached the Division 2 final — and additions this year of Pasadena Poly and Thacher broaden competitive depth.

(Eric Licas)

Crabtree believes this team could rival his two best: the pandemic era group that went 5-0 in the shortened spring 2021 campaign — foes told them they’d have been champs — and the 2022 Prep League titlists that went 8-2 against a stacked schedule but was worn down come playoffs. There’s no mistaking the quality within the Lightning.

“I think we’re really good this year,” said Hall, who exited with a hamstring strain late in the third quarter. “I think we have a strong shot at winning it all this year.”

Sage Hill (4-0) played with precision and panache most of the first three quarters. It scored touchdowns on five of its first seven possessions and took command with a Hall-to-Streiff pass in the final minute of the first half — one play after stopping a fake punt inside the Chadwick 30 — and Kuo’s 72-yard kickoff return to start the second half. It was 34-14 after Hall connected with Ataii with just over four minutes to go in the third quarter and 42-21 two and a half minutes into the fourth.

(Eric Licas)

“Offensively, we had a good game plan, and we think we have talented players that if we can get them in space, that they can do some real damage in this league,” Crabtree said. “That’s where you lean on your best players, and the best players performed tonight on the offensive side of the ball.

“If we execute better wire to wire, I think we pull away. But we didn’t, and we have to learn from that. And that is also credit to that other team, because they’re so tough.”

Joey Little was the catalyst for Chadwick (2-2), passing for 165 yards and three touchdowns and running for 74 yards and two scores, guiding the Dolphins on six-plus-minute scoring drives in the first two quarters — both aided by repeated major Lightning penalties — and pulling them within six points on two quick bursts in the last five minutes.

(Eric Licas)

Sage Hill, down two key players on a 23-man roster, suffered from the penalties (18 for 183 yards) and the loss of three starters (Hall and center Daniel Peng through injury, Kuo ejected after a third-quarter unsportsmanlike-conduct flag).

“[There are things] we have to go back and make sure that we tighten up,” Crabtree said. “This team has lofty goals, and you cannot win in this league [when important players] get hurt. You can’t be gifting other teams yardage [that] turns into points. ...

“We learned so much just in that last little bit [of this game], how to game-manage a little bit better,” Crabtree said. “The eight-man game is hard, because when you start losing guys, it’s not really easy to replace them ... Even though it’s eight-man football, it’s still fast, it’s still violent, and we’ve got to protect our kids. There’s a lot of moving pieces and parts, guys out of position, and we’re trying to game-manage at the very end. I was proud of our kids and the fight they had.”

(Eric Licas)

Pruter said Sage Hill has “stuff to work on.”

“I’m hopeful,” he said. “I won’t say that we don’t have stuff to work on. We’re not perfect. We’re definitely human, but we got the energy, and we got the will to fight. We showed that today, and I feel like we can go a long way.”