Santa Monica's Lighthouse finishes season 7-1 against Cornerstone

The Santa Monica-based Lighthouse Christian Academy won its last season game 35-7 Friday night, handily defeating Cornerstone Christian in Wildomar.

With only nine team members playing 8-man football, the Saints have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, finishing 7-1. As a free-lance team in CIF Southern Section, they are eligible for a playoff berth.

But if LCA has dominated all but one team in its 2013 season, the Oct. 26 game was a lackluster victory. The Saints seemed sedated, forgetting the zeal that drove them past bigger teams with bigger players.

After scoring one touchdown in the first quarter, the Saints lazily let slip through on a trick play a Crusader who sprinted for 50 yards before being pursued and tackled by speedy senior Joseph Kayne. In the second quarter, sloppy defense conceded a Cornerstone touchdown.

The Saints responded immediately on the first down after the kickoff with a touchdown. Senior Nate Peterson broke through with mind-boggling speed to score a 65-yard touchdown.

The message was clear: The Saints were being sloppy, but they could and would score at will. In all, Peterson, who plays like a shark scenting blood, scored four touchdowns. See a fuller story here.

The Saints season has been a rite of passage. These boys were by-in-large the rowdy kids in the classroom. Winning football has given them a venue to spill their energies. It has also provided them with a platform to spring into mature manhood, to journey from being riotous to righteous.

Lighthouse is a private Christian high school, and its 8-man football team was founded by Senior Pastor Rob Scribner, who in his heyday played four seasons for the Los Angeles Rams.

Now his son, Zach Scribner, a former UCLA football player, will be coach next year to continue a legacy of underdogs – always with a miniscule talent pool to draw from – who play unlikely overlords (LCA twice was runner up in CIF Southern Section).

Last year, LCA floundered with only one win. But a return to summer drills and injecting character into gutless guys has heralded a revival of Lighthouse football glory.

“In preparation for next year, we'll probably start training in January,” Zach Scribner said. “We're losing seven seniors, but we've got some people who will make a decent squad. It's going to be a completely different team.”