Bragging belongs to ’06

The light was running out on the Lincoln Elementary field on Thursday after 8 p.m. Still, the game was only getting more exciting.

On a field with no lights, it was hard to even see the ball, let alone play flag football.

But there was plenty of reason to keep playing.

Pride was on the line.

It was the Corona del Mar High class of 2007 flag football all-stars against the 2006 squad, Ford Noe’s “The League” from this year versus last year’s “NFFL” league spearheaded by Matt Burgner.

As it turns out, Shaun Mohler stands out in almost any football game.

The ’06 CdM grad, who will play this year at Orange Coast College before moving on to the University of Nebraska, ran a pitch in with five seconds left to play in the game. The late score lifted the “NFFL” all-stars to a 58-52 victory over “The League.”

Mohler had six touchdowns in the game.

“It was a big deal,” Mohler said. “[The ’07 all-stars] said they had better athletes than we did. And they copied us. We were the first ones to come up with flag football, and we showed them who’s better.”

Good-natured trash talking was the measure of the day. It started in the pregame warmups, when ’06 Coach Shawn Maxwell got some things off his chest.

Maxwell showed up for the game in a black suit, which matched the black tank-tops and T-shirts worn by his players.

“They challenged us to this game,” said Maxwell, also an ’06 grad. “We’ve got to teach them a lesson. They claimed fame to this flag football, but we’ve got world-class athletes. We took Newport by storm two years ago. They’re taking credit for what we’ve started, so we can’t really refuse an offer to beat them.”

Assistant coach Jake Wuebben stood nearby, nodding in agreement.

“Me and Shawn, we consider ourselves the Godfathers of this,” Wuebben said.

The ’06 all-star squad did boast impressive athletes like Mohler and Burgner, who now plays for Georgetown. Quarterback Cole Pass had six touchdown passes, and David Yi had a team-high 14 catches.

But “The League” proved up to the challenge, staying close throughout.

“We were confident,” Noe said. “They were talking about mercy-rule before the game, but I thought we put up a pretty good fight.”

“The League” all-stars were also led by solid play from quarterback Conner Bernatz, who threw five touchdowns. Steven Hillgren, also headed to Georgetown, caught three of those TDs.

One of Hillgren’s scoring catches was a highlight-reel, over-the-shoulder grab in the first quarter.

“They went hard,” Yi said. “They went real hard. I was really impressed. We knew it was going to be a competitive game, but it just all came down to our athletes.”

Plenty of CdM students crammed near the sideline during the game, and a boombox was blaring. Some CdM parents stood — perhaps wisely — on the other side of the field.

The ’06 squad was up late, 50-44, but inexplicably threw a long pass downfield with under two minutes to go that was intercepted by Hillgren.

“You realize we could have just run the clock out, right?” Maxwell said with exasperation.

On fourth and inches for the ’07 all-stars, Hillgren caught a short touchdown pass.

He then caught the two-point conversion, giving the ’07 all-stars a 52-50 lead with under a minute left.

The ’06 all-stars drove downfield and got their own fourth and goal with eight seconds to play, setting up Mohler’s heroics.

“It was exciting,” Mohler said. “You couldn’t even see the ball.”

A last-second Hail Mary pass by ’07 went incomplete.

Also competing for ’06 were Matt Doran (two interceptions), Mike Gratzinger and Kyle Schneekluth. For the ’07 team, Bryan Burke, Vinnie St. John, Tommy Folks, Charlie Albright and Tony Jones also played, and the team received solid coaching from Tommy Hutchison.

Folks had a key touchdown-saving tackle — or rather, flag pull — in the fourth quarter.

Even though the ’06 all-stars won, it didn’t impress ’07 grad Jake Lemmerman, the Newport-Mesa Baseball Player of the Year. He didn’t play Thursday, but he was on the sidelines taunting for much of the game.

“That’s because the other players suck, dude,” Lemmerman said after Mohler caught a late touchdown pass, out-jumping two defenders.

The class of ’06 did have the last laugh. It was all good for Noe, though.

“I thought it was a huge success,” Noe said. “It was a lot of fun. I mean, people are saying they want to do it again next year. It’ll definitely be something we do again next year, maybe future alumni, and just build off of it.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.