CdM back on track

ANAHEIM — At the end, the first thing Corona del Mar High Coach Jason Hitchens yearned for was a statistic.

“What did you have him down for yards?” said Hitchens, referring to Magnolia running back Robert Cruz. “I had a bet with a guy. I had him closer to 200 [yards].”

Hitchens lost the wager.

But his Sea Kings won the nonleague game, beating host Magnolia, 27-6, at Western High Thursday night.

The way Cruz ran the previous two games, turning in 300-yard plus performances, it is understandable Hitchens had Cruz down for more than 153 yards on 28 carries.

Still, the first-year CdM coach had reason to smile despite losing the bet.

Seeing CdM (4-1) bounce back nicely after getting hammered at Newport Harbor, 42-13, last week helped.

From the start, things didn’t run so smoothly for the Sentinels (2-2), on the field and in the press box.

The public address announcer never got the microphone to work.

“The mic is dead! The mic is dead!” he repeated, but no one in the stands heard him.

The home fans didn’t need to as they saw Magnolia’s double-wing offense was in trouble against CdM’s 3-4 defense.

Three times in the first half Magnolia turned the ball over on downs.

At halftime, CdM led, 14-0, getting five-yard touchdown runs by quarterback Mitch Sands and fullback Alex Swigert.

Hitchens was still worried about his Sea Kings, ranked No. 6 in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division coaches’ poll. Some key Sea Kings entered the game battling the flu. One had pink eye.

Playing Magnolia cured the flu.

As for the eye, the Sea Kings gave the Sentinels a black eye.

“They came out and hit us in the mouth,” said Magnolia Coach Dave Perkins, whose team turned the ball over on downs six times.

The Sentinels looked lost. On the first play from scrimmage, they were flagged for having a dozen players on offense.

Instead of your usual five linemen, six lined up next to each other. They’re reasons Cruz recorded 662 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground the last two games.

But an extra guard against CdM probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

The longest run CdM allowed Cruz was a 20-yard run to end the half. Magnolia, starting at its own 20 with 39 seconds left, tried to score before halftime.

The only rush the Sentinels showed was rushing Cruz.

Magnolia clipped its own wings by not being able to throw the ball consistently.

To save time, quarterback Elijah Laulu spiked the ball to run one more play. What did the Sentinels do? Run Cruz again.

“He gets a ton of yards after contact,” Hitchens said of the 5-foot-9, 174-pound senior. “We did a good job corralling him in between the 20s.”

The Sea Kings kept Cruz out of the end zone, becoming the first team to do so this season.

Four straight times inside CdM’s two, the Sea Kings turned back Cruz midway through the fourth quarter.

One yard is all Cruz gained on the four runs, making it an impressive stop after Magnolia marched 72 yard on 16 plays.

Consider two things, CdM was without standout nose guard Dan DiChiro (ankle) and Cruz came into Thursday averaging 13.1 yards per carry.

“We really wanted to stop them,” CdM strong safety J.D. Abbott said. “It was a ton of guys in on it. Swigert, [Dutch Lamons, [Dillon] Norton, we were just gang tackling.”

Abbott was glad to be back on the field and making plays.

The junior returned after missing last week’s Battle of the Bay due to a mild concussion suffered on Sept. 19.

Abbott missed the 100-yard rushing mark by two yards. Fourteen times he carried the ball, forcing the Sentinels to respect the run.

Sands took advantage. The senior threw two touchdown passes in a 59-second span to close out the third quarter and put the game away with CdM up by 21 points.

Sands hit wide receiver Max Haase on a three-yard pass and then connected with receiver Noah Molnar on a 30-yard fade.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.