CdM’s season ends

NEWPORT BEACH — Despite being riddled with injuries, Noah Molnar felt no one challenged Corona del Mar High in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

“None of us have really had too much of a test so far,” Molnar said prior to playing Mayfair of Lakewood. “It’s going to be a battle.”

Molnar’s last words lived up to the hype Saturday night at Newport Harbor High.

CdM and Mayfair battled for four quarters on the football field.

Balls were jarred lose, running backs hit the ground hard and stayed down for a couple of minutes, and an assistant coach had to be carted off the field.

Not everyone left Davidson Field standing.

Mayfair stood tall at the end of a defensive game, celebrating a 14-6 come-from-behind victory in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division semifinals.

Every player left their heart and soul on the field. That is all Coach Jason Hitchens asked of his No. 2-seeded Sea Kings.

Coming into the school’s first semifinal appearance since 1995, injuries ravaged CdM (10-3).

The No. 3-seeded Monsoons (10-3) took advantage of CdM competing without four key starters.

“I don’t know what more we could’ve asked our kids to do,” said Hitchens, who for the second time as a head coach saw Mayfair rally from behind to beat him in the playoffs.

“I don’t know if we could’ve got more out of a group of kids than we got out of these kids, [who were] an undersized group, not a lot of seniors, not even a lot of juniors, [just] a lot of kids asked to play both ways, [even] special teams.”

The Sea Kings fought through the obstacles, believing they could end Mayfair’s eight-game winning streak and advance to the championship for another shot at Pacific Coast League foe Laguna Hills. Getting revenge on a team CdM lost the league title to will not happen.

The opportunities were there for the Sea Kings to reach the title game in Hitchens’ first year at CdM. Quarterback Mitch Sands put CdM up with a three-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, giving him five rushing touchdowns in the playoffs.

What hurt the already-banged up Sea Kings were two second-half turnovers.

On their way to possibly going ahead while down, 7-6, the Sea Kings began to move the ball late in the fourth quarter.

Going against a stout defense proved to be hard enough for CdM. Try starting inside your own five-yard line for the third straight time. CdM had to when Sands took the snap at the one with 5:22 left.

The senior gave the offense some breathing room. Sands hooked up with Molnar on a 43-yard pass. The 6-foot-2 senior wide receiver leaped to get it, before falling on the 47.

The play more than doubled Sands’ passing total at the time.

Two plays later, Sands hit senior receiver Max Haase over the middle in Mayfair territory.

Safety Andre Allen quickly greeted Haase, delivering a crushing hit to jar the ball into the air. The ball fell into linebacker Joshua Gavert’s hands for an interception.

“Nothing you can do about that,” said Molnar, who led the Sea Kings with four catches for 56 yards. “It seemed the ball started bouncing [Mayfair’s] way toward the end of the game.”

Mayfair took over at midfield and ran the rest of the way, handing it off to its touchdown machine in running back Ronald Kennedy.

Kennedy produced his second rushing score of the game and his 15th of the season. He has only carried the ball 44 times as a senior.

“I do whatever I [can] for the team,” said Kennedy, who led the Monsoons with 53 yards on 10 carries.

“I’ll lay my body out there.”

Kennedy put his hands out in traffic in the third quarter as a fumble by CdM running back J.D. Abbott bounced up to Kennedy near midfield.

Kennedy raced down Mayfair’s sideline for a 41-yard return to CdM’s five-yard line.

The play was so chaotic that it knocked out Mayfair defensive coordinator Bryan Kennebrew out of the game.

The game stopped for 19 minutes as paramedics arrived after Kennebrew collided with players running toward the sideline. He fell to the ground during the fumble return.

Play resumed and Kennedy took the handoff, running right and leaping over a defender and into the end zone on a five-yard run, allowing the Monsoons to take the lead, 7-6, with the extra point.

“We missed that extra point early,” Molnar said. “We knew that was going to come back at some point to bite us in the butt.”

MAYFAIR 14, CORONA DEL MAR 6

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Mayfair 0-0-7-7-14

CdM 6-0-0-0--6

FIRST QUARTER

CdM – Sands 3 run (kick failed), 2:48.

THIRD QUARTER

May – Kennedy 5 run (Silva kick), 7:37.

FOURTH QUARTER

May – Kennedy 20 run (Silva kick), 1:13.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

May – Kennedy, 10-53, 2 TD; Small, 10-42; Harvey, 9-41; Ohiri, 6-3.

CdM – Abbott, 15-58; Sands, 12-38, 1 TD; Swigert, 8-11; Molnar, 1-1; Haase, 1-1.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

May – Ohiri, 8-18-1, 119.

CdM – Sands, 9-19-1, 89.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

May – Estrada, 5-72; Allen, 1-18; Pitts, 1-15; Johnson, 1-14.

CdM – Molnar, 4-56; Haase, 2-21; Haly, 2-8; Abbott, 1-4.

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