Sands scored four rushing touchdowns in the first two CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoff games. Compare that to Sands’ three touchdowns in the air.
The milestone was his before the 13th game if he hadn’t run so much.
In the way, beside an unlucky number for a game, Mayfair of Lakewood. Yet, Sands found the end zone late in the first quarter.
Again, on a run, his fifth of the postseason.
Sands never found the end zone again, costing him a chance at the record, more importantly a chance to play for the championship.
The No. 2-seeded Sea Kings lost to the No. 3-seeded Monsoons, 14-6, in a semifinal game at Newport Harbor High on Dec. 6.
Sands would trade in his 21 touchdown passes for a championship ring and another shot at Laguna Hills, the team the Sea Kings finished second to in the Pacific Coast League and would’ve faced in the section final.
Reaching the top was more important to Sands than seeing his name in the CdM record book. Fans will see his name in the game program next season. His four-touchdown passes against University in the ninth game of the season gave Sands 18 touchdown passes, a CdM regular-season record.
What mattered most to Hitchens was that the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Sands almost led the injured Sea Kings (10-3) to the section championship game.
For his remarkable year, in which he threw for 1,560 yards and 21 touchdowns, to only nine interceptions, and ran for eight touchdowns, Sands is the Newport-Mesa Dream Team Player of the Year.
No other quarterback in town fired 21 touchdown passes or rushed for eight touchdowns this season.
Not many guided their respective program to one of its finest seasons.
With Sands under center, or in shotgun, CdM won 10 games for only the third time in school history. Not even Taylor Hughes, the quarterback still holding the single-season touchdown pass record of 22 set in 2006, can say that.
