The lightning flashed north of Davidson Field on Friday night, but the Bravo League high school football game between Corona del Mar and visiting Crean Lutheran continued without any delays.

Corona del Mar began without its starting quarterback, and its top receiver exited due to injury late in the first half.

The Sea Kings battled gamely, but Crean Lutheran used two fourth quarter touchdowns to claim a 31-17 win and stay unbeaten in league play with one game remaining.

CdM (7-2 overall, 2-2 in league), which had its league title hopes end, has lost consecutive games and finds itself tied for third in the tough league with Villa Park.

Junior quarterback Luca DiNapoli made the start at quarterback on Friday night. CdM coach Kevin Hettig said that starting quarterback John David Annett was injured on a late hit in the Sea Kings’ 21-17 loss to Capistrano Valley on Oct. 16.

Hettig said the Sea Kings expect Annett back this week, but DiNapoli also started for CdM earlier this season. He made plays with both his arm and his feet against Crean Lutheran (7-2, 4-0).

“I felt prepared,” DiNapoli said. “I felt like the coaches did a great job with me all week, and even John David was a great supporter all week.”

DiNapoli threw a 52-yard touchdown pass over the middle to junior receiver JJ Haley in the second quarter. He also found diving receiver Dylan Paolone on a 19-yard score in the third quarter, tying the score at 17-17.

But Haley, who was having a monster first half with five catches for 147 yards, was injured on his last reception of the half and did not return.

“It’s just one of those things,” Hettig said. “Against teams that are this talented, with this many guys, it gets tough … We’ve got to get healthy. I know our kids believe we’re a good football team. We’ve just got to get right. It’s a next-man-up mentality, and even with that, tonight we had an opportunity to win this game in the fourth quarter. We just let it get away.”

After Paolone’s touchdown grab tied the score, the Saints got the ball back late in the third quarter. They went on a 17-play drive that took nearly nine minutes.

The drive, which included five third-down conversions, was capped on a trick play. Running back Caleb Bey took the snap in the Wildcat formation, and pitched the ball back to quarterback Caden Jones, who found Bey in the end zone on a 6-yard touchdown pass.

“Our entire game last game was grueling plays like that, just punching them down the field,” said Jones, who also threw a pair of scores to Damari Hall. “I think we’re starting to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. When those situations happen, we’ve got to fight back and slowly get back at those guys, and I think we do a good job with that. Obviously, it was a great drive, but I think we were built for that.”

With just one timeout left, CdM opted to go for it on fourth-and-10 from its own 20-yard line on the ensuing possession. The Sea Kings turned it over on downs, as pass interference was not called on a shot downfield to Tucker Murray despite protests from the CdM faithful.

Three plays later, Jones found Hall in the end zone for a 15-yard score.

The Sea Kings were burnt in the first half as they were stuffed on a fourth-and-one from the 20-yard line. They also got into the red zone late in the third quarter, but a 29-yard field goal attempt was missed.

“Offensively, we learned that we’ve just got to finish,” DiNapoli said. “We put ourselves in good positions. At the end of the day, our defense has bailed us out so many times that we’ve got to step up one of these days and bail them out.”

Corona del Mar closes out Bravo League play with a game at last-place La Habra (0-4 in league) on Friday night.

Bravo League

Crean Lutheran 31, Corona del Mar 17

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CL 0 - 17 - 0 - 14 — 31

CdM 0 - 10 - 7 - 0 — 17

FIRST QUARTER

None.

SECOND QUARTER

CL — Miao 35 FG, 7:58.

CdM — Haley 52 pass from DiNapoli (Akerman kick), 6:24.

CL — Jones 73 run (Miao kick), 5:04.

CdM — Akerman 30 FG, 2:42.

CL — Hall 83 pass from Jones (Miao kick), 1:45.

THIRD QUARTER

CdM — Paolone 19 pass from DiNapoli (Akerman kick), 5:46.

FOURTH QUARTER

CL — Bey 6 pass from Jones (Miao kick), 4:33.

CL — Hall 15 pass from Jones (Miao kick), 3:11.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

CL — Jones, 6-86, 1 TD; Bey, 14-59.

CdM — DiNapoli, 9-42; Nixon, 14-33.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

CL — Jones, 15-25-0, 181, 3 TDs.

CdM — DiNapoli, 16-32-1, 263, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

CL — Hall, 2-98, 1 TD; Ross, 6-37.