Week 11

By Neil H. Devlin, Mullen Sports Information Director
Vs. Legacy, 5A State Preliminaries.
 
THIS WEEK IN MULLEN FOOTBALL
WEEK 11: Vs. Legacy Lightning  
WHEN: Friday,  Kickoff 7 p.m.  
WHERE: Brother Bernard Kinneavy Field at De La Salle Stadium
Status: Class 5A first-round playoff
Records: Mullen 4-6; Legacy 4-6
Head coaches: Vincent White, first year with Mullen; Corey Heinz, first year with Legacy
History:  Since Broomfield’s Legacy made the jump from 3A to 5A in 2002, it has only faced the Mustangs three times, all in the playoffs and twice while Mullen was on its way to the final. In 2009, the Mustangs put out the Lightning 42-7 in the second round on the way to a 14-0 season. In 2007, Mullen beat Legacy 22-6 in the quarters. And in 2005, Mullen beat Legacy 36-7 in the preliminaries  before losing to Douglas County in the title game.
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Mullen Players to watch:
No., Name, Yr., Pos., Ht., Wt.
32, Wilson Bialecki, Sr., LB, 5-foot-9, 180 pounds
22, Damien Cearns, RB-DB, 5-10, 170
3, Dom DePizzol, QB, Sr., 5-11, 200
5, Ryan Hearty, Jr., 6-1, 205
76, Aidan Keanaaina, Jr., DL-OL, 6-3, 295
12, Isaac White, Jr., WR-DB, 6-1, 191
Last week: Legacy got past Horizon 42-40 and Mullen ended a five-game skid with a rousing 39-28 victory over host lakewood.
Notable: This will be Mullen’s 858th game since first playing in 1936. The Mustangs are 585-254-18 in their history with eight state titles as well as seven Parochial state titles, the first in 1945.. …
In the postseason, Mullen (seeded 12th) is 63-22-1. Its last postseason victory was in 2016, when it beat Fountain-Fort Carson 53-28 in the prelims. …
No. 21 Legacy dropped its first six games of 2018 before rallying to win its past four to take second place in the Front Range League behind Fairview. …
The Mustangs rang up 506 yards of offense last week, throwing it only 14 times. Cearns had 258 yards and scored on runs of 46, 60 and 49 yards. He had 30 carries. DePizzol had his best game, going 10-of-14 for 255 yards, two TDs (to Henderson and the younger White) and no interceptions. ...
Aidan Lehman was 4-of-4 in PATs and booted a 51-yard field goal last week. …
Mullen was hit for 566 yards against Lakewood as well as the four TDs, but got stops when it sorely needed them through a series of contributors, including Keanaaina, Bialecki, Isaac White, Jonah Villanueba, Silas Daffin, Matthew Mitchell and Lorenzo Riley-Combs. …
Henderson has three TD catches in 2018, one in each of the three past games. …
Cearns, who has missed multiple games,  is at 1,142 yards total offense and counting. …
Mullen has a combined 19 turnovers -- 14 interceptions and five lost fumbles. …
The Mustangs’ 350 points permitted put them 36th of 40 teams in the regular season.
Coachspeak from White
On facing Legacy in the first round of the playoffs:
“Legacy is a good football team, it does a lot of things well. I think every team you play in the playoffs will be good.”
On last week’s 39-28 victory over Lakewood to cap the regular season:
“Our kids played hard, executed and I thought they did a lot of things well. Every week we’ve gotten better and better, and that’s encouraging.”
On the team’s overall growth from the first day of drills in August to practicing before the first playoff game:
“I think we’ve grown in a lot of areas, coming back when we’ve had to and making plays when we’ve needed them. We’ve grown in a lot of areas as a team as well as a staff. We’ve gotten better throughout the year and that’s what you have to do.”
On getting comfortable enough with his first Mustangs roster and seeing enough development and improvement to avoid having too many of his players go both ways:
“We’ve gotten into a groove not having guys go both ways. And it has helped us. As a staff, we’ve been able to work together and understand who we have and who we’re playing with … we don’t have a lot of depth, so we’ve had to develop some.”
 
What’s next
The winner will face Grandview in the second round. The Wolves will host at Legacy Stadium in Aurora. .
Playoff preliminaries schedule
(1) Valor Christian, (2) Columbine, (3) Cherry Creek, (4), Eaglecrest, (5) Grandview, (6) Ralston Valley, (7) Pomona, the defending state champion, and (8) ThunderRidge have byes in the 24-team field.
(17) Smoky Hill (10-0) vs. (16) Regis Jesuit (6-4), Friday, 7 p.m., Lou Kellogg Stadium
(24) Denver East (8-2) vs. (9) Fairview (9-1), Friday, 7 p.m., Recht Field
(20) Lakewood vs. (13) Arapahoe (5-5), Saturday, 1 p.m., Littleton Public Schools Stadium
(21) Legacy vs. (12) Mullen (4-6), Friday, 7 p.m., Bernard Kinneavy Field at De La Salle Stadium
(18) Doherty (5-5) vs. (15) Highlands Ranch (3-7), Friday, 7 p.m., Shea Stadium
(21) Legend (5-5) vs. Arvada West (6-4), Friday, 7 p.m., NAAC
(19) Fountain-Fort Carson (5-5) vs. (14) Castle View (7-3), Saturday, 1 p.m., Douglas County Stadium
(22) Poudre (4-6) vs. (11) Cherokee Trail (7-3), Friday, 7 p.m., Legacy Stadium
(Photo by John Leyba |  Instagram @mullenfotoz1)
Twitter: Neil H. Devlin @neildevlin
John Leyba @presto89 Mullen High School @mullenmustang
 
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