5-game slide ends
Mullen completes regular season 4-6 by handloing Lakewood.
LAKEWQOD -- A-a-a-a-a-h-h-h-h-h-h!
Pardon the above release. Mullen football needed it, deserved it and certainly can breathe again.
The Mustangs halted their five-game slide on a pleasant late-October Thursday night in taking a back-and-forth 39-28 victory over host Lakewood to cap their regular season and get on the board in the Class 5A Metro West League. In improving to 4-6 overall, 1-4 in league, they also may have cemented a first-round playoff home game next weekend at Brother Bernard Kinneavy Field at De La Salle Stadium in the new 24-team playoff bracket. Sixteenth in the RPI playoff format entering the game, their spot will be confirmed on Sunday, when pairings are set.
Above all else, Mullen was able to gain a measure of much-needed confidence and played like it against the very game Tigers (3-7, 0-5).
And if the Mustangs had forgotten how good it feels to win, they certainly had plenty of recall in a complete effort.
“I thought offensively, defensively and special teams that they all played well,” Mustangs head coach Vincent White said. “The kids played their tails off, they really did.”
Said junior running back Damien Cearns, who had a monster game with 30 carries for 258 yards and three touchdowns: “The game was great and we kept in there. We were working all week for this. It’s a win we needed.”
After a 3-1 start to the season had been mostly forgotten with a five-game losing streak that included one-sided routs to the hands of multiple regular powers and dropped the Mustangs to the bottom in big-school offensive and defensive scoring, Mullen put up its second-best point total of the season, rang up a 2018-high 506 yards of offense, bulled its way to five sacks and had only one turnover.
The Mustangs also grabbed their first lead in six games by scoring on the game’s opening drive, capped by a 46-yard, zig-zag run by Cearns. Lakewood actually grabbed the lead by scoring on consecutive drives, but Mullen responded with a 21-point second quarter to retake command.
“We came back and that’s the mark of a good program,” White said.
Quarterback Dom DePizzol easily had his best outing of the season, throwing for 255 yards and two touchdowns, both after Mullen trailed. DePizzol somehow avoided a big Tigers rush to get free and lob a soft throw to Wind Henderson (he finished with five catches, 160 yards), who got behind the defense and scored untouched on a 54-yard catch-and-run. And DePizzol followed with a quick, 15-yard out to Isaac White to make it 21-14 in favor of Mullen.
While Lakewood again was able to tie it, at 21-all, Cearns ripped off a 60-yard run for a 28-21 Mullen didn’t relinquish.
Cearns scored his final TD, a 49-yarder on Mullen’s first possession after halftime. And after an also resilient Lakewood got within 36-28, sophomore Aidan Lehman took his turn to get into the act, nailing a 51-yard field goal that seemed to take a fair amount of steam out of the Tigers midway through the fourth quarter.
And even though they got to the Mullen 1-yard line inside the final 2 minutes, the Tigers fumbled with 1:08 to play.
“Yes, it’s a relief,” said Isaac White, who had a strong game in the secondary in addition to three receptions for 73 yards. “It was fun and feels good to finally win again. Obviously, we have some things to do to get better, but I’m happy about the win. It’s very uplifting going into the playoffs.”
Defensively, Mullen had been a sieve over its previous 20 quarters, but stood tall throughout Thursday, mostly stopping the Lakewood running game, getting a pass rush and making key plays when necessary. The Mustangs’ list of contributors was long and included Aidan Keanaaina, Trevor Kirking, Wilson Bialecki, the younger White (who added an interception), A.J. Naha (also had an interception) and Silas Daffin. Virtually every Mustang who took the field on defense made a play.
“I mean, we’d been hurting after these five games and we’ve been down,” Keanaaina said. “But this week, we had a great week of practice and we just really wanted this game, needed it for the playoffs.
“It felt good. We changed things up, we mixed it up (he played some defensive end in addition to noseguard) and it was fun. I’ll play wherever they need me and I’ll just try to do my best.”
The elder White, slowly attempting to make some changes and improvements throughout the program, felt particularly good certain aspects.
“The kids played well when we needed it and the offense protected the ball,” he said. “Those were huge.”
Throughout weeks of mistakes and injuries, the Mustangs struggled, but were rewarded for diligence on Thursday. Little things such as getting a lead, coming back from a deficit and patiently performing their assignments were again relevant as well as rewarding.
Now, they eagerly await their next matchup.
“Oh, yeah, getting that lead was nice, scoring on the first drive,” Kirking said. “Then we fixed some mistakes and came back to get the lead, and we held it down. We kept the momentum going.
“This is, like, the best situation we could have had going into the playoffs.”
MULLEN 39, LAKEWOOD 28
Mullen 7 21 8 3 – 39
Lakewood 14 7 7 0 – 28
First quarter
Mullen – Damien Cearns 46 run (Aidan Lehman kick), 9:38.
Lakewood – Kegan Hufford 9 pass from Pierce Holley (Dylan Ladd kick), 7:36.
Lakewood – Charlie Ross 23 pass from Holley (Dylan kick), 3:49.
Second quarter
Mullen – Wind Henderson 54 pass from Dom DePizzol (Lehman kick), 11:16.
Mullen – Isaac White 15 pass from DePizzol (Lehman kick), 8:33.
Lakewood – Ladd 1 run (Ladd kick), 5:26.
Mullen – Cearns 60 run (Lehman kick), 4:44.
Third quarter
Mullen – Cearns 49 run (White run), 9:49.
Lakewood – Hufford 48 pass from Holley (Ladd kick), 7:35.
Fourth quarter
Mullen – FG Lehman 51, 5:54.
TEAM STATISTICS
Total plays
Mullen 64, Lake. 87
Total yards
Mullen 505, Lake. 566
Passing yards
Mullen 255, Lake. 399
Rushing yards
Mullen 250, Lake. 167
First downs
Mullen 18, Lake. 25
3rd-down efficiency
Mullen 4-10, 40%, Lake. 5-14, 36%
4th-down efficiency
Mullen 0-2 0%, Lake. 1-4 25%
Turnovers
Mullen 1, Lake. 3
Penalties
Mullen 14-186, Lake. 10-143
Fumbles-Lost
Mullen 1, Lake. 1
Interceptions thrown
Mullen 0, Lake. 2
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Mullen
Passing DePizzol 10-14, 255 yards, 2 TDs, 54 long.
Rushing – Cearns 30-258, 3 TDs, 60 long; White 1-3, 3 long; Hoskins-Mitchell 1-1, 1 long; DePizzol 7-minus-12, 5 long.
Receiving – Henderson 5-160, 1 TD, 54 long; White 3-73, 1 TD, 44 long; Cearns 1-25, 25 long; Hoskins-Mitchell 1-minus-3, -3 long.
Tackles (T-A-S-TFL) – White 5-3-0-0, Bialecki 4-10-0-0, Keanaaina 4-7-2-3, Villanueba 4-2-0-1, Riley-Combs 4-0-0-0, Hoskins-Mitchell 3-2-0-0, Silva 3-6-0-0, Mitchell 2-5-0-0, Kirking 1-1-1-1, Daffin 1-2-1-1, Difeo 1-0-0-0, Damian 1-0-1-1, Naha 1-0-0-0, DeNezza 0-5-0-0, Ells 0-1-0-0, Hearty 0-2-0-0.
Interceptions – Naha, White.
Kickoff returns – Cearns 2-29 avg., 32 long.
Punt returns – White 3-6 avg., 17 long.
PATs – Lehman 4-4.
FGs – Lehman 1-1.
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