Mullen fizzles at Heritage
Eagles win 11-6.
LITTLETON – Mullen had a chance to set a tone for the rest of the season.
Instead, the tone set back the Mustangs.
A flat, mistake-filled effort unexpectedly arose on Wednesday night at Littleton Public Schools Stadium as the Mustangs blew an early lead and got
handled 11-6 by host Heritage in Class 5A nonleague boys lacrosse.
Mullen dipped to 1-2 on the season.
The thing is, the Mustangs, coming off a 12-0 victory over Bishop Machebeuf back on March 23, are looking at three games per week over the next five and had a chance to turn upbeat as the Centennial League season begins in two days. And they sought momentum, at least a start at it.
However, first-year coach Matt Cawley didn’t get anything close to what he desired for his younger team, comprised mostly of sophomores and juniors.
“We had a mental breakdown, for sure, and that’s just the way it went,” he said.
The Mustangs led 3-1 after a quarter and 4-2 early in the second before their wheels came off in a series of miscues, notably missed opportunities, poor passing and stick-handling, and taking unnecessary penalties. There also were defensive lapses that left goalie Dunham Perry helpless against an Eagles attack that produced 10 goals over the final three quarters and improved to 4-3 in 2019.
Junior J.P. Starkey had two of the Mullen goals. Junior Gage Fisher, senior Bo Kulbacki, junior Tanner Amman and sophomore Brandon Hane also found the back of the net.
But six goals aren’t going to get it done, Cawley knows, and his team’s next match, is on Friday against perennial power Cherry Creek.
“We should have been able to get into a rhythm and we should have had a victory here because we play Creek,” Cawley said. “We got shelled, we got popped in the mouth and we didn’t have a response.”
But this is the way it goes with a younger team, he said, and “we’re going to face this and we have to be patient. We age as we age and we’ll get better.”
HERITAGE 11, MULLEN 6
Mullen 3 1 1 1 -- 6
Heritage 1 4 4 2 -- 11
Mullen goals – J.P. Starkey 2, Tanner Amman, Gage Fisher, Brandon Hane, Bo Kulbacki.
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