Lowery happy with play of Mullins football team despite 3-3 start

           Mullins – The Mullins High School football team is only 3-3 on the season, but that doesn’t tell the story on the Auctioneers’ season to date, according to head coacb Marc Lowery.

           “They are playing at a really high level, despite not having the record we expected at this time,” said Lowery, who is in his third year as the Mullins head coach. “We have lost three games by a total of 10 points. We still feel like we are in position to win the region as long as we stop beating ourselves.”

           The Auctioneers are 2-1 in Region 7-2A and are oh so close to being undefeated. They suffered their first region loss on October 3, falling to Lake City 30-28.

           That defeat left Mullins as one of six teams in the 7-team region with one loss. The Auctioneers, Lake City and Kingstree are each 2-1, while defending region champion Manning, East Clarendon and Atlantic Collegiate Academy are each 1-1.

           The door is certainly still open for the Auctioneers to win a region title. They play host to Manning on October 10, travel to East Clarendon on October 17 and play host to Kingstree on October 24.

           Lowery said his team needs to start cleaning up mental mistakes that hinder the Auctioneers’ sustained success.

           “My word to the team after the (Lake City) game last night was all about accountability; to pick their teammates up, not to point fingers, and to look at what they can do better,” Lowery said. “We have to stay focused the entire game. We have too many penalties that kill drives for us and extend drives for our opponents.”

           Senior quarterback KaNazzion Bethea is no doubt the leader of the offense. In his third year as a starter, Bethea had 54 completions in 105 attempts through the first five games for 791 yards and 11 touchdowns.

           Bethea was also the team’s leading rusher with 550 yards and three touchdowns on 71 carries. Senior running back Tyron Allen had 237 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries.

           The Auctioneers had three receivers with double-digit catches in Allen, senior wide receiver Amir Lee and junior wide receiver Keith Bridgett.

           Bridgett had 13 catches for 216 yards and three touchdowns, while Lee and Allen both had 11 receptions. Lee had 206 yards and four touchdowns, while Allen had 81 yards.

`          Lowery said he has been most impressed with Mullins’ play on both sides of the line.

“There are several places where we knew we would be strong, but we are better up front on both sides of the ball than I expected to be,” he said. “Our offensive line is very young and our defensive line has very little experience. If this group cleans up the mental errors, we could make some noise in the region and playoffs.”

The defense is led by senior outside linebacker Ayntwain Crawford and senior middle linebacker Andre Littlejohn. Crawford has a team high 14 tackles for loss and two quarterback sacks to go with 30 tackles. Littlejohn is the leading tackler with 44 and has 13 TFLs.

Junior middle linebacker Nathan Peracki has 38 tackles and six TFLs.

Mullins had nine interceptions led by senior defensive back Deyon Ford with four. Junior defensive back Da’Kari Worley had two.