Liberty Homecoming: South Carroll Takes the Roar Out of the Lions

Dan Mullen and blanked in Eldersburg Friday night 27-0.

A large crowd was on hand for the game and homecoming events. After Kaitlyn Leister was named Homecoming queen the lights went out. After a short delay the second half was played.

Mullen scored three touchdowns while gaining 224 yards on 18 carries. In least than a minute in the second quarter he gained over 100 yards and scored twice.

On the second play of the second quarter, Mullen took the ball and out ran the Lions for a 70-yard touchdown with 11:02 left in the half. The Cavaliers got the ball right back as they recovered a short kick on the kickoff to start a drive on the 35. It took Mullen two plays to cover the yardage for another six points.

"He did have a good night. He’s excited," said South Carroll Steve Luette about Mullen. "He kind of had to carry it all tonight. Ryan (Patrick) was a little hurt during the week in practice, so he didn’t get to practice that much. So he will be back this week and we will have both our running backs back and we will be a little better prepared for next week."

"He’s just a heck of a ball player. No doubt about that. A good athlete. He picked it up tonight," Liberty coach Jeff Kent said when asked about Mullen.

South Carroll had other chances to score in the quarter as they blocked a punt, but lost the ball on a fumble on the next play. They downed a punt on the one-yard line, but Liberty was able to drive to the South Carroll 29-yard line on five plays, but turned the ball over on downs.

"Just too many mistakes," said Kent. "We played really hard, played very good football at times. Just mistakes, special team mistakes really hurt us."

Liberty’s John Bender recovered the first of two fumbles in the game three plays later, but South Carroll’s Caleb Runci intercepted the ball three plays later to stop the Lions.

South Carroll scored two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter. With 6:36 left in the game, Mullen scored his third touchdown from 19 yards out. With 1:47 on the clock, Kevin Conner found the end zone from two yards out.

"We are starting to go. I thought we should have had a few more scores there. We got sloppy in certain spots, but we are on a roll. The boys are playing well together and playing good football," said Luette.

South Carroll won their fourth game in a row in move their county mark to 4-0 and 4-3 overall. Liberty is 1-3 in the county and 2-5 overall.

Westminster kept pace with South Carroll with a 14-0 win over Winters Mill. The Owls are 4-0 in the county.

South Carroll travels to Manchester Valley for a game on Thursday this week at 7 p.m. while Liberty visits Francis Scott Key on Friday also at 7 p.m.