During his career at Worth County, Eli Mullock rewrote the recordbook at Worth County, running for over 2,300 yards and 52 touchdowns his senior year as Worth County beat Mound City for the state title in 2011 52-20. He was inducted with Lucas Schawang, who quarterbacked the Panthers to three state titles before Worth County finally ended their run in 2011.
When he was younger, Eli once donned a Batman uniform for something, and always tried to act the part. Every time the game was big, he would come up bigger. Every time he touched the ball, he would think touchdown. One of his first big scores was when Worth County was playing Mound City in 2009 in the rain and mud, and Mound City had just taken the lead on Worth County in the fourth quarter. But Eli shot through the purple shirts like they weren’t even there, and he scored the game winning touchdown. For a span of six years, from 2005 to 2011, Worth County was the only team to beat Mound City.
That 2009 game was one of the most embarrassing moments for the area sports pundits, who thought Worth County was no competition for the Panthers this year. Following the game, KQ2, instead of starting their football show as scheduled, played 20 minutes of commercials before finally coming on and their announcers lamely admitted Worth County belonged in the conversation.
Eli also quickly dispelled one of the stereotypes of his coach, Chuck Borey, who had a stereotype of extremely athletic kids who hated to hit. In 2009, he knocked a Tarkio ballcarrier into the air so hard, he spun like a windmill before planting the turf.
He was also involved in one of our more embarrassing moments on the sideline, in 2011 against South Holt, although it wasn’t his fault. Coach Borey was nice enough to let us call the first play of the game, and after some brainstorming, we were inspired by the way Lucas Schawang was a constant threat to run or throw. We drew up a perfect play call where the line fired out to block like it was a run, quarterback Bryce Ross pitched it to Eli like it was a simple quick pitch, only for Eli to air it out to Aaron Patton for a strike. South Holt bit hard on the misdirection, but the problem was, Kylynn Sisk caught Patton from behind and forced a fumble, the only time Patton ever dropped a pass or fumbled a football. To this day, Coach Borey swears we don’t have a clue when it comes to football.
But when all the chips were on the table, Eli Mullock came through in 2011. On the last regular season game against Stanberry, the Bulldogs were completely outplaying Worth County, but the Tigers were somehow hanging around. Stanberry had the ball with under two minutes left with the lead. All they needed was one first down, and they could kneel out the clock. But Eli Mullock came away with a loose ball, and the Tigers had hope again. Despite Dan Collins successfully talking the officials into throwing a False Start against the Tigers and wiping out a go-ahead touchdown, they got to the 40 with around 40 seconds left. Everyone knew who the ball was going to, and it didn’t matter as Eli shot through the middle and bounced down the left side. One of the Stanberry players nearly caught him at the 10 and knocked him off balance, but somehow, he stayed inbounds and got into the end zone for the winning score.
And in the Eight Man All-Star game, after Worth County had won state in 2011, Eli did it again. Everyone knew who the ball was going to, and once again, it didn’t matter as he scored from 40 yards out to win the game for his team.
No comments:
Post a Comment