LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Week nine of the high school football season is in the books and the ABC7 Player of the Week goes to Lehigh’s Dorian Mallary. The junior quarterback’s performance was electric and helped the Lightning strike last Thursday against Riverdale.

“It makes me feel good inside,” said Mallary. “It makes me know that my work is paying off.”

“He’s a hard worker,” said Lehigh head coach Antwan Dixon. “He comes in and does what he has to do every day. We’re finally starting to move in the right direction as a team. I think it’s just a testament to how hard we’ve worked.”

In the Lightning’s 48-14 victory over the Raiders, Mallary tacked on six touchdowns to his stat sheet, four passing and two scores he ran in himself.

“I literally told him he would have six touchdowns,” laughed Dixon. “He had on my cleats so I told him he’d have a big game.”

There’s more to Mallary’s big game — he was 15-25 with 339 passing yards and rushed the ball 9 times for 122 yards on the ground.

“Preparation throughout the week, that’s where it started,” said Mallary. “Telling my guys all week, this is our statement week.”

“He’s really showing this is what he can do every single week,” said Dixon. “It’s not anything that’s new to him. He’s been doing it all his life, he’s just continuing to get better.”

After back-to-back wins, the Lightning finish up the regular season this Friday, November 3, when they host Dunbar.

“We’re going to try to do the same thing as last week so we can put up as many points but, just prepare a little bit harder, play a little harder and have more fun,” said Mallary.