The Muhlenberg men's lacrosse team closed out the 2021 season with a convincing 15-10 win at 10th-ranked Gettysburg.

The year was perhaps the best in program history. The Mules finished with an overall record of 5-4 and a Centennial Conference mark of 4-2. The conference winning percentage was the highest ever for the Mules.

Muhlenberg finished in a three-way tie for second place, its best conference finish ever. If the CC had a conference tournament this year, the Mules would have been the second seed and hosted a playoff game.

The Mules took the lead late in the first half and steadily pulled away in the second en route to their first win ever at Gettysburg. Although Muhlenberg has played the Bullets tough at home, including a pair of one-goal wins in 2011 and 2013, their previous trips to the Battlefield had resulted in eight losses by an average margin of 10.5 goals.

Sophomore Jack Kraemer scored four goals to lead three players with hat tricks. Senior Ethan Grossman tallied three goals for his school-record 20th career hat trick and added an assist, running his career point total to 198. Junior Matt Marrella also scored three times for his third consecutive hat trick to end the season.

Sophomore Max May tied a career high with 15 saves.

Muhlenberg held a 4-2 lead when the game was delayed by lightning early in the second quarter. After the teams resumed action, lightning struck for the Bullets, who scored three goals in less than three minutes to go up 5-4.

The defense regrouped, however, and kept Gettysburg off the scoreboard for the next 17 minutes.

Freshman Wyatt Malia buried a shot with 2:15 left in the half to tie the score, and a little more than a minute later, Kraemer put the Mules ahead for good. Two Marrella goals in the third quarter made it 8-5.

Muhlenberg responded very quickly to the next two Bullets goals. Just six seconds after Gettysburg cut the lead to 8-6, senior Matt Burke won the faceoff and fed Grossman for a goal.

In the fourth quarter, Burke answered a Bullet goal by winning the faceoff and finishing himself seven seconds later. Burke was 16-for-28 on faceoffs and picked up 12 ground balls, including the 100th of his career.

It was 11-8 midway through the fourth quarter when senior defensive middie Cole Draghi (pictured above) scored in transition for his first career goal.

Senior PJ Lombara capped the win in the final minute by scoring his 42nd career goal.

Alexander Giaquinto, another member of the senior class that finished with a four-year record of 31-17, also netted a goal in his last career game.