The Muhlenberg men's soccer team advanced to the Centennial Conference semifinals with a 1-0 win at Gettysburg.

The Mules (7-5-6) will play at seventh-ranked Franklin & Marshall, the top seed in the CC playoffs, on Friday at 7:00. The other semifinal match has Johns Hopkins, a first-round winner against Dickinson in penalty kicks, traveling to defending champion Washington College. The championship match is scheduled for Sunday at the higher remaining seed.

Muhlenberg scored the lone goal of the game off a corner kick with 9:44 left in the first half. Sophomore Jake Mendelson took the corner and booted it past the far post. Junior Andrew Gaines (pictured above) headed it back across the box to Mendelson, who shot it into the side netting for his first career goal.

The Mules led 1-0 at halftime when the two teams played on the same field four days earlier, and that game ended in a 1-1 draw. This time Muhlenberg preserved the lead throughout the second half. 

Freshman Ben Mulford, who made 4 saves in recording his fifth shutout, and the defense stepped up when a red card forced the Mules to play down a man for the final 20 minutes. Muhlenberg went to five backs, with senior David Goldstein and freshman Trevor Mikuta entering the game for the first time, and kept the regionally ranked Bullets (9-4-5) from scoring.

The result extended the Mules' postseason winning streak to eight games. It was their first win on an opponent's home field in the CC playoffs since 2004, when they won 1-0 in overtime at F&M in a first-round game. The Diplomats are the only CC team to have defeated Muhlenberg this season.