The Muhlenberg men's soccer team scored early and never let up, defeating top-seeded Franklin & Marshall 2-0 in a Centennial Conference semifinal.
The fifth-seeded Mules (8-5-6) will travel to Baltimore on Sunday for the 3:00 championship game against third-seeded Johns Hopkins, a 1-0 winner against defending champion Washington College in the other semifinal. Although the two teams have combined for 15 of the 28 championships in the history of the CC, they've met in the final only once before: in 2003, when Muhlenberg won 2-1 for the fourth of its six titles.
As they did in their first-round win at Gettysburg, the Mules scored off a corner kick in the first half. This one came just 63 seconds in, when freshman
Trevor Mikuta headed in senior
Taylan Akdag's service at the back post. It was the fastest goal from the start of a postseason game for Muhlenberg since it joined the CC in 1993. The assist for Akdag
(pictured above) was the 19th of his career.
The Mules maintained their 1-0 lead through the first half, sending the seventh-ranked Diplomats (12-2-4) into halftime with a deficit for the first time this season.
F&M threatened to level the game in the second half, hitting the post midway through the period. Moments later, freshman
Ben Mulford leaped to parry the ball over the crossbar.
Muhlenberg netted the insurance goal with 15:03 to play when senior Chris Richarrds won his challenge against the Diplomat goalie to control a long ball by senior
David Goldstein, then fired into the open net for his 30th career goal. Richards became the 12th player in program history to score 30 goals, and Goldstein recorded his first career point.
The two goals were more than enough for the Mules to avenge their lone CC loss of the season and extend their postseason winning streak to nine games. Mulford was outstanding in goal for the second straight playoff game, making 7 saves in recording his sixth shutout of the season.
Muhlenberg played Johns Hopkins to a 2-2 tie when the teams met in late October. The Mules have defeated the Blue Jays in Baltimore only twice in their history - once in 1946, and once in 2014.
