The Muhlenberg football team held serve ahead of its home showdown next week, scoring an impressive 42-21 win at Dickinson.
 
The Mules (7-0, 4-0), ranked 17th by the AFCA and 21st by D3football.com, will host Johns Hopkins, ranked seventh and 10th, respectively, on Saturday in a game that will go a long way to determining the Centennial Conference champion. Hopkins also remained undefeated with a 42-14 win against Ursinus.
 
Dickinson came into the game on a five-game winning streak in which it had not given up more than 21 points in regulation, but Muhlenberg scored 21 in each half, opening up a 35-7 lead before the Red Devils (5-2, 2-1) scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns.
 
The Mule defense stood out particularly against the second-leading rushing team in the CC. Muhlenberg allowed only 80 yards (30 of which came on one scramble) on 24 carries and held the CC's leading rusher to 24 yards on 14 carries.
 
Junior Joe Repetti led the offense with five touchdowns, completing 16 of 19 passes for 234 yards and four touchdowns and rushing for a game-high 63 yards and another score.
 
Senior Tyler Ekstrom paced the defense with 7 tackles and an interception in the end zone. Junior Derek Graichen had a pair of tackles for loss, including a sack.
 
After forcing a punt on the first possession of the game, Muhlenberg put together an efficient 12-play, 87-yard drive to score the first points of the game. Repetti connected with senior Timothy Buda for conversions on third-and-4 and third-and-2, then hit him from 7 yards out for the touchdown.
 
The defense forced Dickinson backwards on the ensuing possession, and following a short punt, the Mules needed only three plays to double their lead, with Repetti throwing a 35-yard pass to senior James Nye.
 
Another long drive, this one 81 yards in 11 plays, was capped by a 14-yard TD pass from Repetti to junior Andrew Darno to make the score 21-0 midway through the second quarter. Darno (pictured above) dove up and over, in between two defenders, to stretch into the end zone for his third career touchdown.
 
A 34-yard catch at the 1-yard line by senior Pelton Esannason Jr., one of his five receptions in the game, set up a 4-yard touchdown run by sophomore Matthew Manning on the first drive of the second half.
 
Nye caught back-to-back passes of 23 and 21 yards to cover the final 44 yards of Muhlenberg's fifth touchdown drive. He now has 10 touchdown catches on the season and is only the third tight end in program history to reach double digits.
 
Junior Connor Fenstermaker helped the Mules win the field position contest by booming touchbacks on four of his seven kickoffs.