The Muhlenberg men's lacrosse team turned up the defense in the second half to defeat DeSales, 15-7.

The Mules, ranked 13th by Inside Lacrosse and 18th by the USILA, held a slim 6-5 lead at halftime after the Bulldogs (0-4) scored two goals eight seconds apart in the final 30 seconds of the second quarter.

Muhlenberg allowed only one goal in the first 29 minutes of the second half, however, to roll up a 15-6 advantage before DeSales scored again in the closing seconds. The Mules (2-1) had a 31-15 edge in shots in the second half and forced 12 Bulldog turnovers.

While the defense was keeping DeSales off the board, graduate student Ethan Grossman kept adding to Muhlenberg's tally. The program's all-time leading scorer tied a career high with 8 points on 5 goals and 3 assists. He scored or assisted on all but one of the Mules' first seven goals of the second half en route to moving into fourth place on the Centennial Conference all-time scoring list with 264 career points.

Senior Jack Kraemer also recorded a hat trick, the eighth of his career, with 3 goals and an assist, and sophomore Tyler Kitchen finished with 2 goals and 2 assists.

The Bulldogs, whose first four games have come against teams that were ranked in the USILA preseason poll, never led, but the Mules had a tough time shaking them in the first half. Muhlenberg took leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, only to have DeSales tie each time. 

Muhlenberg's first goal was a man-down score by Kraemer off a pass from junior longstick middie Aidan Murphy, who notched his first career point.

It was another long pole who gave the Mules the lead for good. With 3:20 left in the first half, junior defenseman Matthew Regan picked up a loose ball on the defensive end, ran down the field and buried a shot for his second career goal.

Graduate student Jonathan Taub (pictured above) had a big game for the defense, with 4 ground balls and 3 caused turnovers, and his younger brother Jack Taub scored a goal.

Senior Max May made 12 saves in goal.