The Muhlenberg men's lacrosse team set a school record for goals scored in a Centennial Conference game in extending its winning streak to four with a 20-12 home win against Ursinus.

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Mules (8-7, 4-2) are in a three-way tie for third place in the CC and can clinch a playoff berth by winning at McDaniel on Saturday.

Muhlenberg topped its previous mark of 19 goals in a CC contest, set against Haverford in 2022 and matched against Haverford last year. It's the second time this season the Mules reached 20 goals; the other was a 20-6 win against DeSales. They hadn't notched two 20-goal games in a season since 2004.

The Mules assisted on nine of their 20 goals, breaking the school record for assists in a season. 

Ten different players combined to score the 20 goals, with senior Tyler Kitchen recording a career-high 7 points on 5 goals and a pair of assists. Sophomore Ryan Neal scored 4 goals for his first career hat trick, and sophomore Jack Bill put in 3.

One of the 10 goal scorers, senior Jack Patti (pictured above), provided one of the biggest highlights of the night when he netted his first career goal in the final minute. 

Muhlenberg used a big second-half run to pull away from a close game. Neither team led by more than two goals in the first half, which ended with the Mules ahead 8-6. Tallies by Kitchen and Neal 66 seconds apart in the third quarter made it 10-6, but the Bears (4-10, 2-5) came back with the next three goals to make it 10-9.

The Mules scored the next eight goals, in a span of just 7:25, to put the game out of reach. Sophomore Daniel Friedel started the run with 4:09 left in the third, senior Nolan DiSora scored 39 seconds later, Bill netted his third goal only 38 seconds after that, and Neal completed his hat trick 40 seconds later.

Freshman Ryan Schmitz capped the surge with 11:44 remaining in the fourth by scoring his fourth goal on as many shots this season.

Senior Griffin Minuto went 18-for-28 on faceoffs. Senior Matthew Hochegger scored a goal and scooped up a career-high 9 ground balls, while senior Brendan Lavarra led the defense with 4 ground balls and 3 caused turnovers. Sophomore Michael Chimics also picked up 4 ground balls.