The Muhlenberg football team (4-2, 2-1) did its work early, scoring 42 first-half points en route to a 49-7 rout of Centennial Conference foe McDaniel (1-5, 0-3) on a lively Saturday afternoon.
The first 14 of those points came courtesy of the same duo, and on nearly identical plays. After the Mules sniffed out a fake punt on the visitor's first drive to earn themselves excellent field position, junior quarterback
Luke Spang found junior tight end
Chris Holland in the flat with room to run for a 19-yard touchdown.
On Muhlenberg's next drive, senior running back
Amari Dunn got the hosts into the red zone before Spang connected with Holland on back-to-back plays. Both passes were strikingly similar to the first touchdown, and the second was a 9-yard strike to nab a 14-0 lead.
The Mules went on to double that scoring output in the second quarter due to the combination of a dominant defensive effort and an assembly of Green Terror miscues. The latter of those factors appeared early in that period when the visitors fumbled on a first-down end-around play, which was then recovered by junior
Ben Girard at the McDaniel 14. On the ensuing drive, Spang found junior
Logan Nordeck for nine yards to convert a third-and-eight before fellow junior
JR Walley finished it off with a six-yard touchdown run.
Senior linebacker
CJ Newman got the offense the ball right back just over two minutes later with an interception on a McDaniel pass on third-and-21. A few plays later, the Mules were back in the red zone courtesy of a 39-yard toss to sophomore receiver
Caleb Pasols. That drive would end with a D'Amico field goal to make the score 26-0, but the onslaught was far from over.
Muhlenberg would make its return to the end zone in style on its next offensive possession. On first-and-10 from the McDaniel 20, Spang pitched the ball to Walley, who fired it into the arms of a wide-open
Aidan Mack for the score. The defense got on the board next, tackling the recoverer of a high snap on a punt in the Green Terror's endzone. The resulting drive ended up in another Muhlenberg passing touchdown, this time from Spang to senior
Tommy Donnelly from five yards out.
With a 42-point lead, the hosts were content to run the clock for much of the final 30 minutes, but a few plays stood out. The highlight of the half was delivered by junior signal-caller
Nicholas Humpf and senior receiver
Danny Cullen (
pictured). Humpf, who came on in relief of Spang at halftime, stepped up in the pocket and delivered a gorgeous 30-yard pass right into the arms of a streaking Cullen for a touchdown. It was the first passing touchdown of Humpf's collegiate tenure and the first receiving touchdown for Cullen as well.
Nine different Mules recorded a rush in the contest, while eight caught a pass. Of those eight, Holland led the way in receptions (four) and yards (52) in addition to those two touchdowns. Both of those marks are career highs for him, while the two touchdowns match his career total coming into the game.
Muhlenberg held McDaniel to -70 yards rushing in the first half and -43 for the game. It's the first time the Mules have held the opposition to a negative yardage total on the ground since October 2, 2021 against Gettysburg (-11 yards), and the fewest the Mules have allowed in a contest since at least 2011. The visitors were held to just 15 yards of total offense in the game and had a negative yards-per-play average in each of the first two quarters.
In addition to the fumble recovery in the first half, Girard accounted for both of Muhlenberg's sacks. Each of those sacks accounted for massive losses; one turned a second-and-10 into a third-and-26, and the other resulted in a 13-yard-loss on third down.
With 77 yards on the ground today, Dunn continues to creep ever closer to the 2,000-yard mark for his career. He now sits at 1,918, 82 yards short of the milestone.
The win moves Muhlenberg's conference record to 2-1 and into a tie for third in the conference along with Franklin & Marshall and Dickinson. The Mules have a date with Carnegie Mellon next week; the Tartans are tied with undefeated Ursinus for the top spot in the CC.
