Muhlenberg Football Gameday
Mules vs. The College of New Jersey
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Series: Muhlenberg has won all six meetings with The College of New Jersey in a series that began in 2005. This is the fourth time the teams have faced each other in the last five years, and the Mules won each of the last three meetings by at least 19 points.
Last Year: Muhlenberg rolled up 542 yards of total offense, including 376 through the air, while holding TCNJ to 220 in a 38-10 win. The Mules were 13-of-21 on third down and held a big advantage of 39:56 to 20:04 in time of possession. Muhlenberg’s Joe Repetti was 26-of-35 for 336 yards but was picked off three times. TCNJ QB Trevor Bopp also threw three interceptions while going just 13-of-31 for 150 yards. Matt McKenna caught two TD passes for the Mules, while Jayson Schmidt rushed for 49 yards and scored the Lions’ lone touchdown, which came in the fourth quarter after the Mules had built a 38-3 lead.
Polls: Muhlenberg was ranked 18th in the
D3football.com poll before falling at Salisbury last week. The Mules received 16 votes in this week’s poll.
CC vs. NJAC: This is the second straight week of cross-conference competition between the Centennial Conference and the New Jersey Athletic Conference. Last week, all the NJAC teams were at home and won four of the seven contests. All the CC teams are home this weekend. After next week’s bye, each of the next seven weeks of the regular season will feature one CC-NJAC game.
TCNJ Last Week: TCNJ exacted a measure of revenge after suffering a 25-point loss to Franklin & Marshall in 2023, improving to 2-0 for the first time since 2011 with a 17-13 home win against the Diplomats. The Lions allowed only 62 yards on the ground and preserved the win when Jack Young picked off a pass in the end zone with 8:01 left. The TCNJ offense ran off the remaining time, converting three third downs and a fourth down on a 17-play drive. Malin Jasinski racked up 13 catches and well over 100 yards for the second straight game, finishing with 139, while Jayson Schmidt rushed for a career-high 174 yards.
Muhlenberg Last Week: In the highest-scoring game in program history, Muhlenberg lost 59-38 at Salisbury. The Mules rolled up 532 yards of total offense and scored on their first six drives but could not slow down the Sea Gulls, who averaged 12.0 yards per play. Leading the Muhlenberg offense was Joe Repetti, who passed for 378 yards - his career high for a regulation game - and rushed for 58. He contributed to four of the Mules’ five touchdowns, passing for three (two to Aaron Daniels) and rushing for one.
Milestones: Mule senior Christopher Ardito, who caught a school-record 99-yard TD pass in the
win at Moravian, enters today’s game with 990 career receiving yards and needs 10 more to reach quadruple digits. Joe Repetti has 98 career touchdowns - 80 passing and 18 rushing - and is two away from the century mark.
Home Sweet Home: Muhlenberg is 27-4 at Scotty Wood Stadium since 2018. The Mules have not lost a regular-season home game to a non-conference opponent since 2010.
Centennial Conference Schedule
TCNJ (2-0) at Muhlenberg (1-1)
William Paterson (0-2) at McDaniel (1-1)
Christopher Newport (1-1) at Gettysburg (1-1)
Kean (0-2) at Dickinson (1-1)
Montclair State (1-0) at Franklin & Marshall (1-1)
Salisbury (2-0) at Johns Hopkins (2-0)
Rowan (2-0) at Ursinus (2-0)
Welcome Tartans: The Centennial Conference recently announced the addition of Carnegie Mellon University as an associate member for football. The Tartans will begin competition in the Centennial in the 2025 football season. The addition of Carnegie Mellon will expand the Centennial's football membership to eight teams. The Tartans will compete alongside the seven CC full-time members that sponsor football - Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Johns Hopkins, McDaniel, Muhlenberg and Ursinus.
