Soccer Volleyball

football wins on ot td catch

The many alums who returned to Muhlenberg for Homecoming and Reunion Weekend got to see a little bit more of the football team than they would have preferred.

But in the end, it all worked for the best, as

Vaughn caught five passes for the second week in a row and also ran 17 yards on a reverse.

sophomore Isaiah Vaughn’s 25-yard touchdown catch in overtime gave the home team a thrilling 33-27 win against Gettysburg.

The Mules (2-1, 2-0) came back from a 10-point

Click above to see video of the game-winning touchdown.

second-half deficit and appeared to have the game won when they lined up to punt from the Bullet 44 with 46.9 seconds remaining and a 27-24 lead. But the long snap was too high, and a resulting fumble gave the Bullets a first-and-goal at the Muhlenberg 7.

Suddenly, the Mules appeared to be in danger of losing the game, but the defense held. A stuffed run on first down was followed by a spike to stop the clock. A third-down pass was out of the end zone, and Gettysburg booted a 24-yard field goal with 9 seconds left to tie the score at 27.

Gettysburg had the first possession of overtime, and on third-and-12, sophomore Shane O’Connor intercepted a pass down the middle – his first career pick. Muhlenberg took over on the 25, and on its first play, sophomore Dan Deighan found Vaughn on the right sideline. A Bullet defensive back flipped Vaughn, but he landed in the end zone with the ball for the winning touchdown.

It was the first win in an overtime game for Muhlenberg since 1998, when they won in back-to-back weeks against Ursinus and Grove City. The Mules had lost their only three overtime games since.

The Bullets (1-2, 0-2), who have not won in Allentown since 1996, scored 16 straight points in the second and third quarters to open up a 16-6 lead. Muhlenberg responded by turning to its double-headed running back attack of sophomore Terrence Dandridge and junior J.T. Merklinger. A 2-yard run by Dandridge and a 10-yard run by Merklinger, sandwiched around Deighan’s 15-yard score, put Muhlenberg ahead 27-16 with 7:15 left.

Dandridge rushed for a career-high 124 yards on only 20 carries, and Merklinger added 73 on 15 rushes.

Gettysburg’s final touchdown and subsequent two-point conversion made it 27-24 with 5:00 to play.

Deighan finished 18-of-30 for 208 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 42 yards on 10 carries.

Junior Kenneth Cobb made eight tackles, including 1.5 for loss, and broke up two passes for a defense that held the leading active rusher in the Centennial Conference, to 28 yards on 13 carries.
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