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football trip to juniata quite a rush

The farther away the end zone, the closer John DeLuca got to history.

The junior running back tied a school record with four touchdowns to lead the Muhlenberg football team to its fifth straight win to open the season, 44-3 at Juniata.

With the win, and Dickinson’s

Muhlenberg piled up the yardage depsite playing with a makeshift offensive line that was without two of its starters. Junior center Mike Nolan (64) and sophomore guard Kevin Hussey (67) were two of the three healthy regulars.

loss to Johns Hopkins, the Mules (5-0, 3-0) are the lone remaining undefeated team in the Centennial Conference. Muhlenberg is 5-0 for the first time since 1983 and only the third time in school history.

DeLuca finished with a career-high 161 yards, hitting the century mark for the third time in four games, and scored consecutive touchdowns on runs of 10, 20, 22 and 38 yards to turn a 3-3 tie into a 30-3 lead. He moved into ninth place on the program’s all-time list with 1,459 career yards.

DeLuca’s performance was part of a big offensive day for the Mules, who rolled up 599 yards of total offense. They tied a school record with 35 first downs, ran 93 plays (three short of the school record) and held the ball for 39:31. Their 366 rushing yards were the most since they gained 417 in an NCAA playoff win against Mass.-Dartmouth in 2002 – also the last time they went over 500 total yards.

All six of Muhlenberg’s touchdowns came on the ground, with sophomores Matt Boland and Codie Bender joining DeLuca in the scoring column. Junior Erik Snyder rushed for 85 yards as the Mules averaged 5.8 yards per carry.

The margin of victory was the Mules’ largest in a road game since a 43-0 shutout at Ursinus in 2002.

Muhlenberg did not punt until late in the fourth quarter. Its first nine drives ended with six touchdowns, a field goal and two missed field goals. Four of the drives went for 10 plays or more, and three consumed at least six minutes.

The Mule defense held the top passing offense in the Centennial Conference to 119 total yards and just 19 completions in 42 attempts.
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