Men’s soccer, field hockey, men’s golf, women’s tennis

football begins defense with 42-21 win

Doyle returned three punts for 41 yards and notched his fourth career interception.

Gettysburg may have had a large supply of Bullets on its sideline, but Muhlenberg had more weapons on the field and began defense of its 2007 Centennial Conference championship with a 42-21 Homecoming win.

The victory extended the Mules’ regular-season winning streak to 14 games, tying the second longest in CC history.

The biggest offensive weapon was the three-headed monster of seniors Eric Santagato and John DeLuca and junior Phil Cresta. Santagato finished 17-of-27 for 245 yards, tying a career high with four touchdowns, and did not throw an interception. DeLuca gained 134 yards on 27 carries to move into 12th place on the CC all-time list with 2,842 career yards. Cresta caught a career-high eight passes for 128 yards and two touchdowns, moving over 1,000 receiving yards for his career.

Going against the top offense

Sophomore Scott Lissner, here making a tackle from below on a kickoff return, made a key sack on third down to force a Gettysburg punt late in the first half.

in the CC, the fifth-ranked Mules (3-0, 1-0) shut out Gettysburg (0-4, 0-2) in the first half, opening up a 21-0 lead. The game got off to a shaky start for the Bullets, as they were called for a holding penalty on the opening kickoff, went three-and-out an offense, then had a short punt that senior Brandon Doyle returned to the 24-yard line.

On Muhlenberg’s first play from scrimmage, DeLuca ran 24 yards for a quick touchdown just 1:25 into the game.

The score remained 7-0 for most of the first half. Gettysburg had its best chance to score after pinning the Mules inside their own 5 with a punt. The Bullets

Cresta has caught at least one touchdown pass in five of the last six games.

got the ball back at the Muhlenberg 29, but a fourth-down pass from the 23 was broken up by sophomore Mark Accomando.

The Mules went 58 yards in four plays to double their lead on Santagato’s 19-yard pass to senior Erik Snyder with 4:36 left in the half.

Muhlenberg held Gettysburg without a first down and regained possession with 2:51 on the clock. Consecutive completions of 12 and 21 yards by Santagato to Cresta put the ball at the 1, and DeLuca carried over with 49.4 seconds left to complete the eight-play TD drive.

Each team scored three touchdowns in the second half as the offenses took over, but the Bullets never got closer than two scores. Santagato threw a scoring strike of 19 yards to senior Edward DeRisi after escaping a sack in the backfield, and found Cresta on similar 33- and 35-yard touchdown passes in the fourth quarter.

The Mules finished with 442 total yards in beginning a season with three straight 30-point efforts for the first time since 2000. Muhlenberg has scored at least 30 points in eight of its last nine regular-season games (and put up 29 in the other).

Accomando recorded a career-high seven tackles and two pass breakups. Junior Frank Emmett also made seven stops, including two for loss, and senior Matt Rathbun intercepted a pass for the second straight week.
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