Release courtesy of Franklin & Marshall Athletic Communications
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall men's lacrosse team exacted some revenge from the regular season with a 9-8 overtime victory at Muhlenberg on Tuesday night. The fourth-seeded Mules – who are receiving votes in the national polls – rained on F&M's parade just two week ago. However, Will Mulligan's goal during the first overtime period gave the Diplomats the final say in the season series as they advanced to the Centennial Conference semifinals where they will take on top-seeded Dickinson this Friday.
Tommy Garofalo had four of the Diplomats' eight goals during the regulation time while Christian Sullivan, Kai Kelly, Will Mollihan, Cullen Decker, and Mulligan each finished with multiple points. Eric Mueller had a huge game in goal as he made 18 saves and stopped nearly 70 percent of the shots on goal he faced throughout the evening to help nullify the Mules' 48-37 advantage in shots.
The two sides traded the first six goals of the contest as the score reached 3-3 just two minutes into the second period. Charlie Bernicker, Sullivan, and Garofalo all tallied during the first 15 minutes. Muhlenberg's third goal of the game started a 3-0 run in the host's favor, but the Diplomats closed the second quarter with back-to-back goals from Garofalo just 1:07 apart as the teams were tied at the break.
Not even the halftime break could slow down the Diplomats' attack as it scored the only three goals of the third quarter to claim an 8-5 lead behind five unanswered goals. Kelly, Kyle Russell, and Garofalo did the damage during that quarter, but Muhlenberg had its own 3-0 quarter in the fourth to send the game to overtime. The Mules' final goal came with 57 seconds left in regulation.
Franklin & Marshall was whistled for a push that was awarded with 13 seconds to go in regulation as the hosts held the ball for the first possession of the overtime. The Diplomats killed off all of their penalties and the overtime was no exception as Colin Falk came away with a huge caused turnover to halt the first possession of overtime. Muhlenberg regained possession shortly after, but another big save from Mueller ultimately gave F&M the chance it needed.
After taking a timeout at the 2:31 mark, the Diplomats saw their shot clock winding down as a pass got away but was flagged down on a great hustle play from Sullivan with eight on the shot clock. Moving quickly, he found Kelly who passed to Mulligan for the game-winner with 1:31 left in the first overtime.
The Diplomats finished the game with a 31-29 edge in ground balls, led by six from Matthew Freeman who won 11 of his 20 face-off attempts. Not far behind him was Falk with five GBs and the huge caused turnover.
With its win in the first round game, men's lacrosse will now play top-seeded Dickinson at 4 p.m. this Friday in Carlisle. This will mark F&M's second straight chance at revenge in the postseason as the Red Devils were 14-8 winners at Dickinson during the regular season match which happened back in late March.