Some tidbits from the football team’s 58-0 Homecoming win against McDaniel yesterday:

• The win was the Mules’ second by more than 50 points this season – they knocked off The Apprentice School, 59-6, two weeks ago in their opener. The last time Muhlenberg won two games by 50+ points in a season was 2002, when it opened with a 54-3 victory against Kings Point and made its NCAA Tournament debut with a 56-6 defeat of Mass.-Dartmouth. The last time the Mules had three 50-point wins in a season? 1947.

Senior Kevin Van Laar dives for the first of his two touchdowns.

• Another reference to the 1947 team: The Mules have scored 138 points in their first three games – the most since that 1947 squad put up 158 points in its opening three games.
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  Tyler Cerbo brings back one of the Mules’ three interceptions. McDaniel’s quarterback threw for only 61 yards on 28 attempts.

  Freshman Nick Palladino quarterbacked Muhlenberg to the big win in his first career start, accounting for 334 yards of total offense on 264 passing and 70 rushing. Although he fell a little short of the school record for passing yards by a freshman in a game (290), he’ll get other chances this year. Something he won’t get another shot at: Palladino was the first Mule freshman to win his first start since Doug Donovan in 1990.

• The defense kept McDaniel off the board for the second straight year and the third time in the last four years, marking the fifth straight season that the Mules have recorded at least one shutout. That’s the longest streak since Muhlenberg had at least one shutout for six straight years from 1999 to 2004. The Mules can match that next season, but to get to the school record they’ll have to keep going for a long, long, LONG time. Muhlenberg recorded a shutout every year from 1905 to 1943 in an era when (presumably) the offenses were less sophisticated.
• Unquestionably, the play of the game was a 72-yard combined blocked field goal return for a touchdown in the first quarter. McDaniel was trying to cut its deficit to 11 points but instead found itself in a three-touchdown hole.

Junior Kevin Cellary blocked the kick (1) and senior Kory Crichton recovered (2). Crichton returned the ball (3) into McDaniel territory and, as he was being wrapped up, tossed it back to junior Michael Long (4), who ran it the final 40 yards for the first of his two touchdowns (5).

The touchdown was the Mules’ 25th on special teams since 1999, and they have come in all different manners:

• kickoff return – 11
• blocked punt recovery/return – 7
• punt return – 2
• fake punt – 2
• fake field goal – 1
• recovery of fumbled kickoff return – 1
• blocked field goal return – 1