For the third time in as many home games, the Muhlenberg football team reached the half-century mark, toppling Gettysburg 58-42.

The 58 points were the most scored by the Mules (4-2, 2-1) since a 62-7 win against Juniata in 2018. They had never scored at least 50 points in three consecutive home games, and they've now played three games this season with at least 100 combined points after never having played one in their entire history. 

Juniors Matthew Manning and Amari Dunn each scored a pair of rushing touchdowns, while senior Christopher Ardito caught a pair of scoring passes from senior Joe Repetti. Senior Andrew Darno also hauled in a touchdown pass.

Muhlenberg's other touchdown came on special teams, with sophomore Christopher Short returning a kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown. Short, who returned a kickoff 100 yards for a TD in the season-opening win at Moravian, is the fourth player in program history - the first since 2016 - to bring back at least two kickoffs all the way in the same season.

Short's touchdown marked a turning point in the game. The Bullets (2-4, 1-2), who had trailed by 16 points early in the third quarter, had just scored their second straight touchdown to close to within 30-28 with 3:27 left in the quarter. The kickoff return extended the Mule lead back to nine.

Although Gettysburg scored on its next possession and ran in a two-point conversion to make it a one-point game, Muhlenberg put the game away by reaching the end zone on its next three possessions.

The Bullets kicked away from Short following their fifth TD, and senior Jake Shotwell returned the squibber 17 yards to the Bullet 45. Just four plays later, Dunn ran in from 5 yards out for his second score of the day.

On the second play after the kickoff, sophomore Aaron Sylvester recorded his first career interception, giving the Mules the ball at the 21. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Repetti found a wide-open Darno for the 21-yard touchdown to make the score 51-36.

The Bullets drove the length of the field on their ensuing drive but were stopped for losses on third-and-1 from the 6 and fourth-and-1 from the 7. Muhlenberg took over on its own 8 and went on a back-breaking 11-play, 92-yard drive that ate up more than half the fourth quarter. The drive consisted of nine runs, seven by Manning and two by Repetti, and two third-down catches by Ardito, the last one for 10 yards in the end zone.

Manning (pictured above) finished with 102 yards on only 13 carries, including a 31-yard TD run in the second quarter, for his first career 100-yard game. Dunn added 41 yards on the ground, while Repetti finished 22-of-27 for 284 yards, including his 90th career passing touchdown.

Ardito finished with seven catches for 78 yards.

Junior Dante Mahaffey and senior Owen Kovacs led the defense with 10 tackles apiece, and junior Peyton Elliott recorded 2½ tackles for loss.

Senior Connor Fenstermaker was a perfect 7-for-7 on extra points and added his first career field goal.