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By the time they return to Williamson-Sponaugle Field in mid-November, Franklin & Marshall's football team may be on the cusp of a Centennial Conference championship and its greatest season in 20 years.
Or just enjoying the fruits of a really good season.
Regardless of how the coming two-week Maryland road trip turns out, the Diplomats (4-1 CC, 6-1 overall) ensured themselves their first winning season since 2004 with a 20-7 homecoming victory over Muhlenberg (1-4, 2-5) on Saturday afternoon.
In a year when their efforts have sometimes been overshadowed by the offense, in some of the worst playing conditions of the season, the Diplomat defense turned in one of its better efforts as F&M took advantage of multiple Muhlenberg miscues in the first quarter to take a 20-0 lead and never looked back.
"They did what they had to do in that first quarter, what we wanted to do — strike early," Muhlenberg coach Mike Donnelly offered. "Those two turnovers created a 20-0 hole, more than enough for them to win."
"I knew it was going to get bad in the second half," Diplomats coach John Troxell said, "[and] it was as bad as it could get. Trying to get up early and hold on was clearly what the plan was."
The Diplomats got on the board early in the first quarter when John Harrison found Jay Ridinger in the left corner of the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown.
The score came as the Diplomats cashed a fumble recovery by Kenny Provost at the Muhl 29, following Mark Surma's 6-yard sack of quarterback Dan Deighan.
The smoke had hardly cleared from that score when the Dips were in the end zone again.
On fourth down and less than a yard at the Muhlenberg 40, safety Jeff Kellar stood up fullback Codie Bender as he tried to roll to his left after being denied up the middle.
Two plays later wide receiver Jarell Diggs took a jet sweep to his right, pulled up and hit George Eager on a post pattern for 31 yards and the touch.
Mark Shinn's PAT kick clanked off the right upright, but F&M had a 13-0 lead, 8:32 into the game.
Very soon, it was 20-0.
Aided by a roughing-the-punter penalty, Muhlenberg drove to the F&M 25.
On second-and-inches, wideout Phil Cresta bobbled a lateral from Deighan. Before Cresta could secure the loose ball, cornerback Barry Lovett scooped it and dashed down the right sideline, 69 yards for the touchdown.
"[Linebacker] Sam Massaro made just a great hit to get the ball loose," Lovett said. "I was just at the right place at the right time.
"I got cut [blocked] on the play by the receiver, I rolled on [the ball] got up and just ran for my life. I saw a lane and I just took it, no looking back."
Just 13 minutes in, the rout was on.
A rout subverted by Mother Nature.
Heavy showers arrived just as the game kicked off and remained throughout the afternoon, darkening the sky and triggering the stadium's security lights.
The rain tamped down F&M's usually prolific pass game — Harrison would complete just 13 of 22 for 99 yards — but nobody was faring well on offense.
Deighan totaled 103 yards on 12-of-24 passing, but the 5-foot-8 freshman was the Mule's most dangerous weapon on the ground.
Shifty and elusive, he picked up 66 yards on waggles, scrambles and runs for his life as he escaped F&M's defensive pressure time and again.
Muhlenberg ran 74 offensive plays to F&M's 48 and enjoyed a 13-minute advantage in time of possession, so the defense had its mettle tested.
"Our defense played extremely well," Troxell said. "If you look at the stats coming into this game, I think we had the No. 1 defense in the conference. We have some playmakers. They're physical, they run well, and they get to the ball."
Still, Deighan proved hard to handle. He whipped the Mules to their first score, a 17-play, 68-yard march that burned 9:28 of the third quarter.
The drive, capped by Terrence Dandridge's 5-yard run, gained new life when the Diplomats were called for defensive holding on a stop that would've brought fourth-and-12 at the F&M 41.
As the fourth quarter turned, Deighan was at it once again, completing a 46-yard pass to Cresta to the Dips' 10.
But the defense held with 7:53 left as three cracks by J.T. Merklinger advanced the ball to the 3 and Jeff Liberatore ran down Deighan from behind at the 2 as he swept to the left pylon.
"It was a play action and I saw [Deighan] keeping it and running outside," Liberatore said.
"I just ran as hard as I could to try to get him down. I barely got my fingertips on him. I looked back, heard the crowd, and I knew after that we were just going to grind them down."
But before they could do that the Dips had to wait out a 30-minute suspension of play when lightning was spotted with 2:33 left in the game. When the game resumed, the defense completed the task.
Dave Byrne is a Sunday News sports writer. E-mail him at dbyrne@lnpnews.com.
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