Muhlenberg is ready for another run in NCAA Division III
Mules (9-1) will take their first step in playoff opener against Framington State
Two years after staging the best postseason run in program history, the Muhlenberg Mules are poised to do it again.
The Centennial Conference champion Mules, 9-1 and fresh off a 55-0 rout of rival Moravian, host Framington State in a first-round NCAA Division III tournament game at noon Saturday at Scotty Wood Stadium.
Muhlenberg has won three straight Centennial Conference championships and with them, the league’s conference automatic bid to the tournament. If the Mules defeat Framingham, they would play the winner of the first-round game between Delaware Valley and Anna Maria on Nov. 27.
The Mules have won at least two games in each of their last two NCAA appearances, reaching the quarterfinals in 2018 and the semifinals in 2019. Including bowl games, the Mules have earned 17 postseason berths in the last 21 seasons. Prior to 2000, they had not played in a postseason game since 1946.
Framingham State earned an automatic bid as the champion of Massachusetts States Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Rams (8-2) enter the tournament on a roll, having won eight straight games after dropping their first two.
Framingham is making its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance, all since 2012, and its third straight. The Rams are still looking for their first NCAA Tournament win. Muhlenberg and Framingham are two of only six Division III schools that have won at least eight games every season since 2012. The others are Johns Hopkins, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Mount Union, and Wheaton (Ill.), all of whom are also in the NCAA Tournament.
The Mules-Rams matchup features a battle of one of the top passing offenses in Division III going against one of the top passing defenses. Framingham
entered the last week of the regular season ranked in the top 10 in the country in total defense (sixth) and pass efficiency defense (10th), holding opponents to a .443 completion percentage.
Muhlenberg senior quarterback Michael Hnatkowsky, who was named Centennial Conference player of the week for the second straight week after throwing five touchdown passes against Moravian, completes 72.5% of his passes and entered the week ranked eighth in Division III in passing efficiency.
Hnatkowsky has thrown for 2,974 yards and 38 touchdowns. Ethan Brader, a Palisades grad, is among the team’s
leading rushers with 431 yards and three TDs on the ground.
The Mules were sidelined by the pandemic in 2020 and want to pick up where they left off in the 2019 postseason.
“Obviously we’re trying to make another run like that and we’ll see where
we can go,” said senior linebacker Dalton Daddona, a Bethlehem Catholic grad. “But we just have to take it one game at a time.”