Senior Connor Fenstermaker booted a 29-yard field goal as time expired to give the Muhlenberg football team a thrilling 24-23 win at Franklin & Marshall.

With the win, the Mules (6-3 overall) finished 4-2 in the Centennial Conference and clinched a postseason berth for the 20th time in the last 24 seasons. If Ursinus, the team ahead of Muhlenberg in the standings, receives an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Mules will host a Centennial-MAC Bowl Series game on Saturday, November 23.

Fenstermaker's kick brought an end to a game that featured four lead changes in the final 17:05. The Diplomats (5-4, 2-3), who trailed 14-0 at one point, took their final lead at 23-21 on a 10-yard touchdown run with 1:28 remaining. But they missed the extra point, and that proved to be the difference.

An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the touchdown celebration pushed F&M's kickoff back to the 20, and sophomore Christopher Short returned it 28 yards to just past midfield.

First-down passes by senior Joe Repetti of 16 yards to senior Christopher Ardito and 11 yards to senior Matt McKenna advanced the ball to the F&M 13 with less than a minute left. After an incomplete pass and two runs that did not gain any yardage, Muhlenberg called timeout with 2 seconds left to set up the field goal.

The Diplomats called a timeout of their own to try to ice Fenstermaker, but his kick - off the snap of junior Sean Krug and the hold of senior Andrew Darno - was true, giving the Mules their first walkoff field goal since 2018 at Thomas More.

Repetti threw touchdown passes to Darno and Ardito in the first half to stake Muhlenberg to a 14-0 lead, but F&M made a field goal late in the second quarter and scored two third-quarter TDs to take its first lead at 17-14.

After the second Diplomat touchdown, the Mules came right back, moving 74 yards on 10 plays to go ahead 21-17 on a 3-yard touchdown run by junior Amari Dunn with 12:36 on the fourth-quarter clock.

The next two Diplomats possessions ended with an interception by freshman Thomas Cerruti and a fourth-down pass breakup by Cerutti and senior Ray Vender, but the Muhlenberg offense could not gain a first down and punted the ball back both times, setting the stage for the dramatic finish.

Repetti finished 23-of-36 for 201 yards, completing six passes to both Ardito and Darno.

In addition to his interception, Cerruti forced a fumble that was recovered by sophomore Vincent Rispoli late in the first half and recorded 7 tackles. Sophomore Jeffrey Lopez led the defense with 9 stops.

Pictured above: graduate student Joe Papa and sophomore CJ Newman combine on a tackle.