LANCASTER, Pa. – The No. 17 Franklin & Marshall men's lacrosse team won its home opener with a thrilling 12-11 victory against Muhlenberg inside Shadek Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The win was the second straight for the Diplomats over the Mules this season. Today's victory was the contest that counts towards the Centennial Conference standings, putting the Mules at 1-0 in conference play on the young season.

A.J. Rigsby and Luke Keating both recorded hat tricks for the Diplomats while Will Mulligan also tallied a pair of goals. Keating dished out three assists in the process of recording his 200th point. He now has 204 career points (125 goals, 79 assists) to rank seventh in school history. Eric Mueller picked up the win in goal. He made 10 saves, including four big stops in the fourth quarter, to deny Muhlenberg's attempts to snatch away the victory over the final period.

F&M seemed to be in cruise control early as the Diplomats tallied three goals in a span of less than two minutes and held a 3-0 advantage just under four minutes into the contest. Blake Target and Christian Sullivan joined Keating in the scoring act early. The Mules closed their deficit to one midway through the period but a man-up goal from Rigsby had the hosts leading 4-2 heading into the second.

Muhlenberg had its big quarter in the second as the Mules outscored the Diplomats 4-1 in that period. Two quick goals knotted the game at four-all before Will DeMuth put his team back in front. Nevertheless, Muhlenberg took its first lead of the day into halftime with two more goals in the final four minutes before the break.

The halftime break seemed to serve the Diplomats well as they started in similar fashion to the first half with three unanswered goals. Those three goals came just a total of 28 seconds apart. Colin Falk's tally gave the Diplomats a 7-6 lead and they would never trail the rest of the afternoon. In striking similarity to the first quarter, Muhlenberg bounced back with two straight goals to knot the score for the final time at eight-all with 4:21 remaining in the third period.

The Diplomats used their third 3-0 run on the afternoon to finally reclaim a lead that they would never relinquish. Rigsby got the momentum back on the home side with 52 seconds remaining in the third period. Up 9-8 heading into the final 15 minutes, Mulligan and Rigsby stretched the lead to 11-8 with just under 10 minutes to play in regulation. However, a pesky Muhlenberg side would not go away as back-to-back goals from the Mules made it 11-10 with 7:43 to play. The two teams traded goals in that remaining time with Keating's final point of the afternoon giving the Diplomats their decisive 12th goal with 4:09 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Muhlenberg's final goal came with just 55 seconds remaining in regulation, but the Diplomats won the ensuing face-off before running out the clock. Mueller made two crucial saves in the final four minutes while the Diplomats also had to kill off a man-up advantage for the Mules in the final minutes. Erich Della Volpe led the F&M defense with two caused turnovers while Spencer Hall scooped up a team-best four ground balls.

Franklin & Marshall will be back at Shadek Stadium next Saturday, April 10 when McDaniel comes to campus. The opening face-off of that Centennial Conference matchup is once again set for 12 p.m. noon.