LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall men's soccer team (1-5-1, 0-1 CC) fell in its Centennial Conference (CC) opener against Muhlenberg (4-0-3, 1-0 CC), 2-1, Saturday afternoon at Tylus Field. The Diplomats took an early 1-0 lead, but the Mules battled back with two-unanswered goals to pull away with the win.

F&M opened the scoring in the 12th minute of the match as Thomas Kaplan sent a pass deep into Muhlenberg's end of the field to Jack Borden. Borden maneuvered around a defender and fired a shot past the Mules' goalkeeper for his second goal of the season. Kaplan was credited with his first assist of the year on the play.

Muhlenberg came right back by capitalizing off a turnover on F&M's side of the field to score the equalizer during the 36th minute of play. The teams entered the halftime break tied at 1-1, but F&M held the advantage in shots at 8-5.

In the 55th minute, Muhlenberg drew a foul in the F&M box that led to a goal off the ensuing penalty kick to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.

Franklin & Marshall had multiple opportunities to score late in the contest, but couldn't manage to find the tying goal. A shot from Jack Kelly in the 59th minute was batted just wide of the right post by the Mules' goalkeeper. Six minutes later, Kaplan fired a shot that was scooped up in front of the visitors' net. Those two shots would be the Diplomats' only attempts on target out of 10 total shots in the second half.

F&M generated 18 shots, while holding Muhlenberg to six in the contest. Borden led the Diplomats with four shots, while Kaplan, Kelly, and Ethan Phillips notched three shots each in the game.

Franklin & Marshall now heads to Horizons Edge Sports Complex in Harrisonburg, Virginia on Wednesday to take on Lynchburg at 4:00 p.m.