There's no better comfort than home cooking, and a pair of "home" lads cooked up a comfort zone Saturday for Franklin & Marshall's football team.

Manheim Township grads Jay Ridinger and George Eager produced three of F&M's four touchdowns and the Diplomats overcame Moravian, and the elements, 29-13, at Sponaugle-Williamson Field.

Playing in the last, persistent throes of the Nor'easter that pelted the area the entire weekend, Ridinger pulled in touchdown passes of 6 and 13 yards and Eager ran the second-half kickoff back 80 yards for a score as the Diplomats improved to 5-1 overall, and 3-1 in the suddenly competitive Centennial Conference.

Ursinus (3-1, 3-3) dealt front-running Johns Hopkins (4-1, 5-2) its first CC loss with a 16-14 upset win in Baltimore Saturday, tightening the title race with a month to go.

Hopkins is a half-game up on F&M, Ursinus and Dickinson (3-1, 5-1), idle this week after dropping a 23-12 verdict to Hopkins last weekend.

With Muhlenberg booked for homecoming next weekend, and a pair of Maryland road trips to McDaniel and Hopkins before hosting Gettysburg to close the season, F&M holds its fate.

"Every conference game from here out is going to be tough," Ridinger said after the game, the news of Hopkins' loss barely making a ripple.

"We're going to take one game at a time, and hopefully we'll be looking pretty good at the end of the season."

F&M's victory marked the first time the Diplomats have opened the season 5-1 since 1996. Nice enough, but, again, not what they took the field for Saturday.

"The good thing with this teams is, no one was talking about 5-1," Eager said. "We were all saying: Beat Moravian."

Offensively, Moravian came in leaking oil and trailing blue smoke.

The Greyhounds (1-6, 1-4) had not scored a touchdown since the second quarter of a 21-16 win over McDaniel on Sept. 12.

They had not scored in the second half at all this season, and had not scored first all season. That held true to form as workhorse back Ryan Rempe fumbled after a 1-yard gain on Moravian's first offensive play. Diplomats cornerback Barry Lovett picked up the loose ball and returned it 19 yards to the 11.

Right away, quarterback John Harrison found Ridinger in the back of the end zone, but the ball went in and out of Ridinger's hands for an incompletion.

"It was wet and raining," Dips coach John Troxell said.

"I should've caught it," declared Ridinger, accepting no excuse.

Two plays later, F&M was still at the 11 and Mike Shinn kicked a 28-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

Disappointing?

"I was kind of happy we made the field goal," Troxel said. "Any time you get points down there is fine with me. I figured, on a day like today, that 3 could be the difference."

Set up by a 35-yard burst by Rempe — with a 15-yard facemask penalty tacked on — Moravian took the lead on Rempe's 5-yard run on the next possession.

That set off such celebrations you would've thought the 'Hounds had just won the conference.

The joy was short-lived.

Taking over at their 4 following a Moravian punt, F&M went 96 yards in 10 plays to regain the lead.

Harrison hit John Kaschak for 10 yards, then found Eager on a sprint-waggle for 39 yards to the 'Hound 46.

That put the sophomore QB in the conference record book as the fastest to 3,000 career passing yards — 16 games — and made him the 10th at F&M to pass for 3,000. He wasn't done.

Harrison found Ridinger for 9 yards, and Eager for 6, then hit Jarrel Diggs for 17 on a wheel route to the 7.

He then left a high pass up for 6-foot-4 tight end Michael Deutch to out-jump 5-foot-11 defensive back David Wacker for the touchdown.

Three possessions later, Deutch went low, scooping a ball off the ground at the Moravian 13, to keep a 9-play, 55-yard drive alive.

Following a defensive holding penalty, Ridinger dragged across the back of the end zone and pulled in Harrison's 6-yard toss for a 16-7 F&M lead with 2:10 left before the half.

At the half, Troxell charged his team to come out with the second-half kickoff and score right away.

Eager took that literally.

"Coach Troxell said we have to make a statement," Eager said, "drive all the way down and score. It worked out where we didn't need to drive down."

Gathering in the kick on the right hash mark at the Dips' 20, Eager went left and faked the reverse handoff to twin safety Alan Williams.

The move froze the pursuit just long enough to create a prodigious parting on the left side.

"The blocking up front was great," Eager said. "I saw the gaping hole, and I ran straight forward.

"[Special teams] Coach [Jack] Neal always says hit it with speed, and that's what I tried to do."

Eager sped past flatfooted defenders and had one serious challenger out near midfield.

"He ended up getting a little piece of my leg," Eager said. "I just kind of shook it off, got on balance, and it was off to the races."

It was Eager's second return for a touchdown this year, the third of his collegiate career.

"He's just the best," Troxell said of his senior wideout and return specialist. "He changes every game."

Shinn converted his second PAT kick — he would end up 2-for-4 — and F&M was in command, 23-7.

Moravian closed to 23-13 on Shawn Sylvanius' 35-yard post route from Andy Polony with 19½ minutes left to play.

But the Diplomats' defense gave their penalty-plagued offense an opportunity to slam the door with 5:47 left, when linebacker Sam Massaro returned an interception 11 yards to the 'Hound 14.

On fourth and 9, Harrison hit Ridinger in traffic at the goal line, and the junior wideout broke the plane.

"I made sure I was getting the first down first," he said. "The touchdown was a bonus."

Troxell savored a win that defined how far the Diplomats have come.

"We did not play a good football game, in my mind," he said. "We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties, and we still came out on top.

"It's a sign. When you don't play well and you can win, it means you have a pretty good football team.

"We've got some work [to do]," he cautioned. "We have a good Muhlenberg team coming in, and we're going to have to play a lot better than we did today."