It's certainly not an understatement to say things have not gone well for Franklin & Marshall in the early stages of the 2011 season.

A week after turning the ball over five times in a season-opening loss at Washington & Lee, the Diplomats returned home Saturday and coughed it up four more times while making other critical miscues in a 34-13 loss to Muhlenberg in the Centennial Conference opener at Sponaugle-Williamson Field.

Running backs Terrence Dandridge and J.T. Merklinger combined for 134 yards rushing and each scored a pair of touchdowns for the Mules, who picked up their first win of the season.

The stubborn Mule defense intercepted four passes, including three thrown by F&M starting quarterback John Harrison. All of the Harrison interceptions were converted into touchdowns as the Mules erased an early 3-0 deficit by scoring 27 unanswered points.

"I wasn't in a rhythm today," said Harrison, who completed 9 of 17 passes for only 85 yards. "Things just didn't click. It was a bad day."

Through the first two games of his senior season, the four-year starter has been picked off five times, while throwing one touchdown.

"This is all stuff I've done before, so I think I have to just keep at it," Harrison said. "Hopefully things will start coming together and I'll start getting into more of a rhythm with the guys."

Harrison was pulled midway through the third quarter after throwing his third pick, which was returned 26 yards to the F&M 4. Two plays later, Dandridge scored from two yards out.

E.J. Schneider, who regularly sees action at QB on certain plays, took over for good.

"It's always hard," F&M coach John Troxell said of the decision to pull the veteran signal-caller. "He's a great leader. He's a great football guy. It wasn't anything he was doing wrong. I felt E.J. getting in there might provide a spark."

Schneider, a sophomore, did complete 13 of 22 passes for 179 yards. He also rushed for 19 yards.

Without senior running back John Kaschak, who suffered a shoulder injury last week, the Diplomat ground game struggled to gain 35 yards on 29 carries. Freshman Lamont Jackson led F&M with 23 yards, despite breaking the game's opening play for a 28-yard gain.

"We're going to have to get better, especially if we're going to play young kids," Troxell said. "We had five or six freshmen out there playing meaningful snaps for us."

An F&M pass-interference penalty on third-and-8 midway through the opening quarter kept a Muhlenberg drive alive that led to a TD and 7-3 lead.

Midway through the fourth, with F&M within reach at 27-13, the Mules iced it with their longest scoring pass of all time, a 95-yarder from QB Dan Deighan to wideout Isaiah Vaughn, who broke several tackles along the way.

"I think one of the things we need to do is get better at doing what we do and not make the critical mistakes that we're making because we're not going to win football games if we keep turning the ball over," Troxell said.

Nevertheless, Harrison is not ready to push the panic button just yet.

"It's really disappointing," he said. "I never wanted it to start out this way, but we can't give up now."