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Muncy spreads offense around in win

Muncy coach Jason Gresh knows in order for Muncy to win, it can’t rely on just one player. It has to be a team effort, from the backline up to the forwards with everyone stepping up. So it’s no surprise he was pleased with the outcome of Wednesday’s game against Sullivan County.

The Indians produced with three girls scoring goals and a defensive effort which only allowed one goal in a 3-1 win against Sullivan County.

The game was called early with 43 seconds remaining after lightning was seen in the area.

“That’s exactly what we’re looking for,” Gresh said of seeing three girls score. “It’s got to be a team effort, we’ve been stressing that sicne Day 1. It’s going to take 23 girls to win, that’s really important.”

It took just 5 minutes for the Muncy offense to get going and the Indians kept it up throughout the first half. Ashlynn Fowler took a ball fed by Aleaha Bigelow and scored to go ahead 1-0 with just over 35 minutes left to play.

Bigelow then made her way through Sullivan County’s defense and from 12 yards out, fired an excellent shot she managed to sneak inside the left near post for a 2-0 lead with 24:44 remaining in the first half.

Lauren Anderson then scored with 18:30 left when she followed through on a ball that slipped away from Sullivan’s goalie and allowed her to tap it into an open net for a 3-0 lead with 18:30 to play.

But despite that 3-0 lead, Sullivan County coach Pete Swinick knew his team had the ability to rally. The Griffins came back down 5-3 to Northumberland Christian to win, so it’s nothing new. But the Griffins weren’t able to get a ton of quality shots off.

Sullivan County’s only goal came when Bethany Beinlich slid and punched in a shot to the left post from the corner of the 6-yard box to cut it to a 3-1 deficit wtih 13:57 to play until halftime.

“We’re not making good decisions at this point in the season. We’re taking shots wide near the keeper so keeper can get them. It’s just a question of whether we can get that through their understanding of the game. Whether their soccer intelligence can pick up,” Swinick said. “What’s showing is lack of six defensive starters. We can’t get the ball up to the offense and we’re having trouble getting it through the midfield.”

The Griffins and Indians both ended with eight shots on goal each, but it seemed every shot Sullivan County took went right to Muncy goalie Sarah Dgien.

Sullivan County had its chances to score. In the second half with 17:22 remaining, Ellie Springman fired a shot from 40 yards out that was a great, high shot, but Dgien managed to catch it. Then with 5:20 left, it was Kerigan Wettlaufer who got outside of the 18 and drilled a low, hard shot that was stopped.

“We didn’t play up to our potential in my opinion,” Swinick said. “The offense couldn’t get a good shot off and the defense was out of position some of the times. It’s a young group.”

“We were able to adjust, I thought our defense was outstanding. A complete effort,” Gresh said. “Everybody kind of switched around. It was a really nice team effort and I think that’s really important.”

Muncy held an 18-10 advantage in total shots and got inside of the 18 frequently. In the second half, the Griffins had three shots on goal, but none were from inside the 18.

One of the Griffins’ best chances the Griffins had came with 28:29 to play when Beinlich got a throughball and managed to dribble through a crowd of four Muncy defenders to get a look at the goal. That’s when the junior fired a great shot toward the left far post that went just wide, narrowly missing what would have been a game-tying goal.

Muncy 3, Sullivan County 1

M–Ashlynn Fowler (Aleaha Bigelow), 35:02. M–Bigelow, 24:44. M–Lauren Anderson, 18:30. SC–Bethany Beinlich, 13:57.

Shots: M 8, SC 8. Corners: SC 1, M 3. Saves: SC 5 (Kassidy Beinlich), M 6 (Sarah Dgien).

Records: Muncy (1-2), Sullivan (2-3).

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