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His teammates stopped guessing long ago. Whenever fellow Muncy players and opponents pile up, they just assume Jason Shuda is involved.
They’re usually right, too.
The Muncy senior linebacker has become a defensive force and he may have played his best high school game Thursday night at Rodney K. Morgans Stadium. Shuda also scored his first scholastic touchdown, and it was the game-winner as Muncy won the latest thriller in what has become a tremendous, small school rivalry between Muncy and South.
Shuda made a game-high 18 tackles and his 1-yard touchdown run with 1 minute, 38 seconds remaining was the difference as Muncy edged South, 21-14 and won there for the first time since 2009 while remaining undefeated. Branson Eyer threw for 207 yards and Ross Eyer caught his area career record 31st touchdown as Muncy (6-0, 3-0) stayed tied with Northwest for first in the NTL-II.
"He (Shuda) is an animal. I don’t even know how he does it, but he just finds the ball. I don’t understand it," Ross Eyer said after finishing with three catches for 88 yards. "Any time there is a pile up he’s always at the bottom grabbing at the ball. I would not want to get tackled by him."
There really was no avoiding Shuda Thursday. He seemingly was everywhere and many of his tackles were at or near the line of scrimmage, including two for loss. It wasn’t just that Shuda made so many tackles either.
It was when he made them. So many times, Shuda delivered big hits at opportune times. He blew up a South third quarter drive which reached the 10-yard line with two key stops and helped ended another South threat in nearly identical fashion.
A captain, Shuda has embraced his leadership role. In doing so, he is not just excelling as an individual, but making all his teammates better.
"I love the leadership role. I love my team and I love being there for my guys and making plays and making sure that everyone is in the right position," Shuda said. "I feel like the leadership role is definitely best suited for me."
"Shuda is our senior captain, and he puts so much time into the weight room, his foot work and his conditioning and it’s great to see it pay off on Thursday and Friday nights," Muncy coach Sean Tetreault said. "He’s the heart and soul of our defense. He flies sideline to sideline and it’s a great asset to have him at linebacker."
That went double on a night when South (3-3, 2-1) played an outstanding game as well. Ryan Casella ran for a career-high 101 yards and Amir Kemrer added 91 with both scoring. The line played well on both sides and South tied the game 14-14 early in the fourth quarter on Kemrer’s four-yard touchdown run and Radley Knapp’s diving 2-point conversion.
"It hurts to lose but as I told them sometimes when you lose, you win. We played right with them, so we’ll come back and keep working and keep trying to get better," South coach Chris Eiswerth said. "You have to look at all the positives. I’m proud of the guys."
Both teams exchanged punts before Muncy took over at its 48-yard line with 6:15 remaining. Eight plays later, Muncy was at the 1. Austin Johnson had run possessed on the drive, so Muncy figured South would key on him.
Shuda so often does the dirty work as a blocking fullback, but he lived a dream Thursday and scored the winning touchdown, plowing in from a yard out.
"I was really excited, especially since that was my first touchdown," Shuda said. "I was surprised but, in the end, it doesn’t matter what they call. I just have to be ready to step up and I think I did that."
Everyone did his job well on that drive. Muncy had done most of its damage through the air at that point and Branson Eyer found Noah Confer (3 catches, 93 yards) and his cousin Ross for second quarter touchdowns as Muncy built a 14-6 halftime lead. But after South tied it, linemen Kenny Hampe, Eli Harris, Braydon Bergey, Brayden Trostle, Gabe Stark and tight end Cameron Kamerer took over. They blocked well, Johnson ran like a train and, following an Eyer to Confer 13-yard connection to start the drive, Muncy ran on the final eight plays.
"We knew coming in that it was going to be a big dogs up front type of game. We were talking about it all week and saying these guys are going to be physical and you have to be ready to go," Ross Eyer said. "When we get down there in the red zone, I trust my big dogs to take care of our running backs any day of the week."
"Those guys up front located well at the line of scrimmage, and it was beautiful to see Shuda get that touchdown," Tetreault said. "They’re all juniors and sophomores and we have a sophomore tight end, so it’s great to have them get the confidence in what they’re doing and have them execute the plays full speed and play physical."
Muncy running the ball well on its final drive had a bonus impact. It used up a lot of time and left South with just 98 seconds and no timeouts to try and drive 76 yards. Still, South was up for the challenge and went down fighting.
Knapp gave Landyn Gephart at making a play and lofted a deep ball his way while getting hit to start the drive. Gephart somehow made a spectacular, falling catch between two defenders for a 28-yard gain. He nearly twisted away and scored and a roughing the passer penalty moved the ball to the Muncy 30.
South, though, was hit with three illegal procedure penalties and that stalled its momentum. With 15 seconds remaining and at the 45, Knapp hit Kemrer for a nine-yard pass, but Muncy kept him in bounds and time expired. It was not the ending South wanted, but it did a lot of good things and showed why it remains a threat in the District 4 Class A field.
Linemen Austin Bowersox, Lucas Long, Chris Confer, sophomore Paxton Gephart, Owen Bird, Evan Tortellet and tight end Connor Apker surged and helped South run for 231 yards. Garrett Cooley had a big third quarter interception and Ben Ferris provided strong play in the middle of the line.
"We had a lot of guys do a lot of nice things and it was really good to see," Eiswerth said. "It was encouraging to see and now we’ll see how we do the next three weeks, and we will keep trying to get better and improve each week."
Caden Harris broke up a potential touchdown pass on fourth down to Brady Ryder in the first quarter, but Branson Eyer found Confer for a 45-yard pass on the quarter’s final play. Those two picked up where they left off as Eyer opened the second quarter by finding Confer for a 31-yard touchdown as Muncy went up 7-0.
After Casella’s five-yard touchdown run capped a South scoring drive, Eyer and Eyer went to work. Branson threw a pass in the flat and watched his cousin do the rest. Ross caught the ball on the run, made a defender miss five yards downfield and ran untouched into history, going 57 yards to put Muncy up 14-6 while breaking a tie with Jersey Shore graduate Cayden Hess for most career touchdown catches.
But every time it looked like Muncy might take control, South came fighting back. Long term, that may have been the best thing that could have happened to Muncy after it had won four of its first five games, including three straight, via the mercy rule by halftime.
This time, the Indians had to dig deep and time after time they did. Linebacker Landyn Wommer continued his big season with 11 tackles, including two for loss, and a group of rotating linemen helped Muncy make some big stops when South had threatened to score. Cameron and Braydon Kamerer combined for 12 tackles and Lucas Gruver twice had key tackles on South drives that stalled inside Muncy territory.
"I definitely feel like when a team has a lot of momentum it can be hard to stop, so if we can come back and keep them to 14 points it’s a great accomplishment," Shuda said. "It’s always good knowing everyone is doing their jobs and we did something that maybe people didn’t think we could do. We showed we can pull it off."
This was the third straight Muncy-South game determined by 11 points or fewer. And that 11-point difference last year did not reach that point until he final minute. Both teams braced for a battle and then delivered another great one.
Depending on how playoff seedings shake out, it could be the first of two between these contenders. Before a potential rematch, expect both to ice up following last night’s exciting, physical encounter.
"That was a great game. South Williamsport is always a very good team and a very well-coached team," Tetreault said. "Playing here is very hard. I’m happy our kids played four quarters of hard-nosed football and came out on top."
Muncy 21, South Williamsport 14
Muncy 0 14 0 7--21
South 0 6 0 8--14
Second Quarter
M--Noah Confer 31 pass from Branson Eyer (Rowan Revata kick), 11:53
S--Ryan Casella 5 run (kick failed), 7:37
M--Ross Eyer 57 pass from B. Eyer (Revata kick), 2:28
Fourth Quarter
S--Amir Kemrer 4 run (Radley Knapp run), 10:43
M--Jason Shuda 1 run (Revata kick), 1:38
TEAM STATISTICS M S
First Downs 12 11
Rushes-yards 30-111 45-231
Passing yards 207 61
Comp-Att-Int 7-14-1 5-9-0
Total yards 318 292
Fumbles-lost 2-1 3-1
Penalties-yards 4-40 5-25
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Muncy, Austin Johnson 16-57; Elijah Weikle 6-27; Branson Eyer 3-14; Jacob Fowler 2-8; Landyn Wommer 2-4; Jason Shuda 1-1, TD. South, Ryan Casella 18-101, TD; Amir Kemrer 16-90, TD; Caden Harris 9-42; Radley Knapp 2-(-2).
PASSING: Muncy, B. Eyer 7-14-1, 207 yards, 2 TD. South, Knapp 5-9-0, 61 yards.
RECEIVING: Muncy, Noah Confer 3-93, TD; Ross Eyer 3-88, TD; Cameron Kamerer 1-26. South, Landyn Gephart 3-43; Kemrer 1-9; Connor Apker 1-9.
INTERCEPTIONS: South, Garrett Cooley.
RECORDS: Muncy 6-0, 3-0 NTL-II. South 3-3, 3-1.