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South Williamsport holds off Muncy in boys soccer for exciting 3-2 win

By Jon Gerardi 5 min read

As the scoreboard at South Williamsport reached one minute remaining, a player on Muncy yelled out that the team had nothing to lose and to keep pushing and fighting for a goal.

It didn't matter that time was ticking down, Muncy was going to battle until the end. The Indians tried to put in a game-tying goal, but South Williamsport's defense buckled down and held off Muncy en route to an exciting 3-2 win in a battle of Mid-Penn teams.

"Especially in the second half, I was very happy. We came out a little rough, kind of been a thing all year," Muncy coach John Karichner said. "If we play that way through the whole half, we'll be fine going forward."

South Williamsport and Muncy battled tough from start to finish on Wednesday. The Mounties scored the game's first goal with 20:37 to play until halftime. Just 37 seconds later, Muncy struck to tie it back up.

"We talk about next-play mentality and stressing the time right after goals are scoring. Ideally we don't want to give up a goal ,but I think our response to giving one up quickly was good and we got one back fairly soon after that too," South Williamsport coach Chris Vanaskie said.

The Mounties had an aggressive first half, peppering Muncy goalie Bodie Moyer and the Indians' back line and managed to put three goals in to take a 3-1 halftime lead.

Davis Pace scored off a Logan Harris assist with 13:55 to play until halftime to give the Mounties a two-goal lead, but Muncy never put its collective heads down, and kept fighting to score. With 11:18 to play in the second half, that goal finally came.

From 10 yards out, Kyran Lisembee fired a shot to the left post to score his second goal of the afternoon and cut down the deficit to just one goal.

"It shifted a little bit of momentum and got us a little bit of energy back too because energy was slowing down a little bit there because we weren't breaking through. A little momentum is all you need, especially in soccer," Karichner said. "All you need is two, three minutes to get some goals. Anything can happen once we get that momentum going our way."

With 9:10 to play, Muncy's Owen Woodward got inside of the 18 and had a nice look to the near left post and tried to sneak a shot inside the pole, but South goalie Dylan Webb was able to fall on it and prevent a game-tying goal.

The Mounties have seen leads slip away this year in recent games, but South Williamsport never panicked when it was a one-goal lead with 11:18 to play and played great defensively in the final 11 minutes to preserve the win and not let an equalizer slip through.

"Unfortunately we've given up leads lately, so being able to hang onto one is huge. Hopefully we can build off it for the rest of the season," Vanaskie said. "The boys did really well to keep their heads and understand they still had a lead and to not overreact, not panic and I'm really proud of them for that."

Evan Ogden scored South's first goal to give the Mounties a 1-0 lead before Lisembee scored 23 seconds later to tie the game. Josh Lynn made it a 2-1 South Williamsport lead with 17:03 until halftime.

It was then Pace's goal off a Logan Harris assist which increased the Mounties lead in the second half. Both teams played evenly throughout the game. Both the Indians and Mounties had nine shots on goal each.

With 22:25 to play until halftime, South nearly put in a goal when a corner kick was bodied off a Mountie player inside the 6-yard box, only to see Moyer fall on it and keep it scoreless.

Lisembee had a great header attempt with 28:15 until halftime that hit off the crossbar and rebounded back to him, but the second-chance shot went high.

"I think the defense has stepped up today and really all season just with a never give up attitude and making sure if we get beat, we get back and we try to recover," Vanaskie said. "They did a good job of that tonight. There were certainly opportunities for Muncy and luckily we were able to recover pretty well today."

Karichner knew entering Wednesday's afternoon that it wouldn't be an easy game against the Mounties as the two Mid-Penn rivals play each other tough every time.

"You can't go by records in this area because everybody's beating everybody, it's so hard to tell. Us and South, it's always a one-goal game," Karichner said. "Last three or four years its always been one goal games. Always enjoy playing against Chris, it's always a good time with them."

South Williamsport 3,

Muncy 2

SW--Evan Ogden (Josh Lynn), 20:37. M--Kyran Lisembee (Austin Hartzel), 20:00. SW--Lynn (Ogden), 17:03. SW--Davis Pace (Logan Harris), 13:55. M--Lisembee (Kohen Meyer), 11:18.

Shots: M 9, SW 9. Corners: M 3, SW 5. Saves: M 6 (Bodie Moyer), SW 7 (Dylan Webb).

Records: Muncy (2-5, 1-3 Mid-Penn), South Williamsport (2-8, 1-3 Mid-Penn).

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