SUNBURY — One goal settled Muncy’s nerves. The second? It was a dagger for the Indians.

Muncy scored once in each half and started the game strong and never let up en route to a 2-1 win against Line Mountain at Shikellamy in Tuesday’s District 4 Class A semifinals.

With the win, Muncy advances to the District 4 Class A championship game for a second consecutive season and will face Southern Columbia, 1-0 winners over South Williamsport.

“It’s another great accomplishment. This group just keeps trying to advance and push things a little further,” Muncy coach Jason Gresh said. “Another trip back to states, we knocked out a Mid-Penn championship along the way which is huge. We just keep working. Obviously now we’re focused on the district championship and then onto states.”

The Indians started the game strong and just 8 minutes, 19 seconds into Tuesday’s game at Shikellamy, Muncy found the back of the net for an early 1-0 lead which helped set the tone.

Kiki Woodward received a throw in from Ava Eyer and buried her shot against Line Mountain.

“It was huge. Prior to the game, we talked about importance of coming out and setting the tone in the first 10. Everything we’ve seen on film, this team liked to move the ball aggressively in that first 15-minute time frame,” Gresh said. “For us to come out and get an early goal allowed us to settle in a little bit and really work on getting to know an unknown opponent. I think that is the key with playoffs.”

The Indians out-shot Line Mountain and limited the Eagles to just three shots on goal the entire game. That’s a credit to solid possession and a back line made up of Rachel Paulhamus, Emma McCormick, Lexi McKeta, Katie Shipton, Mikaila Ganoe and Kyra Creasey making things difficult for Line Mountain’s attackers.

Muncy’s second goal came in the 72nd minute when senior Ella Nagel scored and put Line Mountain into a two-deficit hole with less than nine minutes to play.

“The second one definitely put the dagger in. We were playing well defensively. Lexi McKeta and Emma Mcormick had an absolute gem of a defensive game,” Gresh said. “Ava (Eyer) had a 1-v-1 and their goalie dove at her feet, however you want to say it, and then Ella had a wide-open net in front of her and took advantage of it. That was it. You could feel the air go out of their balloon and ours was pretty inflated.”

Line Mountain scored with 16 seconds to play in the game, but the victory was already well assured for Muncy.

Sophomore Eva Nagel recorded two saves and prevented Line Mountain from shifting momentum in the first or second half.

“She controls the 18, you know? The ability for her to play with her feet is something we’ve not had,” Gresh said. “She can come out on balls. We play back to her more than we did with Addi (Gresh). It’s just a luxury to have somebody with the foot skills she has back there.”

Next up for Muncy is a date with Southern Columbia, who beat Muncy’s rival South Williamsport in the semifinals on Tuesday at Milton, 1-0, ending the Mounties’ four-peat bid.

The Tigers and Indians played one another earlier this year as Southern handed Muncy its first loss of the season, 7-2, on Sept. 22.

“They’re the No. 1 seed for a reason. They’ve had one heck of a season. It was good to play them; it was really important for us to play them. It was our first loss of the season, it always stings, but from everything you can grow whether it’s a loss or win or a draw,” Gresh said. “We can learn from that and get better and we used that to fuel us moving forward and used that to learn to make changes to keep going forward with the season to get to this point.”

Muncy 2, Line Mountain 1

(DISTRICT 4 CLASS A SEMIFINALS)

M–Kiki Woodward (Ava Eyer), 8:19. M–Ella Nagel, 71:29. LM‚M. Grindstaff, 79:44.

Shots: M 8, LM 3. Corners: M 10, L 8. Saves: M 2 (Eva Nagel), LM 6.

Records: Muncy (17-2-1).