ASHLAND — Muncy’s players gathered around coach Jason Gresh and his assistants after going through the post-game handshake line as Gresh gave his team one final post-game speech. And once the huddle broke, Muncy’s players slowly started to hug one another and console each other.

The tears stung more so than the bitter winds and cold temperature on Tuesday night at Spartan Stadium at North Schuylkill. Muncy was hoping to keep its unbelievable, historic season going but Faith Christian didn’t allow it.

The District 1 champion Lions played outstanding start to finish and dominated the game, handing Muncy their third loss of the year — and hardest one yet — in Tuesday’s PIAA Class A semifinals, 3-0.

“Obviously I just told them be sad because it’s over, I understand that, but you’re going to look back and it was an unbelievable season that far exceeded any expectation you had at the beginning of the season. And we battled right until the end,” Gresh said. “They had how many opportunities at the end and Eva (Nagel) made some unbelievable saves. Emma (McCormick) did what she’s done for four years for me and stand in goal and shut them down and not let them score.

“Lex (McKeta) and Ella (Nagel) battled the whole game, Anna (Zalonis) played some unbelievable defense,” Gresh continued. “Katie (Shipton) and Kailie (Minier), the seniors have really left a mark on this program. There’s no doubt about that.”

Without question the seniors set the bar, and the seniors and rest of the Indians left everything on the field trying to rally against an outstanding Faith Christian team.

The Lions struck nine minutes into the game when Emma Ziskowski fired a shot from 24 yards out and sent it high past the reach of keeper Nagel. The Lions then struck again, this time with 21:38 to play until halftime, when Paula Marti-Font got the ball inside of the 18 and rifled a hard shot to the far-left post for a 2-0 lead.

Muncy showed on Saturday in the PIAA Class A quarterfinals that it could rally and fight back, but a combination of a talented, technical team and brutal winds proved to be too much to rally from.

“Especially in the beginning. We lost the coin flip, so we got wind in first half and I thought that may have affected us a little, but we didn’t let it get us down too much,” Ella Nagel said. “We were only down 2-0 and we only let up one goal in the second half, but we couldn’t generate too much offense then, which kind of hurt us.”

Faith Christian’s crisp passing in the cold and possession overall allowed the Lions to keep Muncy from using its weapons in Ava Eyer and Kiki Woodward up top with through balls. That duo only got a handful of opportunities throughout the game, but weren’t able to get a shot on goal.

Muncy had one shot on goal in the first half and were limited to just two in the second half.

“We knew that everything we’d seen on film, we knew that was what they were going to do. We thought maybe we could get some counters but the wind kind of debunked that in the first half so now you’re really playing a little too aggressive and too direct in the second half because you feel you have to get something going,” Gresh said. “But that’s the nature of the game and that’s the nature of playing in Pennsylvania in November, but it’s a privilege to be playing in Pennsylvania in November.”

With 19:37 to play in the second half, Lexi McKeta received the ball from an Ella Nagel throw in from 20 yards out. McKeta turned and sent a low shot to her left, but Faith Chrisitan’s Kendal Robison saved it and prevented a possible goal.

That was Muncy’s first shot on goal in the second half.

The Lions successfully neutralized Muncy’s counter attacks and didn’t allow any Indians to get into dangerous position to put in a goal and get momentum.

“They’re very technical, yes,” Ella Nagel said. “We do really like to counter, we are a very countering team. We like to send those long balls, but we couldn’t get that much going today which was unfortunate.”

Faith Christian’s three goals is the least amount it’s scored in a state playoff game this year after posting eight goals in an 8-0 rout over Julia R. Masterman in the first round and then scoring six in a 6-0 win against Southern Columbia in the quarterfinals.

A large part of that defensive success limiting the District 1 champions to only three goals is Eva Nagel in goal. The sophomore played absolutely outstanding again as she was constantly peppered. Nagel recorded a career-high 18 saves just three days after recording 17 in the state quarterfinals. Three of those came on a Faith Christian flurry where the Lions rifled three shots within seconds of each other as Nagel dove, slid and blocked everything in that span.

“Unbelievable saves, I love having my sister back there,” Ella Nagel said. “It gives me more confidence to go up the field because I know she’s back behind me and she’s going to get the saves. She had some amazing, I saw her save three in a row and I said ‘that’s my sister.’

“The first goal, there’s nothing she can do, it gets caught in wind and floats around a little bit. There’s nothing you can do. The third goal just us pressing forward and that’s the nature of that,” Gresh said. “Not her fault. She played outstanding again tonight, right? The defense was phenomenal, I thought we defended really well in the first half and try to get the wind to our back try to go in 2-0. We did that.”

Marti-Font put in a dagger with 15:36 to play to make it a 3-0 lead for the Lions. Muncy was able to get a ball out of harm’s way inside of the 18, but it rolled to the feet of Marti-Font who had a laser of a shot from 27 yards out to the far-left post to give the Lions a three-goal lead and put Muncy into a hard hole to claw back from.

Muncy ended the year as one of the last four teams standing in Class A, a huge accomplishment that no other Muncy girls team to date in any sport can say they’ve done. Muncy’s seniors helped etch their name into Indians history and set a standard of what’s now expected wearing a blue and white jersey.

“It’s a very big accomplishment for this team and I couldn’t be more happy to do it with this team in general,” Ella Nagel said. “A great bunch of girls, I’m really sad to be leaving them this year, but it was great to get it here. Sad that it’s over.”

No doubt Muncy’s players are all sad the run came to an end and the season’s officially over. But there’s no question Muncy’s players are more than happy with what they were able to accomplish this year.

Faith Christan 3, Muncy 0

(PIAA CLASS A SEMIFINALS)

FC–Emma Ziskowski, 31:17. FC–Paula Marti-Font, 21:38. FC–Marti-Font, 15:36.

Shots: FC 21, M 3. Corners: FC 5, M 0. Saves: FC 3 (Kendal Robison), M 18 (Eva Nagel).

Records: Faith Christian (17-4-1), Muncy (20-3-1).