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Jon Gerardi on soccer: Muncy’s Moyer reaches 500 career saves and makes history

By Jon Gerardi 13 min read

Muncy goalie Bodie Moyer knows that every single game he's on the field, opposing forwards and midfielders are going to fire shots at him when they can and test him, hoping to sneak some by him.

And yes, teams are able to score on Moyer, but he's shown that he's a talented keeper over the last four years. And if anyone had any questions as to it, all you need to know is Moyer is among Muncy's best keepers in program history.

His saves are the reason why.

Moyer recorded his 500th career save last week, becoming the only Muncy goalkeeper to ever record 500 or more saves in a career as he sits at 520 and counting. Moyer had 72 saves this year, the most in the area, and is a huge reason the Indians are 4-4-1.

A goalie is always a tough position to excel at, and Moyer's continued getting better game after game, week after week.

"Bodie is such an excellent keeper. I am so proud of him to have hit this milestone," Muncy coach Ben Burns said. "Bodie has kept us in so many games. Now he has left his name in Muncy soccer history."

For Moyer, he's glad to have etched his name in the history books.

"Making 500 saves to me means making my mark on Muncy history. After people graduate, what they did in and for their sport generally gets forgotten. Like a lot of other athletes I have a lot of time invested into my sport," Moyer said. "Hitting this milestone means my time won't be forgotten and that's important to me."

Moyer was key in a scoreless draw against Sullivan County earlier this year and did everything he could to keep Muncy in the game against South Williamsport in a 1-0 loss. He helped secure a shutout over North Penn-Liberty and helped Muncy win 7-2 against Montgomery. Of those two goals vs. the Red Raiders, one was simply an outstanding shot too the left upper 90 that not many keepers would get.

"I take pride in being a goalkeeper for this team and for myself. Being the last line of defense is a big responsibility, and if something goes wrong, you're the one getting looked at and focused on," Moyer said. "It's a stressful position to play at times. I'm proud to be trusted by my coaches and teammates to play such a position. At the end of the day, my teammates are really the ones making things happen on the field and, if I can contribute by making a save or two or 500, I'm glad to be a part of something bigger."

And here's thinking Muncy's fans and community are glad to have a goalie like Moyer reach that rare 500-save milestone.

STEPPING UP

Before the season staretd, Williamsport knew that it would have some big holes to fill.

There was the graduation of the program's all-time assists leader in Jaelynn Helmrich. Also gone was Deborah Shultz.

And Loisa Hofstorm wasn't playing this season, as she's a talented cross country runner.

Mix that together, and that was a trio who accounted for 37 goals and 26 assists last fall.

That's never easy to replace, but Williamsport's younger players have done their best to step up, and it's resulted in the Millionaires starting the year 4-1-3.

Freshman Ella Brelsford has five goals and three assists and senior standout Breah Phillips has four goals and an assist.

The Millionaires keep finding ways to win and rely on the entire roster to produce.

"It's fantastic that we have the versatility going forward. We're missing a forward (against Milton in 3-0 win) and kind of filled in the gaps, next-man-up kind of mentality and whoever can put the ball in the back of the net, we'll take it," Williamsport coach Beckham Sibiski said. "So it's great to see so many different goal scorers."

The Millionaires have played well early. Williamsport had close wins over Dallas (3-2), Shikellamy (3-2) and central Mountain (3-2) and tied Jersey Shore on the road, 1-1. There were also two scoreless draws against Altoona and DuBois mixed in. The girls keep playing and finding ways to win and keep Williamsport in games.

"Certainly some tough shoes to fill with (Helmrich, Schultz, Hofstrom) not returning this season, but the girls are willing to just do it and agian, we have multiple girls who can do it. So it's nice if we're missing one, somebody else will step up and bury their chances," Sibiski said. "We work on everything, but you hope in the moments when there's a lot of pressure that they do it. They're freshmen and sophomores, obviously our seniors being good leaders, they haven't felt that extra bit of pressure and they're finishing their chances. So, I'm excited about that."

FILLING IN AT GOAL

When Sienna Short suffered a knee and ACL injury in June, that meant there was going to be a huge void in net for Milton's girls soccer team. Short had a fantastic season last fall. She had the fourth-most saves in the area with 140 -- behind only Sullivan's Mariah Hallabuk (266), North Penn-Mansfield's Avalon Rew (186) and Wellsboro's Jadyn Dunlap (168).

Short also had nine shutouts last year, second most behind Muncy's Eva Nagel and Warrior Run's Chloe Burden who both posted ten.

In other words, it wouldn't be easy to fill in. But Delia Reynolds-Miller stepped up to the plate so to speak and has been nothing shy of fantastic.

"Delia does a great job every game. She's a sophomore and didn't play last year because of an injury. She wasn't even our keeper. She plays on the field usually as an outside back. she wasn't able to play last year as a freshman due to an inuury and we had Sienna go out in June blowing her knee and ACL in basketball," Milton coach Rod Harris said. "And I asked her 'I said kid, I need you to step up' and she said 'I'll do it.' So she's been working really, really hard."

Against Williamsport, the Black Panthers fell 3-0 at home, but Reynolds-Miller did solid preventing Williamsport from making it a five-goal or six-goal lead. That's a credit to her constantly wanting to improve and studying how to play the game right.

"She's been studying the game, studying the position, working with our coaching staff to understand the game to be able to play the position the best she can. She's doing really well. You saw it," Harris said. "We are struggling this year and she is holding us in the games. She's making some saves out there normally we'd be down 5 or 6 nothing if she's not in the cage doing what she's doing."

OVERCOMING A SKID

Muncy's boys soccer team opened the year 2-0-1 and was playing solid but then, an unfortunate loss turned into two, which rolled into four.

It was a tough skid for the Indians, but Muncy snapped out of it and got back to .500 this past Saturday. Following a 2-4-1 mark after those four losses, Muncy beat North Penn-Liberty on the road, 1-0, before a 7-2 win against rival Montgomery at home on Saturday to move to 4-4-1.

"Just try to get us back to possessing again. That's where we started out this season. We had a nice scrimmage against Southern, played them really well, played Troy and Bloom and, for whatever reason, I don't know what happened with the Sullivan game," Muncy coach Ben Burns said. "We tied them 0-0. I think that humbled us a little bit."

While unfortunate, those losses helped Muncy refocus and get back on track. And now the Indians have some confidence moving forward.

"Absolutely (they have confidence). That's the best part is that I think we're coming together now at the right time in the season," Burns said.

COLLEGE ROLL CALL

The area year in and year out produces outstanding players who go on to compete at the college level. So it's no surprise a number of those former area athletes are excelling in college. A look at some of those players this year:

• Montoursville graduate Kenna Bennett, a freshman, recently got the call to be a starter on defense for Misericordia in a 1-1 tie at Rochester over the weekend. Bennett has gotten the start three times so far this fall but has appeared in all eight of Misericordia's games.

• Lewisburg graduate Viktor Permyashkin, a freshman, has started in five of Bucknell's eight games and appeared in all eight. He's also so far recorded a goal and dished out an assist while he's fired nine shots on goal, tied for the most on the team. Permyashkin was a key part of Lewisburg's state title last fall and he's carrying his success into college.

• North Penn-Mansfield graduate Brooke Wilcox, a freshman, has translated her high school success to college right away. At Elmira College, Wilcox has started seven games and appeared in eight and has scored an impressive six goals so far, including two against Houghton, two against Mansfield, one against Penn College and one against Keuka, while firing 17 shots. Wilcox graduated as Mansfield's all-time goal scorer.

• Milton graduate Sammy Roarty, a freshman, is playing at Division I Boston College as a midfielder and has started in all 10 games, playing well immediately and making an impact in the middle of the field. She helped Boston College to an 8-2 start.

• South Williamsport graduate Ella Moore, a freshman, is a defender for Bloomsburg University, but has not yet appeared in a game for the Huskies this fall.

Jon Gerardi is the sports editor at the Sun-Gazette and covers high school soccer. He can be reached by email at jgerardi@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter/X at @JonGerardi.

JON GERARDI’S TOP 5 RANKINGS

BOYS SOCCER

1. Lewisburg (9-1): Lewisburg clinched a playoff spot for the 25th consecutive season, an incredible streak for a program that never rebuilds; just simply reloads. That playoff-securing victory came on Monday with a 5-0 shutout against Milton on the road. It's also the ninth straight win for the Green Dragons following a season-opening loss.

2. Warrior Run (10-1): Since losing to undefeated Central Columbia, the Defenders have allowed just two goals in six games and are 6-0 in that span. The Defenders have outscored South Williamsport, Mifflinburg, Loyalsock, Southern, Milton and Central Mountain in that span by an impressive 34-2 margin. Warrior Run has plenty of offensive weapons and does well possessing and denying opposing teams shot opportunities.

3. Williamsport (8-2): Williamsport suffered its first loss in seven games this past Saturday to DuBois on the road, 3-0. Williamsport does a solid job focusing on the task at hand and not looking ahead. The bad news for the Millionaires though is a rough schedule awaits with games against District 4 powers Midd-West and Lewisburg coming up. Those two games will be good barometers for the Millionaires to see what they have to improve on late in the season.

4. Montoursville (5-3-2): Montoursville went 2-1 in its last three games, beating Danville and blanking Mifflinburg, 3-0, with a tough 4-0 loss to an undefeated Central Columbia team sandwiched in between those victories. A fun game is on the schedule next as Montoursville travels to Loyalsock for a 6 p.m. game on Wednesday. Get the popcorn ready, because that'll be one exciting game.

t-5. Hughesville (6-2-1): Hughesville had a great win on Monday against a very talented Loyalsock team, winning 4-1 to move to 6-2-1. The Spartans are just three wins away from matching last year's win total and are four wins away from their first 10-win season since 2019. Cole Lesher is doing a great job getting his team to play well every game and they showed that against the Lancers, who narrowly fell out of the top 5 rankings.

t-5. Wellsboro (9-1-2): The Green Hornets clinched a playoff spot with a 14-0 rout against Troy on Monday in which the Green Hornets fired more than 40 shots on goal and dominated from whistle to whistle. It's the 14th consecutive playoff appearance for the Green Hornets and Wellsboro is on track for its fifth consecutive 10-win season.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Kyran Lisembee, Muncy

Lisembee scored the game's lone goal last Wednesday in Muncy's narrow 1-0 win against North Penn-Liberty to give the Indians a win. Against rival Montgomery, Lisembee scored twice and added two assists in a 7-2 rout for the Mid-Penn victory. Lisembee is a talented forward and came up clutch in both those wins this past week.

GIRLS SOCCER

1. Warrior Run (10-2): A win against Central Mountain on Monday gave the Defenders their tenth win of the season, and second in a row after a loss last week to Bloomsburg, 3-0. The Defenders will have a huge test coming up on Thursday with a road trip to undefeated Central Columbia. This is the fourth consecutive year the Defenders have reached double-digit wins.

2. Hughesville (6-3): The Spartans ran into the buzzsaw that is Central Columbia (11-0) last week and suffered just its third loss of the year. That came after a great 2-1 win against Southern Columbia and a 3-0 win over Mifflinburg. The Spartans have to have a short memory though and shake that loss off, as the Spartans have to battle Montoursville, Crestwood and Williamsport coming up.

3. Williamsport (4-2-2): Speaking of Williamsport, the Millionaires played well from a defensive perspective at home against DuBois on Saturday, holding the Beavers to no goals in a scoreless draw.It's the third straight shutout for the Millionaires, who show they can play well in low-scoring contests and not let a game-shifting goal get past them to turn the momentum.

4. Montoursville (4-3-1): Montoursville is in the top 5 for the first time this season. The Warriors had a tough 3-2 win against South Williamsport last week, holding on to beat the Mounties, before rolling over Mount Carmel, 10-0. Montoursville's schedule is far from easy in its next couple games with matchups against Hughesville, Loyalsock, Warrior Run and Troy, but those games will help battle test the Warriors.

5. Wellsboro (5-2-2): Give Jadyn Dunlap a tip of the hat. The Green Hornet keeper played outstanding against a talented Warrior Run team on Saturday, coming up with 14 saves in a narrow 1-0 loss. The Green Hornets are playing well this year all around and a 1-0 loss with Warrior Run says a lot about how talented Wellsboro is.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Valerie Beiter, Williamsport

The Millionaire keeper has played well in net and helped record three straight shutouts for the Millionaires. Beiter helped Williamsport play to a 0-0 draw vs. Altoona and DuBois, and never let Milton score against her in a 3-0 win last week. Those shutouts will help Beiter gain confidence as the season continues.

Starting at /week.