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Muncy boys score 7 goals in rout over rival Montgomery

By Jon Gerardi 5 min read

MUNCY -- For the past two practices, Muncy's boys soccer team has been doing a ton of possession drills. It's what they keep working on. And on a chilly Saturday morning, those drills paid off big time.

Muncy completely dominated Saturday’s game possession-wise against Montgomery and cruised to a 7-2 win against their rival at Ward L. Myers Elementary School in a Mid-Penn battle to move to 4-4-1 while the Red Raiders fell to 3-6.

"We worked on that in the past two practices just doing possession drills, possession drills, possession drills," Muncy coach Ben Burns said. "This is the best we've played all season."

It definitely looked like it against the Red Raiders.

Muncy never let Montgomery record a shot on goal in the first 40 minutes of the game and used that to its advantage as the Indians recorded three first-half goals to take a 3-0 lead into the break.

Kyran Lisembee and Daylan Beitz scored within a nearly two-minute span of one another. Lisembee scored the first goal for the Indians with 27:55 left in the first half when Cohen Wommer crossed the ball to his left to Lisembee, who got it, quickly turned and fired a great shot high for the 1-0 lead. Then with 25:42 left in the half, Lisembee found Daylan Beitz who was just inside the 18 and sent a shot low towards the right post and gave Muncy a fast 2-0 lead.

"Our boys definitely settled in," Burns said. "Once we got those two goals, they knew we had it and it was going to happen."

Muncy ended the game firing 21 total shots, 15 of which were on frame.

"We're pretty dinged up at the moment. We're down quite a few starters. So we had some season-ending injuries, so we're a little bit on life-support in the back," Montgomery coach Michael Sherman said. "But we started two freshmen and a sophomore, they're getting a lot of experience. Sometimes it takes licks like this to be a better player in the long run."

With 19:46 until halftime, Muncy put in its third goal thanks to Lisembee getting inside of the 18 and sending it to the far-right post to go ahead, 3-0.

Lisembee and Beitz both scored two goals for the Indians in the win and Muncy did well spreading the ball around as Gannon Swank, Wommer and Nate Noviello also added goals.

"I think with our passing drills we've been doing everyone's been on board doing the possession," Burns noted. "We've been making passes and working together as a team. It's been great."

It took Muncy just two minutes into the second half to add a fourth goal when Swank was fed a ball from Lisembee and buried it to the right. And just three minutes later, Wommer found the ball of the net with a high ball with 35:15 left for a 5-0 lead.

Montgomery would end up adding two goals, however, to avoid being shut out on the road against their rivals. With 14:47 to play, Dylan Sherman fed a pass to his brother Weston who had a fantastic shot to the left upper-90 out of the reach of Bodie Moyer in goal to cut the deficit to 5-1. 

"Weston stepped up today and made a heck of a shot," coach Sherman said. "He beat a really good keeper there, upper 90. That was impressive to see and a shot you don't see from a lot of freshmen."

Beitz and Noviello would score goals after Sherman's to extend Muncy's lead with 11:56 and 3:55 remaining, respectively, for a 7-1 lead. Montgomery's Cody Sechrist would put in the final goal to cut the deficit to 7-2 with 2:05 left.

"Cody Sechrist had a really good game. He was a center midfielder today. He wasn't playing like that at the end of the game. He took it upon himself to get a goal. I said ‘just make a play,’" coach Sherman said. "Dylan wasn't having the best day today, couldn't get the ball off his feet quick enough and Cody went up and got his goal. That's what we need other people to do."

Dylan Sherman had a few chances where it looked like he would strike, but wasn't able to bury a shot. With 5:10 remaining, Sherman got a 1-v-1 look with Moyer and got to within 6 yards of the goal, but Sherman and Moyer both reached the ball at the same time, as the ball was deflected due to them both hitting it and preventing a shot attempt.

Then, with 2:27 until the halftime horn, Sherman lined up for a direct kick 20 yards center of the goal. The talented Red Raider sent a shot high, but put just a tad too much on it and had it went over the crossbar in what was one of Montgomery's best chances to put in a goal early in the game.

In the second half, Montgomery's Parker Bennett got a look from 20 yards out but sent it just high.

Sherman had another chance to bury a shot with 5:00 remaining in the game from 25 yards out, but his shot low was blocked by Moyer to prevent a goal from getting past him.

Entering Saturday's game, Burns knew that the Sherman brothers were talented players who needed to be defended against, and the Indians did just that.

"I mean that was part of our game plan. Dylan's a great player and he's beat us a couple times," Burns said. "That was our game plan was to shut him down."

Muncy 7, Montgomery 2

Mu--Kyran Lisembee (Cohn Wommer), 27:55. Mu--Daylan Beitz (Lisembee), 25:42. Mu--Lisembee (Nolan Trostle), 19:46. Mu--Gannon Swank (Lisembee), 38:05. Mu--Cohen Wommer, 33:15. Mo--Weston Sherman (Dylan Sherman), 14:47. Mu--Beitz (Myles Kunkle), 11:56. Mu--Nate Noviello (Myles Kunkle), 3:55. Mo--Cody Sechrist (Dylan Sherman), 2:05.

Shots: Mo 5, Mu 15. Corners: Mo 1, Mu 5. Saves: Mo 9 (Conor Irwin), Mu 3 (Bodie Moyer).

Records: Montgomery (3-6), Muncy (4-4-1).

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