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Stroble scores lone goal as Muncy holds off Meadowbrook 1-0 in boys soccer

By Jon Gerardi 5 min read

MUNCY -- Being a centerback himself, Muncy's Tony Stroble recognizes things on the defensive side of the ball in soccer. So when he noticed Meadowbrook Christian's centerback moving wide in the attacking third as Muncy had possession, it caught his attention.

Stroble then noticed a pass go his way and he didn't hesitate to take advantage.

"I kind of saw the centerback was moving out wide and then I saw a nice slow ball coming right to me in the center," Stroble said. "I knew I had to just keep it low. I let it fly, I didn't really think about it. I just hit it and it went into the back of the net."

Stroble fired his shot from inside of the 18 and put it to the right-side of the net and gave Muncy a huge goal right before halftime. The goal stood as the Indians' defense shut down Meadowbrook Christian from there en route to a 1-0 win at Stanley T. Schuyler Stadium at Muncy during homecoming weekend.

"We needed that to go into the break. I mean to go into the break 0-0 was going to be painful," Muncy coach Ben Burns said. "We had a bad stretch here again and hopefully this is the turnaround that we need to make the run for playoffs."

Muncy was pressing early and finally broke through with 79 seconds until halftime. Muncy fired six shots on goal in the first 40 minutes of play, but only had two on frame -- Stroble's goal and a shot by Colson Winters with 10:10 to play.

Winters' shot was from 20 yards out as he turned and rifled a shot to the far-left upper 90. His shot was a great attempt, but just went narrowly off the mark of what would have been a fantastic goal if it was on target.

Meadowbrook Christian and Muncy both did solid jobs limiting opposing forwards and midfielders from getting a good look. It's why there were just eight total shots on goal in the game, four each, as shots were at a premium on Saturday afternoon.

"I told them at halftime it doesn't have to look pretty either," Burns said. "As long as it goes into the back of the net, it counts on the scoreboard."

Early in the second half, Meadowbrook Christian's ALex Clark lined up for a direct kick from 25 yards out and sent it right towards Muncy goalie Bodie Moyer, who came up with a catch and prevented a possible early goal-tying shot.

"Bodie Moyer is a truly incredible keeper," Stroble said. "It's so secure knowing that he's back there in the net."

Meadowbrook Christian would only have one solid chance other than that to put in an equalizer in the second half. Bradyn DeWald got through with just under 20 minutes remaining inside of the 18 to roughly 10 yards out. The sophomore tried to send a shot high, but got too much on it as it went high above the net.

From there, Muncy's defense bottled up the Lions and didn't allow another shot to threaten.

"Our defense is outstanding every single game. They definitely keep us in there, including Bodie," Burns said. "Nolan (Trostle)'s our centerback and he just gets all the communication back there."

Meadowbrook Christian had three of its four shots on goal come inside of the 18, but Trostle and the rest of Muncy's defense made life difficult for the forwards and didn't allow an easy 1-v-1 look or chance at the net.

"Our defense is amazing. Nolan Trostle, our centerback, he really just shuts down every offensive attack. He's really great at communicating and getting our defensive line up field," Stroble said. "Him and the other two left back and right back, they just really work together great."

Muncy's Gannon Swank had a look from the 18 with 30:12 to play that he tried to send low, but it was blocked by Meadowbrook goalie Drake Blackman to keep it a 1-0 game at that point.

The Indians kept pressing until the end of the game in trying to put in another goal for some separation. With 17:16 remaining, Myles Kunkle had a great shot from the right side of the 18-yard box and sent it to the post. The ball got blocked by Blackman, but stayed in play and slowly rolled with backwards momentum towards the far post, but ended up rolling just past the post before eventually getting cleared.

The ball was roughly a foot from rolling in and being another goal for Muncy.

Stroble noted that Muncy wasn't sure what to expect from Meadowbrook entering Saturday's homecoming weekend game, but just knew they had to play their game to leave with a win.

"We didn't have much of a clue what was going on for the game today," Stroble said. "We just went in and played our game and did our best."

Muncy in total fired 11 shots to Meadowbrook's six, although both teams ended with four on frame. Muncy took its 1-0 lead into the break and knew they had to continue possessing the ball over the Lions.

"Just to play smart and keep it simple. Let’s get back to possession again," Burns said. "We started out well with possession then we started to differentiate away from it and we came back to it again."

The win for the Indians snapped a 0-3-1 skid for the Indians after scoring just one goal in that four-game stretch. Muncy has three games left on its schedule beginning with a road trip to Montgomery on Wednesday night.

Muncy 1, Meadowbrook Christian 0

M--Tony Stroble (Landon Hartzel), 1:19.

Shots: MC 4, M 4. Corners: MC 2, M 5. Saves: MC 3 (Drake Blackman), M 4 (Bodie Moyer).

Records: Meadowbrook (7-4-5), Muncy (5-7-2).

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