District 4 Class 1A Semi-Final Preview

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

Ed Weaver | November 9, 2023

The semi-final round of the District IV Class 1A tournament begins tomorrow evening with a pair of games, top-seeded Muncy against 4-seed Northwest Area and 2-seed Canton against 3-seed South Williamsport.

Last week Northwest Area defeated Bucktail 36-30 in the play-in game, drawing top-seed Muncy. The Indians, Canton, and South Williamsport all got a week off to refocus and rest up to prepare for the semi-finals.

Muncy Indians (9-1, 7-1 NTL Small School) vs Northwest Area Rangers (3-8, 2-7 NTL Small School)

Muncy started the season off with a 33-26 victory over Warrior Run but suffered a setback in a 14-13 loss to Wellsboro in week two. Since then, the Indians have rattled off eight straight wins, including a 28-22 victory over rival Hughesville in the final week of the regular season. Junior QB Stiles Eyer has thrown for 712 yards and 10 TDs this season while completing 61.8% of his passes. Austin Johnson, the Indians workhorse, has rushed for 1,345 yards and 16 TDs. He also leads the receiving corps with 174 yards and 2 TDs.

The Rangers had a rough 2023 season, going 2-8 overall with wins over CMVT and Sayre, but still qualified for playoffs. In their win against Bucktail last week, quarterback Jace McCoy completed 18-of-23 passes for 178 yards and 4 TDs. McCoy has thrown for 1,471 yards and has completed 55.8% of his passes and thrown for 17 TDs, 6 of them going to his favorite target, Andrew Bonczewski (365 yards). Defensively, Nick Stevens (124) and Billy Miller (109) have both compiled triple digit tackles and 5.5 sacks.

Canton Warriors (8-2, 8-1 NTL Large School) vs South Williamsport Mountaineers (8-2, 6-2 NTL Small School)

This game features a rematch of a week 5 contest, which saw the Warriors fend off a late South Williamsport rally to win 27-21. Both teams also met in last year’s Class 1A semis, with Canton winning, 42-13.

Junior QB Ben Fitch led the Warriors in both rushing and passing this year, throwing for 1,104 yards and 8 TDs and rushing for 674 yards and 8 scores. Michael Davis, the Warriors’ feature back, accumulated 562 yards while scoring a team-high 13 TDs. Davis also leads the Warrior receiving corps with 342 yards and 3 TDs while averaging 26.3 yards per reception. Hudson Ward, who missed the Old Shoe rivalry game against Troy to end the regular season, will be back in the lineup. Ward has accounted for 133 tackles, recovered 7 fumbles, and made 2 sacks.

The Mountaineers are led by Ryan Casella and Kaiser Kistner. Casella has rushed 146 times for 1,042 yards and 19 TDs while Kistner has racked up 524 yards on 74 carries. Both are averaging 7.1 yards per carry. Tadd Lusk, who took over the helm in week six, has completed 30 of 54 passes for 499 yards and 12 TDs. Dylan Scheller caught 23 passes for 388 yards and 6 TDs while Landyn Gephart has caught 13 balls for 272 yards and 7 scores.

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