Muncy wins D4 A Championship for 3rd straight year

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News

Ed Weaver | October 31, 2020

For the past three seasons the Muncy Indians and the Canton Warriors have battled for the District IV Class A championship at Miller A. Moyer Stadium. Each of those seasons Muncy has come home victorious.

This season the Indians rallied in the second half to win, 21-16.

“It’s awesome,” coach Sean Tetreault said. “Three in a row here. It’s great to see all their hard work paying off.”

The Indians received the opening kickoff and went straight to work, mounting an 11-play drive, with 10 of those plays coming on the ground, to take an early lead on a 35-yard run by Ethan Gush with 6:59 remaining in the first quarter. Muncy held that lead until late in the half when Canton got their offense rolling following an interception. Starting at their own 20 the Warriors turned to their ground game to march down field until Cooper Kitchen connected with Joel Schoonover on a 20-yard pass with 22 seconds remaining in the half. Hayden Ward ran in the two-point conversion and the Warriors held a slim 8-7 lead after the first 24 minutes.

Canton picked up where they left off as they scored on their opening drive of the second half. They only needed 7 plays to find the end zone, and it was #7 Weston Bellows, that scored from 16 yards out. Ward again ran in the two-point conversion to give them a 9-point, 16-7 lead.

Muncy answered quickly, however, as Branson Eyer made the most of a busted play as he scrambled, caught the corner, and turned up field on the sideline for a 72-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 16-14 with 8:52 left in the third.

“He is lightning in a bottle,” Tetreault said of his sophomore quarterback. “We have him at quarterback because he’s the best athlete on the field. Whenever he gets loose in the field we know he can make great plays for us. Our kids fought hard the entire game, they never gave up, they never quit and it showed on the scoreboard in the end.”

Both teams traded drives the remaining of the quarter until the Indians capitalized off a Canton mistake that ended with Ross Eyer stepping in front of a Kitchen pass and returning it 41 yards for the score to put the Indians back in front, 21-16, with 1:53 remaining in the third.

“Ross is a ball hawk at safety. It was great to see him get a couple of picks finally and return that one to the house. Our defense played huge this game.”

The score would be the last of the afternoon as the Indians held on to the 5-point margin.

Muncy will now take on District III champ Steelton-Highspire at a date and time to be determined.

“They have a great D-I receiver in (Mehki) Flowers and (Odell) Greene in the backfield. He’s a great runner, a hard-nosed kid. We know Steelton-Highspire, we’ve played them before. They’re a tough, hard-nosed team and we’re excited for the challenge.”

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