ALMEIDA – At any level, three touchdowns on three plays is impressive. That’s what Muncy accomplished on its first three possessions on Saturday at Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech. But the Indians weren’t done there.
Muncy scored five touchdowns on single-play drives in the game, and the Indians’ speed and depth were simply too much for an overmatched CMVT team as the three-time defending District 4 Class A champions picked up their first win of the year, 58-0 over the Rams.
“It was great to see our kids start going the little things well,” said Muncy coach Sean Tetreault. “They got back to the basics and it was great to see them come out and execute.”
Muncy put up 271 yards of offense in the first half alone as the Indians raced out to a 43-0 halftime lead. After their first three offensive plays, the Indians were averaging 36.3 yards per play, and it was only that low because their third drive started on the Ram 3-yard line due to a long punt return. For the first half, the Indians averaged nearly 17 yards per play.
Branson Eyer hit his cousin, Ross Eyer, for a 50-yard touchdown reception on Muncy’s first play from scrimmage following the Indians stopping the Rams on downs at midfield on their first drive. After a CMVT punt, Branson Eyer connected with Chase Crawley for a 56-yard touchdown pass. Then, following a 43-yard punt return by Ross Eyer, Austin Johnson punched it in from three yards out to make it 21-0 with 4:59 left in the first quarter.
CMVT then committed turnovers on their next four drives, and Muncy capitalized on three of them. Two more were single-play drives that ended with touchdowns. Branson Eyer found Bailey Hadzinikolov for a 29-yard reception, and then Ty Nixon went for a 15-yard touchdown run following a fumble recovery deep in Ram territory.
It was another Eyer to Eyer connection on the second play of Muncy’s next drive, this one from 49 yards out, to put Muncy up 43-0 with still 7:28 remaining in the half. That touchdown capped an extremely efficient day for Branson Eyer, as he threw four passes, all for touchdowns, for 184 yards.
“We’ve got some great skill players. We’re still working out some kinks upfront, but anytime we can get a playmaker in space, I think it’s always ways going to go well,” said Tetreault. “We’ll take our shots when we need to, but those guys up front really gelled this week and that’s what made the big difference. They gave us protection when we had to throw it and they opened up some great holes for the running backs.”
With it being a running clock in the second half, Muncy was able to rest most of its starters, and the Indians’ deep roster – notably deep for a Class A team – took over and managed two more scores. Freshman Landyn Wommer ran for a pair of touchdowns, one each in the third and fourth quarters.
“It’s great to get a lot of the younger guys’ experience. Anytime we can get them on the field, whether it’s JV games or varsity games, the more experience we can get, the better,” said Tetreault.
That rest could come in handy for Muncy, as after a Saturday afternoon game, the Indians will need to bounce back quickly for a Thursday night contest at Wyalusing. That game was shifted from Friday due to a shortage of officials in the Northern Tier League. Wyalusing had a scheduling conflict on Saturday, so Thursday was the only option.
“We get the short week so it was great to get some of those younger guys into this game to give our kids a chance to recover, get healthy and get ready for Wyalusing,” said Tetreault.
It’s been an interesting beginning to the season for the Indians. Last week, Muncy found out just 48 hours before the game that their scheduled Week 1 opponent, Warrior Run, wouldn’t be able to compete due to COVID protocols. That led to them adding a new opponent for opening week in Northern Lehigh, which was in a similar predicament, just 24 hours before the contest. The Indians dropped last week’s game before rebounding in a big way this week, and now, will have a shorter than usual week to prepare for Week 3.
For CMVT, the Rams were hurt by being outmatched from a speed standpoint.
“We’re really hurting for team speed right now,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner. “We’ve got some guys out and that’s really showing on the defensive side. They got to our outside and we can’t get out there from the linebacker standpoint, or the defensive back is a little slow getting to the outside receivers.”
Despite moving the ball decently in stretches, the Rams were unable to put together any sustained drives, as the furthest they moved the ball on the field was the Muncy 44 on their first second-half possession. But they lost a fumble to end that drive, and overall, turned the ball over six times, with Muncy scoring 29 of their 58 points off the Rams’ turnovers.
Despite having a similar result as their game last Saturday at Northwest, only this time being shut out, Varner did feel his team showed improvement.
“I thought our offense improved, we opened it up a little bit more. I thought we did more things better than we did last week,” said Varner. “We’re lacking some speed right now and that’s something we’re going to work on but I did feel like we played better today. I’m happy with the improvements I’ve seen, I thought we did some good things and we just need to keep making them and keep improving.”
One positive was the running of Toby Zajac, as CMVT’s junior running back had a busy afternoon rushing for 85 yards on 27 carries. Also, a week after not completing a pass, the Rams went to the air much more as they threw 14 times, with Caden Long completing five passes for 39 yards.
Muncy 58, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 0
Muncy (1-1) 21 22 7 8 – 58
Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech (0-2) 0 0 0 0 – 0
First-quarter
8:11 – (M) Ross Eyer 50-yard pass from Branson Eyer (Boring kick), 1-50, :10
6:40 – (M) Chase Crawley 56-yard pass from Branson Eyer (Boring kick), 1-56, :14
4:59 – (M) Austin Johnson 3-yard run (Boring kick), 1-3, :05
Second-quarter
10:21 – (M) Bailey Hadzinikolov 29-yard pass from Branson Eyer (Boring kick), 1-29, :09
10:05 – (M) Ty Nixon 15-yard run (Boring kick), 1-15, :07
7:28 – (M) Ross Eyer 49-yard pass from Branson Eyer (Ryder pass from Eyer), 2-58, :47
Third-quarter
8:55 – (M) Landyn Wommer 26-yard run (Boring kick), 5-49, 3:05
Fourth-quarter
1:00 – (M) Landyn Wommer 5-yard run (Stiles Eyer run), 6-52, 5:01
Statistics
M VT
First downs 16 8
Rushes-net yards 26-139 38-89
Passing yardage 270 39
Passing 8-11-4-0 5-14-0-3
Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-3
Penalties-yards 2-20 2-10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Muncy: Landyn Wommer (9-46-2), Ty Nixon (8-74-1), Austin Johnson (4-13-1), Kaleb Meyer (2-(-11)), Elijah Weikle (1-12), Noah Confer (1-4), Jacob Fowler (1-1); CMVT: Toby Zajac (27-85), Mason Haught (5-(-9)), Dante DiAgostino (3-9), Caden Long (2-(-4)), Braxtyn Brown (1-8)
PASSING — Muncy: Branson Eyer (4-4-184-4-0), Kaleb Meyer (3-6-54-0-0), Stiles Eyer (1-1-32-0-0); CMVT: Caden Long (5-14-39-0-3)
RECEIVING — Muncy: Ross Eyer (2-99-2), Chase Crawley (1-56-1), Kadyn Berry (1-32), Bailey Hadzinikolov (1-29-1), Noah Confer (1-22), Brady Ryder (1-22), Cameron Kamerer (1-10); CMVT: Tommy Bond (2-23), Mason Haught (2-13), Toby Zajac (1-3)
