MUNCY – When a team turns the ball over seven times in a game, they almost never win, and that’s exactly what happened to Muncy two weeks ago at Sayre in a 28-14 loss.
Muncy coach Sean Tetreault was fairly certain his team wouldn’t commit seven turnovers again, despite the poor weather and field conditions that were presented on Friday. He was correct, and this time around, it was his Indians that capitalized on a pair of Sayre turnovers in the fourth quarter, turning them into 12 points, and that was the difference in the game as second-seeded Muncy beat the third-seeded Redskins 19-7 in a District 4 Class A semifinal. The win advances Muncy to the district final for the second time in three years, where they will travel to Canton next week. Canton topped South Williamsport on Friday in the other semifinal.
“You can’t win a football game with seven turnovers but we knew Kolby Moyer wasn’t going to throw three more interceptions and we knew Mike Kustanbauter wasn’t going to fumble the ball three times,” said Tetreault. “We faith in our seniors and our offensive line stepped up huge. It was great to see them clicking. We knew it was going to be raining and we knew our offensive line could dominate. They played their butts off.”
Muncy’s Dylan Wilt had three interceptions, two in the fourth quarter and one late in the third. His pick with 2:56 left in the third set up Muncy deep in Sayre territory, and the Indians took a 13-0 lead on the first play of the fourth quarter. Later in the fourth, he picked off another pass and returned it this time for a touchdown to essentially put the game away.
“They were better tonight, obviously turnovers always kill you,” said Sayre coach Kevin Gorman. “We got two big turnovers in the first half but we didn’t capitalize on them and they capitalized on theirs and that was really the ballgame. They just played a better game than we did.”
Prior to the late turnovers, however, the Indians controlled the game throughout, yet only had seven points to show for it heading into the fourth quarter. Muncy outgained Sayre 138-51 in the first half and ran 38 plays compared to just 16 for Sayre. For the game, Muncy had a 270-117 edge in total yards and ran 73 plays (62 of which were rushes) to just 40 for Sayre.
“We had faith in our seniors and our offensive line stepped up huge. It was great to see them clicking,” said Tetreault. “We knew it was going to be raining and we knew our offensive line could dominate. They played their butts off.”
Yet, Muncy’s only points prior to the fourth came on their first drive of the game. After receiving the opening kickoff and starting at the Sayre 48, Muncy took 5:31 and 13 plays to go 48 yards and take a 7-0 lead on Wilt’s 10-yard touchdown reception from Moyer.
Moyer was intercepted by James Esposito on Muncy’s next drive, and the other two Indian drives of the first half stalled, one on downs and the other when Moyer was picked again, this time in the end zone by Gage Carnrike with under a minute to play in the half to keep it a one-possession game at the break. Sayre was unable to take advantage of either Muncy turnover, however, as they punted away after going three-and-out after the first pick and then the half ended shortly after the second.
Muncy forced a three-and-out on Sayre after the Redskins received the second half kickoff and took over with good field position at their own 42. The Indians then put together a 15-play drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock before Muncy turned it over on downs at the Sayre 9-yard line.
On the first play of the ensuing drive, Sayre quarterback Brayden Horton was picked off by Wilt, who returned it to the Sayre 15. Six plays later for the Indians, Coleman Good, punched it in from two yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter.
“With a young quarterback, sometimes you expect turnovers but Brayden doesn’t expect that out of himself,” said Gorman. “He wants to be perfect but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.
Good, who started the year as Muncy’s starting quarterback but missed about half the season with a broken collarbone, returned on offense after seeing time on defense last week, bit was instead inserted into the backfield as part of a two-running back, two-fullback rotation for the Indians. He ended up leading Muncy in rushing with 94 yards on 19 carries.
“We wanted to ease Coleman back in last week so he just played defense last week but this was his first game he got a full go for both sides,” said Tetreault. “The way Kolby has been leading our ship with Coleman injured, we wanted to keep him at quarterback and we knew we could put Coleman at any position. He’s a smart kid and we knew we can put him in a bunch of places and he’s going to make great plays. He can run the ball with anyone in this district and was great to see him hit the holes hard in his first game back on offense and make some plays.”
Following Good’s touchdown, Sayre then put together its only extended drive of the game as it strung together a 12-play, 56-yard drive capped by Isaiah Firestine’s 4-yard touchdown run to pull within 13-7 with 6:36 remaining.
“We made some plays on that drive and didn’t kill ourselves with penalties,” said Gorman. “It was really just running hard and just pushing people around and that’s what it needed to be. The rest of the way wasn’t great. Our offense was a little out of sync and defensively we just couldn’t get third down stops and that’s what kind of killed us. Playing from behind you can’t get the run going as much like we did last time and that’s what helped us out against Muncy last time but playing from behind and having to throw the ball isn’t always great, especially in these conditions, but you have to overcome that stuff.”
Muncy went 6-of-13 on third down but a fourth down play may have been one of the biggest. After Sayre’s touchdown, Muncy again drove deep into Sayre territory, and on a fourth-and-6, got a 24-yard run by Good, the longest play of the game for either team, to further extend the drive. They eventually turned it over on downs again but at all the way down at the Sayre 6 with just 1:59 remaining.
On Sayre’s second play of its ensuing drive, Wilt picked off another Horton pass and returned it 26 yards to essentially put the game away with Muncy up 19-7. Wilt would later add his third interception of the game to ice it with Sayre in desperation mode.
Despite the disappointing loss, Sayre ends its season, it’s first under Gorman, with a five-win improvement from last year and it’s first win over rival Athens in 18 years, something that isn’t insignificant.
“It was a good year and overall this is a good football team,” said Gorman. “I thought we left a few wins out there, especially not playing well in the first half a few times. But overall, it was a successful year. I thank our seniors 100%. In a transition year, they all bought in to what we were doing and midway through the year, we started clicking. Looking back on 1-9 last year, hopefully this group of seniors is the one that turned the corner for Sayre football.”
Muncy 19, Sayre 7
Sayre (6-5) 0 0 0 7 – 7
Muncy (8-3) 7 0 0 12 – 19
First quarter
6:22 – (M) Dylan Wilt 10-yard pass from Kolby Moyer (Isaac Boring kick), 13-48, 5:31
Fourth quarter
11:56 – (M) Coleman Good 2-yard run (kick blocked), 6-15, 2:48
6:36 – (S) Isaiah Firestine 4-yard run (James Esposito kick), 12-56, 5:20
1:45 – (M) Dylan Wilt 26-yard interception return (kick failed)
Statistics
S M
First downs 9 17
Rushes-net yards 21-71 62-229
Passing yardage 46 41
Passing 5-19-0-4 6-11-1-2
Fumbles-lost 2-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 5-30 6-50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Sayre: Isaiah Firestine (13-56-1), Nathan Garrity (4-10), Brayden Horton (4-5); Muncy: Ty Nixon (22-70), Coleman Good (19-94-1), Michael Kustanbauter (10-33), Ethan Gush (8-26), Kolby Moyer (1-8), TEAM (2-(-2))
PASSING: Sayre: Brayden Horton (5-18-46-0-4), Corbin Brown (0-1-0-0-0); Muncy: Kolby Moyer (6-11-41-1-2)
RECEIVING: Sayre: Corbin Brown (2-25), Ethan Miller (2-13), James Esposito (1-8); Muncy: Christian Good (4-19), Coleman Good (1-12), Dylan Wilt (1-10-1)
