Sports

SCRANTON – The Elk Lake boys and Mountain View girls, Lackawanna League Division 3 favorites, were among nine Susquehanna County basketball teams represented at Sunday's Coaches vs. Cancer NEPA Media Day at the Lackawanna College Student Union Center.

Elk Lake is favored to defend the title it won last season in John Warnero's return as head coach.

Lackawanna Trail is considered the top threat with Susquehanna and Blue Ridge also given a chance to contend.

Mountain View, which finished second a year ago, leads the rest of the pack, followed by Montrose, Forest City and Carbondale.

Mountain View and Elk Lake are again regarded as the top two girls' teams after occupying the top two spots the last two seasons with Mountain View winning the title two years ago and Elk Lake posted a perfect division record last season.

Montrose is also considered a strong threat with Blue Ridge the other team that could contend.

Lackawanna Trail, Susquehanna, Forest City and Carbondale complete the division.

Montrose was recognized as becoming one of the top 10 schools in the nation in fundraising for Coaches vs. Cancer with teacher Heather Winn serving as one of five who presented to the gathered teams about the process.

Warnero's return after eight seasons away produced his sixth championship season in 11 as coach.

"I absolutely love it," he said. "It's best part of my day, being a part of the kids' lives and being able to have an impact. They keep me going and keep me energetic.

"I really enjoy being around them and giving back everything they give to us."

Elk Lake returns its top two scorers, Chase Pond and John Heitsman, and five of the seven players who handled the bulk of the playing time for last season's champions.

Brayden Miller, Kendel Jones and Connor Stephens are the other experienced players back and Parker Upright is also in the mix for a potential starting spot.

"We have good depth," Warnero said. "I think we have six starters and a good 7-8-9."

Brendan Hewitt and sophomores Jayden Hitchcock and Trevor Upright provide that depth.

Trevor Birtch is another sophomore trying to earn playing time.

Leading scorer Paxton Pingarelli, a 6-foot-4 junior, and seniors William Hobart and Brenden Marvin return to the starting lineup at Blue Ridge.

Landon Bishop, who was seeing varsity time two years ago, is back from an ACL tear to take over as point guard for his senior season.

Travis Rutter and 6-3 junior forward Jaycek Motyka were both in the rotation last season.

Jacob Brown, a 6-3 sophomore, and freshman Jack Parks, the coach's son who was part of a championship eighth-grade team last season, could also be factors.

"We still love to play fast," coach Wes Parks said, "but I can't get over how big and strong we are."

Mountain View returns its big man, Hudson Bain, last season's second-leading scorer, and two other starters, junior Jordan Jagger and sophomore Josh Miller.

Wyatt Thatcher was a key reserve.

Connor Boylan, Aidan McCloskey, Nick Beach and Gavin Travis were all used sparingly a year ago, but are ready to move into more prominent roles.

Montrose graduated the bulk of its scoring punch with its four senior starters.

Jude Adams is the only returning full-time starter.

Jai Herman and Evan McComb also gained significant experience on a team that went through some late-season injury issues.

Kasey Carey, who came off the bench late in the season, and senior Sawyer Brown are likely to fill out the starting lineup.

"Last year, we were bigger," coach Tracie McComb said. "Now, we're going to be smaller and faster."

Three-time, first-team, all-state selection Addison Kilmer is back to lead the Mountain View girls, who recovered from two regular-season losses to Elk Lake to win the District 2 title and reach the state semifinals in Class 2A.

The Lady Eagles won 24 games and had a late chance against Berlin Brothersvalley, losing to the state champions by three in the semifinals.

"When I look back at the end of the year, I'm disappointed that we don't have a trophy," coach Corey Gesford said. "We turned the ball over too much against Berlin Brothersvalley."

Gesford said the preseason concentration for all of his players is making the quicker decisions necessary to avoid those turnovers against the variety of different defensive approaches they see as teams try to counter Kilmer.

Kilmer enters her senior season with more than 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career. She averaged 18.4 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.6 blocks, 2.4 steals and 2.0 assists last season.

Point guard Aubrey Sanders also returns along with Emily Trichilo, who was the first player off the bench by the end of last season.

Gesford said having five girls on the floor who can hit shots will be one of the keys to making it difficult on teams who focus too much of their attention on Kilmer.

Junior Rozlyn Sobol, who missed much of last season because of injury, and Reagan Bishop-Russo are likely to join the starting lineup.

Sophomores Emma Thatcher and Ireland Shea gained some varsity experience last season and could become more of a factor as this season progresses.

Elk Lake graduated four of its top six players, including leading scorer Leah Traver.

The Lady Warriors do return their second- and third-leading scorers, Kylee Shingler and Madisyn Casselbury, an outstanding defender and ballhandler.

Senior Celeste Clark was a key contributor late last season.

Lacy Ayotte, Olivia Galella and Maddy Baker, who is currently injured, have limited varsity experience and are among the candidates, along with some sophomores Lauren Youells and Kendyl Weisgold, to fill the rest of the lineup.

Montrose has some early injury issues to sort out, but returns its top six scorers from last season's third-place team.

Sadie Jones was one of the division's top scorers.

Carly Frey, Hailey Aukema, Molly Weller, Ally Legg and McKenna Kublo also return although the status of Weller and Legg to start the season is uncertain.

"We need to play fast, but under control," coach Dallas Ely said. "We have a lot of athleticism."

Blue Ridge has a new coaching staff.

Ian Gelinger takes over as head coach in place of Mike Courtright, who is the new coach at Carbondale.

Gelinger has coached junior high girls' basketball at Blue Ridge, and Olympic Development Program soccer. He will be assisted by Jim Barbour, who has experience as a junior varsity girls' coach and a junior high boys' and girls' basketball coach at Blue Ridge.

They take over an experienced team, led by the coaches' daughters, the top two scorers a year ago.

Abigail Gelinger was one of the division's top players last season when returnees Lynndee Barbour, Addison Welch and Melodie Bloomer were all starters.

Abby Piechocki and Maya Crane also have some varsity experience.

Susquehanna returns four starters, including leading scorer Lauren Huyck, and its top sub from a team that ended the season by capturing the District 2 Class A title.

Marley Smith, Madison Beach, Kiera Burke and top sub and part-time starter Esther Davis are also back.

"The hope is that we're going to get a lot better," coach Jeff Baldwin said. "We're still young. They're all juniors. We have no seniors on the team, but this will be their third year together."

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose rejoined the Lackawanna Football Conference as a Division 3 member, effective for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, at a meeting last week.

The Meteors spent the last four seasons as an independent program for football, but built back up to a 10-game season this fall. With a young lineup, Montrose managed three victories, including one over rival and LFC Division 3 member Susquehanna.

Montrose will join Susquehanna, Holy Cross, Carbondale, Old Forge and defending champion Lackawanna Trail in Division 3.

Riverside will move from Division 3 to Division 2 where it will join champion Lakeland, Dunmore, Mid Valley, Western Wayne and Honesdale.

West Scranton, which is going up to the largest enrollment classification, 6A, also goes from Division 2 to Division 1. The Invaders join champion North Pocono, Scranton Prep, Abington Heights, Delaware Valley, Valley View, Scranton and Wallenpaupack.

The fall sports season came to an end for District 2 when three LFC teams lost in state football quarterfinals Friday night.

Belmont Charter from Philadelphia defeated Lackawanna Trail, 52-40, in Class A; Northwestern Lehigh downed Scranton Prep, 42-14, in Class 3A; and Cardinal O'Hara, another Philadelphia school, defeated North Pocono, 28-6, in Class 4A.

Lackawanna Trail went nearly half the game without injured Isaac Ryon, who came in to score three second-half touchdowns.

The Lions were hurt by big plays.

Nafis Watkins threw five touchdown passes and the Tigers had scores from 74 and 67 yards after the Lions got within 40-33 in the fourth quarter.

Two-time defending state champion Northwestern Lehigh ran its winning streak to 30 games by eliminating Scranton Prep for the third straight year.

Shane Leh went 17-for-19 passing for 222 yards and five touchdowns.

North Pocono had the winningest season in school history end at 13-1.

With the elimination of the last LFC teams, our high school football predictions are done for the year.

Last week's picks were 2-1 (66.7 percent), leaving us at 18-7 (72.0 percent) for the playoffs and our overall season record at 118-34 (77.6 percent).

COLLEGE CORNER

Ella Robinson is third on the Finger Lakes Community College women's basketball team in scoring and second in 3-pointers.

The 5-foot-3 sophomore guard from Blue Ridge is averaging 8.3 points per game, matching her output last season. In the team's three November games, Robinson also averaged 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 1.0 assists and 0.3 blocked shots. She shot 10-for-44 (22.7 percent) from the floor, 3-for-13 (23.1) on 3-pointers and 2-for-3 (66.7) from the line.

Robinson had 10 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists while playing all 40 minutes of the season-opening, 64-29 victory over the Nazareth University junior varsity.

As a freshman, Robinson also averaged 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Montrose girls' basketball team will be one of the first in the state in action Friday when winter high school sports open around Pennsylvania.

The Lady Meteors meet Honesdale at 2:00pm in the first game of the North Pocono Tip-Off Tournament. They play again Saturday against either Wyoming Area or North Pocono.

Mountain View is hosting the third annual Lambert-Simons Tournament the same two days.

Union-Endicott (NY) plays Nanticoke in the opener 6:30pm before Mountain View and Western Wayne play at 7:45pm.

The consolation game is set for Saturday at 5:15pm, followed by the championship at 6:30pm.

Blue Ridge is at Greene, NY, Elk Lake is at Tunkhannock and Forest City is at Wilkes-Barre Area in season openers Tuesday, Dec. 2.

In boys' basketball, Mountain View hosts a tournament Saturday and Monday, Dec. 1.

Wyoming Seminary plays Lehigh Valley Academy at noon, then Mountain View faces Brandywine Heights at 1:30pm in Saturday's semifinals.

Forest City hosts Valley View and Montrose is at Lake-Lehman in other Saturday openers.

Blue Ridge hosts Northeast Bradford Monday, Dec. 1. Susquehanna hosts Wyalusing Valley and Elk Lake is at Nanticoke in other openers while Blue Ridge hosts Dunmore in Tuesday Dec. 2 games.

In wrestling, Blue Ridge is at Mid Valley and Mountain View is at North Pocono in Tuesday, Dec. 1 matches.

In boys' and girls' swimming, Elk Lake opens the season in Lackawanna League home meets Tuesday, Dec. 2.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.