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Montrose Golfers Advance To District 2 Tournament
By Tom Robinson

The Montrose Meteors are undefeated this season as a team in Lackawanna League golf matches.

When it came time to stress individual play in qualifying for the District 2 boys' tournament, the Meteors were just as successful.

Montrose, the defending district team champion, was the only Lackawanna League team to qualify all six players for the district tournament for the second season in a row.

"We try to stay with the team concept," Montrose coach Mike Zuba said.

The Meteors will have the only complete team when individual play continues Sept. 30 at Scranton Municipal with state tournament berths on the line.

Mike Stranburg continued an outstanding season by shooting 1-over-par, 73 to lead the Meteors in qualifying and finish tied for second.

Aaron Olah (76), Kyle Adriance (78) and Nick Harasymczuk (82) advanced with their 18-hole scores.

Sean Welch and Jeff Evans shot 86 and wound up in a nine-way playoff for the final five berths. They both advanced.

Welch was one of three players to score bogey or better on the first playoff hole, Scranton Muni's toughest, the long, uphill, par-4, 16th.

Evans was one of three players to stay in contention for the last two spots. He then advanced with a bogey on the par-3, 17th.

Zuba said the success is a bit of a surprise this season.

"We're right on track again," he said. "I'm extremely proud of what we're doing this year."

Montrose is unbeaten along with Valley View, the team it plays last, in the Lackawanna Northern Division.

Elk Lake's Tom Blaisure and Mountain View's Rhett Butler shot 81 and 83 while also advancing.

WEEK IN REVIEW

The National Hockey League came to the area twice during the week, although one of the stops was delayed because of Hurricane Isabel.

The Ottawa Senators beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2, in overtime before 4,727 at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton Friday night.

The Washington Capitals defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2, Sunday in a game that drew a paid crowd of 6,486 at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre. The game was originally scheduled for Thursday.

Local fans got to see many of the players they are familiar with try to leave the area behind.

Jason Spezza was the most dangerous scoring threat in the American Hockey League as a rookie last season, which is why he is likely to never come back to Binghamton.

Tomas Surovy and Tom Kostopoulos are more borderline cases, but they made their pitch toward settling in with Pittsburgh rather than returning to Wilkes-Barre.

Spezza returned for what may be his last game in Binghamton and scored the winning goal at 2:46 of overtime. He had assisted on a third-period goal by Marian Hossa, who set up Spezza's game-winner.

Surovy and Kostopoulos scored for the Penguins in their loss to Washington. Pittsburgh had scored only one goal in its first two games and slipped to 0-3 despite the mild offensive improvement.

Kostopoulos put Pittsburgh ahead, 2-1, in the second period when he won a physical battle with Washington defenseman John Gruden. That left Kostopoulos in front of the net where he was able to spin around and put a rebound of a David Koci shot into the net.

"TK has competed real hard throughout training camp and he played real well in our intrasquad games," Pittsburgh coach Ed Olczyk said. "He's not real flashy, but he gives you good, honest work.

"He pays the price and that's exactly what happened tonight. He fought his way in from the corner and got good body position."

In high school cross country, Elk Lake's Robert Squier and the Montrose girls' team had big days during the Bloomsburg University High School Cross Country Invitational Saturday.

Squier finished fourth in the boys' race, which drew 36 teams. He finished in 16:57, one second out of second place.

Elk Lake finished 18th in the team race with 495 points. Montrose finished 21st, with Brett Hagstrom's 51st-place finish leading the way.

The Lady Meteors were eighth in the 31-team girls' race.

Jeanne Rozel led the way for Montrose with an 18th-place finish in 21:36. Freshman Tara Chiarella was 23rd in 21:44 and Krista DeRiancho was 43rd in 22:50.

In high school football, both Susquehanna County teams had leads get away in the fourth quarter of losses Saturday.

Susquehanna's losing streak reached 17 games when one of its best opportunities for a win this season slipped away in a 28-27 loss to Bishop O'Hara.

Tristan Tarbox ran for four touchdowns and well over 200 yards in the loss.

The Sabers escaped a bad punt snap when they held the Bruins at the 6 in the fourth quarter to preserve a 27-21 lead. The first of two costly fumbles followed, giving Bishop O'Hara another chance.

After Bishop O'Hara moved in front by a point, the Sabers drove to inside the Bruins 20 before losing another fumble in the final minute.

Montrose lost to Carbondale, 32-24, to fall to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the Lackawanna Football Conference Division 2.

COLLEGE CORNER

Heather Bradley, a 5-5 sophomore from Blue Ridge, is a member of the University of Scranton volleyball team.

Bradley has appeared in 21 of 45 games for the Lady Royals, who have an 8-5 record in 13 matches.

WEEK AHEAD

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins will open their exhibition season Saturday night at home against the Syracuse Crunch.

Both county high school football teams have tough interdivision road games in which to try to turn their seasons around.

Susquehanna is at Wallenpaupack. The Buckhorns (1-3) are the only Division 1 team on the Sabers' schedule.

Montrose is at Old Forge, which is 3-1 with three shutouts.

Frank Pazzaglia will be trying to become only the third coach in state history to win 300 games. Pazzaglia, the only coach ever at Valley View (2-2), will go for the milestone at Lakeland (4-0).

Our football predictions last week were just 4-6, dropping the season record to 36-12 (75 percent).

This week's predictions, with the winners in CAPS: WALLENPAUPACK 31, Susquehanna 6; OLD FORGE 30, Montrose 16; LAKELAND 31, Valley View 12; ABINGTON HEIGHTS 17, Scranton Prep 3; DUNMORE 24, Scranton 19; LACKAWANNA TRAIL 46, Honesdale 28; MID VALLEY 27, North Pocono 8; WEST SCRANTON 22, Riverside 9; CARBONDALE 27, Delaware Valley 21; WESTERN WAYNE 17, Bishop O'Hara 12.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached on-line at RobbyTR@aol.com.

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NASCAR Racing
By Gerald Hodges; The Racing Reporter

NEWMAN Stretches Fuel For Seventh Win

Dover, DE – Ryan Newman came from a lap down to win Sunday’s Winston Cup MBNA America 400 at Dover Downs for his seventh win of the season.

Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace

Newman overcame several obstacles on the way to victory. First, he had a flat on his No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge during lap 45 of the 400 lap race and lost a lap. But Newman, who was critical of NASCAR’s new policy allowing the first car not on the lead lap to be given their lap back, was the first beneficiary of the rule.

On lap 288, he was back on the lead lap courtesy of NASCAR.

He pitted for fuel the last time on lap 296 and ran the remaining 104 laps on a single tank.

But his biggest challenge came in the late stages of the race when Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 19 Ray Evernham Dodge tried several times to pass. But each time, Newman was able to hold him off.

"We just raced Jeremy clean, and he raced us clean, and we won," said Newman.

But it was the second time in three weeks that Mayfield has finished as the bridesmaid to Newman.

"Our car got tight there at the end," said Mayfield. "I’m happy for the team that we got a second, but it sucks to come in second again to the same team. "I didn’t know anything about his fuel, but I wouldn’t have wanted to win it that way."

Even though points leader Matt Kenseth finished 9th, he increased his points lead over second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr., after Earnhardt Jr. crashed on lap 362 and wound up 37th.

"We ran terrible," said Kenseth. "I'm really ashamed of the way we ran. We were just way off. We weren't very good the whole time we've been here. We came in to make changes off the first set of tires and the car was totally different all day."

When asked about the new rule allowing the first car that is one lap down to be put back on the lead lap, Kenseth replied, "Well, there are pros and cons to it. The car that got a free lap back won the race today. If they would have had that rule in the spring, Tony Stewart would have won the race because he was the fastest car and lost a couple laps. I don't know about giving free laps back. Some day I'm gonna want a free lap back and I'm gonna think it's cool, but I still don't know if that's the best policy. You can be a half-lap behind the leader and slower than the leader, but as long as you're the first car a lap down, you get a free one back. A free pass isn't really racing. It's racing to get it, but Ryan had misfortune early. He definitely had a car that could win at the end, but if you have bad racing luck I don't know about that free pass."

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. hit the outer wall hard during lap 362 and was briefly unconscious. He was taken to a local Dover hospital for further testing.

Top ten finishing order: 1. Ryan Newman, 2. Jeremy Mayfield, 3. Tony Stewart, 4. Kevin Harvick, 5. Jeff Gordon, 6. Jamie McMurray, 7. Greg Biffle, 8. Jimmie Johnson, 9. Matt Kenseth, 10. Rusty Wallace.

Top-10 points leaders after 28 of 36 races: 1. Kenseth-4158, 2. Harvick-3722, 3. Johnson-3685, 4. Earnhardt Jr.-3668, 5. Newman-3578, 6. J. Gordon-3542, 7. B. Labonte-3393, 8. Busch-3372, 9. T. Labonte-3294, 10. Stewart-3291.

How Important Are Drivers As Role Models – Whether it is increased activity or increased media exposure, professional athletes seem to be seen more and more in inappropriate situations.

Do race car drivers have a responsibility as role models, or are they private citizens, allowed to act any way they choose?

"Asking if a NASCAR driver wants to be a role model is like asking a Dodge if it wants to be a car," said Ken Schrader, driver of the No. 49 Bam Dodge. "No matter what you think, you are what you are.

"The question is, ‘What kind of role model are you going to be?’ You are either going to be someone people, especially kids, can look up to, or you are going to be someone their parents like to point at and say, ‘Don’t be like him!’ I’d much rather be on the front page of the paper for winning a race than being arrested for something.

"We do have a responsibility. I mean, we look at ourselves as plain ol’ everyday folks but there are others who watch what we do pretty closely. We have a responsibility to that. As a parent myself, I wish everyone – drivers, other professional athletes, entertainers, politicians, whoever – would live up to that too."

Give us your comments on how important drivers are as role models. If we use what you have to say, we will send you a photograph of your favorite Winston Cup driver.

VICKERS Wins Dover Busch Race, Takes Over Points Lead – Top-10 Busch Series leaders after 27 of 34 races: 1. Vickers-3720, 2. Riggs-3688, 3. Hornaday-3659, 4. D. Green-3653, 5. Keller-3614, 6. Hamilton Jr.-3456, 7. J. Sauter-3249, 8. Kahne-3249, 9. Wimmer-3200, 10. Hmiel-3160.

GAUGHAN Leads Truck Series – Top-10 Craftsman Truck Series leaders after 19 of 25 races: 1. Gaughan-2966, 2. Kvapil-2924, 3. Musgrave-2904, 4. Setzer-2850, 5. Wood-2760, 6. Crawford-2760, 7. Hamilton-2722, 8. Edwards-2596, 9. Cook-2460, 10. Chaffin-2428.

WEEKEND RACING

Winston Cup teams are at Talladega, while the Craftsman Trucks race at Las Vegas. The Busch series teams have the weekend off.

Saturday, September 27, Craftsman Trucks Las Vegas 350, race 20 of 25, 146 laps/219 miles, 4:30 p.m. TV: Speed Channel.

Sunday, September 28, Winston Cup EA Sports 500, race 29 of 36, 188 laps/500 miles, 1:30 p.m. TV: NBC.

Racing Trivia Question: How many points does a driver earn for leading a Winston Cup or Busch series race?

Last Week’s Question: Who is the current driver of the No. 4 Kodak Winston Cup Pontiac? Answer: Kevin LePage is the driver.

Gerald Hodges/the Racing Reporter is a syndicated NASCAR columnist. If you have a racing question that you would like answered send it to The Racing Reporter, P.O. Box 160711, Mobile, AL, 36616, or e-mail it to: hodgesnews@earthlink.net.

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Golf Benefits EMMCF

On August 25, the Endless Mountains Medical Care Foundation held their fourth annual golf tournament at the Montrose Country Club. This charity event is held to support the Foundation in their work in providing quality health care at Endless Mountains Health Systems in Montrose. The monies raised from the golf tournament are specifically donated to the EMHS Building Fund. Phase I of the building project will begin this fall with the installation of digital radiology equipment. Participation from local businesses and physicians leads to the success of the tournament. The foursome of Penn York Medical Supplies (pictured) conquered the tournament by placing first for the fourth year with a score of 54. Pictured (l-r) are: Barry Wheaton, Rex Maxey, Joel Maxey, Jerry Klim.

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