Look For Our HARFORD FAIR SPECIAL In The August 18th Issue Of The County Transcript

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HEADLINES:
Local Sports Scene
NASCAR Racing
Devin Glezen Is July's Athlete Of The Month
Girls' Fastpitch Baseball Tryouts

Montrose Players Help City To Dream Game Win
By Tom Robinson

Moosic – Montrose's Greg Honeychuck and Jon Rounds were part of the City team that pulled out a 14-7 victory over the County August 2 before a crowd of 6,492 in the 70th annual Dream Game at Lackawanna County Stadium.

West Scranton coach Mike DeAntona relied on strong performances by players from the three Scranton schools to make it a true "city' victory in the annual football all-star game, which is sponsored by the Scranton Lions Club.

Graduated high school football players from Lackawanna Football Conference schools are eligible for the game.

No Susquehanna players participated in this season's contest. Tristan Tarbox and Erik Hines left the team early in practice sessions leading up to the game.

Honeychuck played offensive tackle. Rounds was a defensive back and special teams player.

Al Karaffa of Scranton scored the game-winning touchdown on a quarterback sneak from about a foot away with 1:20 remaining.

Karaffa threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Scranton Prep's Bob Adcroft on the City's first possession. He then hit four straight passes to start the second half and completed five more in a row on the winning drive.

Scranton teammate Nick Stanavitch caught four of Karaffa's passes for 54 yards during the game-winning, 13-play, 80-yard drive. All four of the completions produced first downs, including one in a third-and-eight situation.

The County responded by driving to the City 12.

Adcroft then broke up a County pass at the goal line, popping the ball into the air and West Scranton's Ken Jones intercepted at the 3 with 26.2 seconds left to clinch the win.

After the City held the ball for 11:07 to start the second half, the County drove 80 yards in 11 plays to force a 7-7 tie.

Steve Viccica, a quarterback at Valley View, took over at tailback for the County in the second half, carrying seven times for 45 yards. He scored the tying touchdown on a seven-yard run with 7:39 remaining.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Adam Phillips, 10, of Springville turned in a dominant effort in the 9-10 Male Division of swimming during the Keystone State Games.

Phillips won three gold medals and a silver medal in the annual state games that follow an Olympic-type format.

Phillips finished the 50 freestyle in 33.26 seconds, more than five seconds better than any of the other six swimmers. His time of 42.41 in the 50 breaststroke was almost three seconds better than anyone else in the eight-swimmer field. He was the best of six swimmers in the 25 freestyle, finishing in 14.53 seconds.

The silver medal for Phillips came in the 100 individual medley.

Kate LaBarbera, a 5-foot-10 senior guard from Montrose, was part of the Pocono Region Scholastic Female basketball team that took a bronze medal. Pocono went 3-1 in pool play, losing only to Lehigh Valley, 99-90, to qualify for the bronze medal game where it beat Metro, 72-52.

Jackson's Rachel Hall, a former Blue Ridge and current Mansfield University runner, finished third among a strong field of 17 runners in the 16-19 Female cross country race. Hall finished the course in 18:58.

Jessica Squier of Elk Lake was fourth in 19:30, followed by Krista DeRiancho of Montrose in 20:38.

Ashley Johnson of Montrose was 10th while Khayla Shearer of Friendsville was 15th.

Amber Gaffey from Thompson finished second in the Intermediate Female pole vault by clearing 10 feet in track and field.

Joe LaBarbera of Montrose tied for third in the Scholastic Male pole vault at 13-6.

Sean Wolf of Susquehanna was 18th in the Scholastic Male golf tournament with rounds of 99, 99 and 108.

Anna Cross of Hop Bottom was part of the bronze medal winning Pocono team in Junior Female soccer. Pocono went 3-0-1 in pool play, lost to Capital, 3-2, in the semifinals, then ripped Great Lakes, 9-1, for third place.

Steven Beautz and Jonathan Chesnick of Uniondale and Michael McGraw of Forest City were part of the 16-and-Under Male volleyball team that finished fourth. Pocono went 5-7 to tie Allegheny for fourth place then beat Allegheny, 13-25, 25-23, 15-13 in the quarterfinals.

Pocono then lost two straight, including a tough 26-28, 25-18, 15-11 loss to Lehigh Valley in the bronze medal match.

The 16-and-Under Female Pocono volleyball, which included Julie Page of New Milford, finished fifth.

Some Keystone Games results were still unavailable at presstime.

In golf, Mike Stranburg of Montrose won the Anthracite Golf Association Junior Tour Tournament of Champions Tuesday and Wednesday.

Stranburg followed an opening 74 at Fox Hill Country Club by shooting the best round of the tournament with three birdies in a 1-under-par, 71 at Hunstville Golf Club. Stranburg, who won every AGA tournament he entered the last two summers, including three this season, won by four strokes.

In softball, the Hallstead Firestix went 4-4 at 16-and-under nationals in North Carolina to finish in the top 40 of the 104-team field.

The Firestix are coached by Blue Ridge's Bob Pavelski. Brittany Pavelski is a shortstop and pitcher on the team.

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

JEFF GORDON Kisses The Bricks The Fourth Time

Indianapolis, IN – Jeff Gordon dominated Sunday's Brickyard 400, as he led 122 of 161 laps to get his fourth career Brickyard victory, and the fifth win of the season.

Jeff Gordon and crew chief, Robbie Loomis.

Only three other drivers – A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr. – have won four Indianapolis 500s at this memorable facility. Gordon has now won its stock-car race four times in 11 years.

Gordon, who spent his teenage years racing in the Midwest while living in nearby Pittsboro, IN, won the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994 and had won it again in 1998 and 2001.

Even though Gordon clearly had the dominant car, he had a scare on lap 142 when he hit a piece of debris on the track. It knocked a hole in the fender of his No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet, but did even more damage to Matt Kenseth's Ford, which had been running behind in second.

"I thought it was all over. I thought we were done," Gordon said later.

Gordon was leading when the race’s last caution came out on lap 155 after Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers got together, and Newman wound up against the outside wall.

The finish was to be NASCAR’s first green/white/checkered finish. The green flag was given on lap 159. As soon as the white flag was displayed, meaning one lap left, there was another accident.

NASCAR put out the yellow flag again, freezing the field.

"I can’t even describe the emotions going on now," said Gordon. "This is such a big, big win. It feels so incredible, especially the way the car was during practice. The entire team has done an incredible job.

"I don’t get cheered very often, and to hear the support of these fans is wonderful."

Dale Jarrett, winner of two Brickyard 400s was able to hold his teammate, Elliott Sadler off to finish second.

"You always want to win, but Jeff had the best car," said Jarrett.

Elliott Sadler, Kasey Kahne, and Tony Stewart rounded out the top-five.

Outside pole-sitter Ward Burton’s day ended on lap 73 when he was involved in an eight-car accident.

Points leader Jimmie Johnson lost an engine in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet and now leads teammate Jeff Gordon by only 97 points.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was caught up in a last-lap accident and finished 27th.

Top ten finishing order: 1. Jeff Gordon, 2. Dale Jarrett, 3. Elliott Sadler, 4. Kasey Kahne, 5. Tony Stewart, 6. Greg Biffle, 7. Jamie McMurray, 8. Kevin Harvick, 9. Bill Elliott, 10. Kurt Busch.

NEXTEL CHAMPIONSHIP CHASE – The top-10 points leaders with five races remaining: 1. Johnson-3095, 2. J. Gordon-2998, 3. Earnhardt Jr.-2855, 4. Stewart-2761, 5. Kenseth-2738, 6. Sadler-2674, 7. Busch-2615, 8. B. Labonte-2584, 9. Harvick-2563, 10. Newman-2542.

Mexico Is Big Marketing Prize For NASCAR – The 2005 Busch Series schedule includes the addition of two road course events, at Mexico City and Watkins Glen, NY.

But when you look below the surface on the new plans to race in Mexico, you see that it is designed as a marketing program by NASCAR to promote their own interests.

The new program is called NASCAR Mexico, but five major sponsors are paying NASCAR for the rights to promote their products and services.

The first is CIE, a Portuguese and Spanish entertainment company. Domino’s Pizza is the next on the list. Then it is Budweiser, Home Depot, and Nextel. In addition, there are several smaller sponsors that will be on board.

It makes for another financial killing for the France family, owners of NASCAR.

No where in the public relations hype produced by NASCAR does it say anything about the added cost to teams.

The race in Mexico will be held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a 2.786-mile road course that has hosted the CART series, or Champ Car, since 2002.

The race will be a points race. NASCAR has held exhibition races abroad in the past, most notably in Japan and Australia.

The Mexico City race is expected to fall during the off-weekend of March 5-6 in the 2005 Nextel Cup Series schedule.

Not everyone is thrilled with the decision to hold a Busch series race next season in Mexico City.

James Finch, who fields the No. 1 Dodge, thinks the race is far too expensive for most small Busch teams. Teams will have to build two cars – a primary and a backup – at a cost of about $200,000 each.

"We've got to build new cars, race in California (February 26), drive back to North Carolina to pick up the road-course cars, then drive them all the way to Mexico City," Finch said. "Then we have to bring those cars back to North Carolina, and pick up more cars to take to Las Vegas for the next race.

"It's an awful lot of crisscrossing the country, and that ain't going to be cheap.

"Why didn't NASCAR just send Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and the rest of the heroes down to Mexico City? They have the weekend off and a bunch of them are going to try to get rides for the race."

Car owner Richard Childress, who also fields Busch cars, said that Cup star Kevin Harvick will race in Mexico City.

OTHER RACING

TRUEX Continues As Busch Leader – The top-10 Busch Series points leaders: 1. Truex-3318, 2. Busch-3201, 3. Leffler-2944, 4. Biffle-2910, 5. D. Green-2871, 6. Hornaday-2843, 7. Hamilton Jr.-2820, 8. Keller-2819, 9. Bliss-2595, 10. K. Wallace-2464.

HAMILTON Leads Truck Drivers – The top-10 Craftsman Truck Series leaders: 1. Hamilton Sr.-2103, 2. Stezer-2098, 3. Edwards-1981, 4. Chaffin-1965, 5. Crafton-1929, 6. Kvapil-1914, 7. Musgrave-1873, 8. Crawford-1812, 9. Skinner-1752, 10. Sprague-1740.

WEEKEND RACING

The Craftsman Trucks are at Lebanon, TN, while the Nextel Cup Series goes to Watkins Glen, NY. The Busch Series has an off weekend.

Saturday, August 14, Craftsman Trucks Tundra 200, race 15 of 25, 150 laps/200 miles, 5 p.m. TV: Speed Channel.

Sunday, August 15, Nextel Cup Sirius @ The Glen, race 22 of 36, 90 laps/220 miles, 1:30 p.m. TV: TNT.

Racing Trivia Question: How many Craftsman Truck Series championships has Jack Sprague won?

Last Week’s Question: Which track has the largest grandstand capacity? Answer. The Brickyard is number one. It has a grandstand capacity of 260,000.

If you would like to read additional racing stories by Gerald Hodges/the Racing Reporter, go to www.race500.com.

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Devin Glezen Is July's Athlete Of The Month
By Tom Robinson

The state and the sanctioning body changed, but Devin Glezen remained a state softball champion.

Glezen has worked on her transition from high school all-star to college recruit this summer by adding an Amateur Softball Association New York State 18-and-under title with the Conklin Raiders.

The latest title helped Glezen claim the Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month award.

The ASA title followed up the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A state championship Glezen helped produce as an all-star catcher at Blue Ridge.

"Both are the same," Glezen said of the state titles in a telephone interview from California where the Raiders were competing in the national tournament. "The (ASA) tournaments are where you get seen by college coaches.

"The high school team means as much, if not more, but here's where you get seen all across the country. If I could get seen like that just playing high school, it would be great."

Glezen's play as a catcher, first baseman and emergency third baseman with the Raiders helped gain attention from Binghamton University, where she will play softball on a significant partial athletic scholarship. She plans to study biology at Binghamton.

Glezen had a key triple in the state final when the Raiders defeated their Binghamton-area rival, the Ponies, 3-2. Blue Ridge teammate Heather Franks also played for the Raiders on their championship team.

Coach Bob Pavelski said Glezen was valuable in many ways during her time at Blue Ridge where she was a utility player as a freshman and a three-year starter at catcher.

"She gave us leadership," Pavelski said. "The other girls looked up to her. She was the one who would take control."

Devin, who also played volleyball and basketball at Blue Ridge, is the daughter of Dan and Peg Glezen of Hallstead. Peg Glezen is an assistant softball coach at Blue Ridge.

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Girls' Fastpitch Baseball Tryouts

Firestyx Fastpitch tryouts for girls aged 18 and under will be held at Hallstead, PA on the girls’ Little League field and Blue Ridge High School field, August 14 and 15, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:0 p.m. Pitching and catching positions are open.

For more info call Bob Pavelski at (570) 756–2539; or Robert Cook at (570) 746–3525.

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