Look For Our SUSKY HOMECOMING SPECIAL In The OCTOBER 6TH ISSUE Of The County Transcript

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HEADLINES:
Local Sports Scene
NASCAR Racing
Who Remembers Hallstead 1940 Baseball Team?
Hole-In-One Nets $1000 For DA Legg
Afterthoughts On Hurricane Ivan

Adriance, Harasymczuk Lead Local Golf Qualifiers
By Tom Robinson

Kyle Adriance and Nick Harasymczuk led the way with Montrose team goals on the line September 20, then came back the next day to lead all Susquehanna County golfers in individual competition.

One day after leading the Meteors to a win with a share of the Lackawanna League Northern Division golf lead at stake, Adriance and Harasymczuk shot 8-over-par, 80s at Scranton Municipal to qualify for the District 2 championship tournament.

Adriance and Harasymczuk were two of the 11 county golfers to advance through the Lackawanna League qualifier and reach the Oct. 6 District 2 Tournament at Fox Hill Country Club. They tied for 15th in the tournament, which had 156 players trying to qualify for 52 district spots.

Rhett Butler of Mountain View was next among county golfers with an 81. The Meteors and Eagles each qualified three golfers, while Forest City and Susquehanna advanced two and Blue Ridge one.

Jeff Evans shot 82 for Montrose. Teammate Chris Maxey shot 87 and lost out in a seven-way playoff for the final berth in the district tournament. Devlin Conrad missed the playoff by a stroke.

Butler's 81 was one stroke better than Mountain View teammate Kyle Kilmer and two better than Ben Vauter. Vauter's 39 on the front nine was the only nine-hole score under 40 by a county golfer.

Forest City advanced Mike Turano (83) and Mike Green (86).

Dusty Barton (85) and Drew Crawford (86) qualified for Susquehanna.

Blue Ridge's Tom Donovan shot 86.

Elk Lake was the only county school not to have a golfer advance. The Warriors had two players, Kirk Longer and Derek Johnson, fall short in the playoff for the last spot.

Other county scores: Alex Kipar (EL) 89; Jon Torch (FC) 90; Bill Orasin (FC), Brad Sparks (FC) and John Evans (MV) 92; Richie Nasser (EL) 96; Kyle Karpick (EL) 97; Bill O'Dell (FC) 98; Craig Soden (S) 101; Josh Rudock (BR) and Bill McHale (S) 102; Dan Allen (BR) 104; Mike Bloomer (BR) 106; Anthony Sellitto and Sean Wolfe (S) 106; Tim Jones (EL) 109; Jared Tennant (BR) and Casey Jenkins (MV) 110; Brian Manchester (BR) 112; and Chris White (MV) 115.

Two county teams were part of a three-way tie for the division lead when the week opened.

Montrose, which tied Honesdale earlier in the year, defeated Forest City, 8-1, in a meeting between teams that entered the match with 5-0-1 records.

Honesdale and Montrose remained tied as Montrose prepared for a home match with once-beaten Wallenpaupack that was scheduled to be played September 27.

Adriance and Harasymczuk shot 38s at Montrose Country Club to lead the win over Forest City. Both players, along with Evans, Conrad and Dan Stranburg, won in both singles and better-ball matches.

Evans improved to 7-0 in league singles matches during the victory over Forest City.

"We have four people starting every match who had very little varsity experience," Montrose coach Mike Zuba said. "I'm very happy and very proud with what we've been able to achieve."

Adriance, a returning starter, and Harasymczuk are the only seniors on the team. Harasymczuk and Evans, a junior, were part-time starters last season.

Stranburg is a junior.

The other two spots are generally filled by two of three freshmen - Devlin, Maxey and Jonathan Lodge. Sophomore Dennis Riley has also started one match.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Brittany Ely's goal with two minutes remaining Thursday night lifted Montrose over Mountain View, 2-1, and into the Lackawanna League Northern Division girls' soccer lead.

Mountain View, which came into the game with a perfect division record, took the lead at 33:45 of the first half on a goal by Stacy Morrison.

Morrison used her speed to beat the defense down the left side and scored from close range.

The lead held up until there was 21:02 remaining in the game.

Amber Lattner was able to take advantage of drawing plenty of attention throughout the game. She was knocked down in the penalty area and converted on a penalty kick for the third straight game to force a tie.

Melanie Loomis then set up the game-winner when she sent a pass ahead on the left side to Ely.

Ely cut back to the middle to set up a hard right-footed shot to the top left corner from about 15 yards out.

The win improved the Lady Meteors to 4-0-1 in the division and 4-0-2 overall.

Ely and Lattner share the team lead with nine goals each. Ely also has four assists to match Loomis' total.

Kate LaBarbera has three goals and three assists.

The Lady Meteors beat Lakeland, 3-1, earlier in the week behind a pair of first-half goals by Ely.

Mountain View won its first three North games by a total of 19-4 before falling to Montrose.

Whitney Williams led that strong start with three straight hat tricks, including a four-goal game in last week's 6-3 victory over Western Wayne.

In high school football, Montrose evened its record at 2-2 by handing Bishop O'Hara its first loss of the season, 34-20.

The Meteors celebrated Homecoming Night by getting four long touchdowns against the Bruins.

Kyle Stoddard and Tom Burgh combined for more than 200 yards rushing and ran for two touchdowns each. The Meteors averaged well over nine yards per carry to run for more than 300 yards. The longest run was Stoddard's 69-yard touchdown after the Bruins had closed within two points in the second quarter.

Stoddard also caught an 80-yard touchdown on one of just two attempts by quarterback Dominic Lucenti. The touchdown pass broke open the game after Montrose took a 20-6 half-time lead.

Lucenti also threw a two-point conversion pass to Stoddard and ran for another two-pointer.

Susquehanna got in a big hole early and fell to unbeaten Lakeland, 54-13, in Dick Bagnall's first game since replacing Joe Zabielski as head coach.

The Sabers fumbled away their two plays leading to early Lakeland scores on the way to a 34-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Susquehanna managed 219 yards rushing.

Sophomore quarterback Anthony Dorunda led the way, carrying 13 times for 141 yards, including a 48-yard touchdown in the second quarter and a three-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Ernie Taylor added 65 yards on seven carries.

COLLEGE CORNER

Megan Bullock, a 5-foot-3 midfielder/back from Elk Lake, made her debut as a Division I field hockey player Sept. 16 when Lock Haven University defeated Albany, 4-0.

Lock Haven made the move from Division II to Division I this season and won its first seven games. The Lady Eagles bounced back from their first defeat to improve to 8-1.

Bullock's appearance against Albany was her only playing time in the first nine games.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Susquehanna will have a chance to end its 27-game losing streak when it plays at Bishop O'Hara (3-1) Saturday afternoon in the Lackawanna Football Conference Division III opener for each team.

Montrose will play Scranton for the first time in a non-league meeting between 2-2 teams Saturday night at Montrose.

Predictions for this week's games, with winners in CAPS: BISHOP O'HARA 31, Susquehanna 16; SCRANTON 31, Montrose 20; LACKAWANNA TRAIL 19, Wallenpaupack 17; HONESDALE 36, Mid Valley 6; DUNMORE 32, Valley View 3; DELAWARE VALLEY 26, Scranton Prep 7; CARBONDALE 22, Old Forge 13; NORTH POCONO 31, Western Wayne 28; LAKELAND 30, Abington Heights 6; WEST SCRANTON 18, Riverside 16.

We wound up with a 9-1 record when the rain-delayed Week 2 action was completed and went 8-2 last week to keep the season mark squarely on 80 percent at 36-9.

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 Bounces Back At Dover

Dover, DE – Ryan Newman bounced back from a blown engine a week ago at New Hampshire to win Sunday’s MBNA America 400 at Dover Downs by over 6-seconds ahead of Mark Martin.

Ryan Newman

Newman, who started the race from the outside pole position, took the lead on the very first lap from pole sitter, Jeremy Mayfield, and led over 300 of the 400 laps.

"The guys did an awesome job," said Newman. "We made a few changes to the car, but we pretty much had it right from the beginning."

It was Newman’s second win of the season, his other one coming at Michigan in June, and the 11th of his career.

The win moved him into eighth spot in the Chase for the Championship.

"I had a great race team and we fought hard," said Mark Martin. "I thought the race was really going to get going on that last restart, but I found out just how good the 12 car was."

Matt Kenseth’s hope for a win was dashed on lap 119 when he hit the tire barrier coming into the pits for a green flag stop. He finished the race 32nd and is now seventh in the points.

Jeff Gordon finished third and is now the leader by one point over Kurt Busch.

"This was a tough race for us," said Gordon. "We took off at the beginning, then we fell off. We got the car straightened out and I thought we might have something for Mark, but I knew we couldn’t catch the 12 car."

Top ten finishing order: 1. Ryan Newman, 2. Mark Martin, 3. Jeff Gordon, 4. Dale Jarrett, 5. Kurt Busch, 6. Tony Stewart, 7. Jeremy Mayfield, 8. Jamie McMurray, 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 10. Jimmie Johnson.

Chase For The Championship Contenders (with eight races to go): 1. J. Gordon-5371, 2. Busch-5370, 3. Earnhardt Jr.-5353, 4. Johnson-57, 5. Martin-5314, 6. Sadler-5275, 7. Kenseth-5272, 8. Newman-5264, 9. Stewart-5236, 10. Mayfield-5214.

Can MAYFIELD Make It To The Top? "The dream of every driver in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series is to win the Nextel Cup, the championship," said Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 19 Evernham Dodge. "Wins are great, but the ultimate achievement in a career is having your name engraved on that championship trophy."

Getting into the Chase for the Championship was like a Cinderella story for Mayfield. Going into the last qualifying race – he had to win the Richmond race and lead the most laps – he did both.

But after the first of the 10 championship races, Mayfield was involved in a wreck, which was not his fault and wound up 10th.

"The win at Richmond was, by far, my most memorable moment in racing so far," continued Mayfield. "That’s not saying the other wins weren’t memorable, but the way this one happened puts it at the top of the list. I still have a hard time believing it happened the way it did ... a great race strategy, excellent performance and flawless pit stops. Everything worked to perfection.

"That win was important in a couple of ways. First, it got us into the Top-10 and provides the opportunity to compete for the championship. Second, it gives us momentum. The team knows it can get the job done and heads into the Chase with confidence.

"I don’t think a team in the Chase can be conservative. I don’t expect any of the drivers to take that approach. If someone has a sizable lead going into the final race, then maybe the strategy would change. I don’t foresee that happening.

"I said at the beginning of the year that if we made the Top-10, the last 10 races are at my favorite race tracks. Coming into the Chase, I really believed we can do well at all 10 tracks.

"We have the equipment. The engines from Evernham Motorsports are powerful and durable. We have the total support of everyone in the shop. We have the support of our teammates. And we have Ray’s leadership. He’s a master motivator. He’s faced this challenge before. He knows how to win championships.

"Some may consider us the underdog. That’s fine. We like the role. I can assure you there’s not another team in the Chase with more determination to take advantage of this opportunity than the No. 19 Dodge team."

Even though he finished seventh at Dover, he is still 10th, 157 points behind the leader.

TRUEX Is Busch Leader – The top-10 Busch Series leaders: 1. Truex-4139, 2. Busch-3987, 3. Leffler-3661, 4. Biffle-3557, 5. D. Green-3466, 6. Hornaday-3382, 7. Keller-3346, 8. Bliss-3203, 9. Kahne-2990, 10. K. Wallace-2971.

HAMILTON Leads Truck Series – The top-10 Craftsman Truck Series leaders: 1. Hamilton-2778, 2. Setzer-2739, 3. Edwards-2653, 4. Musgrave-2603, 5. Crafton-2571, 6. Kvapil-2514, 7. Chaffin-2495, 8. Skinner-2418, 9. Starr-2401, 10. Park-2371.

WEEKEND RACING

The Nextel Cup teams are at Talladega, while the Craftsman Truck Series is at Fontana, CA. The Busch teams have the weekend off.

Saturday, October 2, Craftsman Truck Series American Racing Wheels 200, race 19 of 25, 100 laps/200 miles, 10 p.m. TV: Speed Channel.

Sunday, October 3, Nextel Cup EA Sports 500, race 29 of 36, 188 laps/500 miles, 1:30 p.m. TV: NBC.

Racing Trivia Question: How many NASCAR Winston Cup championships has Mark Martin won?

Answer To Last Week’s Question: What is the only foreign truck manufacturer to compete in a NASCAR series? The answer is Toyota.

Gerald Hodges/the Racing Reporter is a syndicated NASCAR columnist. You can read additional racing stories by Hodges at www.race500.com.

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Who Remembers Hallstead 1940 Baseball Team?
By Lou Parrillo

Pictured (l-r) is the Chet Holmes Arlington Hotel Team: standing - John Maloney (lefty pitcher), Ned Jones, Darwin Millard, Lou Hanley, Ken Truhn, Walt Woolbaugh (manager) Chet Holmes (sponsor); seated - Bill Owens, Jim Jones, Steve (Pip) Grausgruber (right-handed pitcher), Pete O’Brien, Tim Donahue, Jack Franks, Jack Barry. (Photo property of Evelyn Woolbaugh.)

Those were the days (1940) when every young boy could be seen (on any kind of field) playing baseball. Today, it seems, it is not much of a pastime, unless you go to college somewhere. In the 40s, 50s and even the 60s, you would see baseball leagues all over the country. I know right in this area, we had leagues - in the Susquehanna/Windsor area, the Starrucca area, the Montrose area, and the Triple Cities area had several. Now, none to be found. Not even too many softball leagues and teams. (Note: This photo was taken in front of a dugout at the Lanesboro baseball field.)

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Hole-In-One Nets $1000 For DA Legg

Pictured above (l-r) are District Attorney Legg and Mark Caterson, Branch Manager, Community Bank & Trust, Montrose Office.

Jason Legg, Susquehanna County District Attorney recently played in the tenth annual Mary Elizabeth Quinn Memorial Golf Tournament at Tall Pines Golf Course in Friendsville, PA where he made a hole in one on a par three hole. He is an associate of the Charles Aliano Law Firm of Montrose. For his accomplishment, he was awarded a $1000 US Savings Bond provided by Community Bank & Trust Co.

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Afterthoughts On Hurricane Ivan
By Gerald Hodges; The Racing Reporter

This past weekend was a little different. Due to Hurricane Ivan, which came ashore just east of Mobile, Alabama, I was not able to attend Sunday’s NASCAR races in New Hampshire.

Instead, I stayed home, and saw a lot of Ivan, a glimpse of President Busch, and a medium-size rat snake.

The weather people gave us ample time to take precautions before Ivan hit. Living just five miles from the coast, I boarded up our home on Wednesday and rode out the storm in a friend’s basement.

We had a portable generator and were able to watch the storm on television as it approached. The eye passed right over us. During this period, there was complete calm. Then the winds reversed themselves and started blowing all over again.

President Bush touring damage done by Hurricane Ivan in Florida.

By noon the next day, the winds had died down and we were able to drive the 30 miles back to our home. Along the way, we saw billboards and trees down, and damaged buildings and debris. The Mobile Bay Causeway, a five-mile long stretch of highway that is near sea level was completely flooded, along with all the restaurants and other buildings alongside the bay.

Mobile and the Mississippi Coast were spared the full brunt of the storm, because they were west of the eye. The strongest winds and tides are always on the east side of a storm.

The Alabama resort towns of Gulf Shores and Perdido Bay, along with the Florida Panhandle really received the heavy damage.

After nearly a week, residents of these areas haven’t been allowed back in. Most don’t have anything to go back to. It was 90 per cent devastation along the beaches. National Guardsmen allowed families in for five hours to gather whatever possessions they could in one area, and then the remaining structures will be bulldozed down.

My office was flooded and there was minor damage to the roof.

At home, we had three large trees blown down and some shingles off the roof.

Most families weren’t so lucky. Fortunately, we had a portable generator that still runs the refrigerator, coffee maker, lights, and fans.

Directly across the street from us a is family of five. Yesterday the wife used our washing machine to wash clothes for her three kids, and hang them on a makeshift clothesline.

Now, nearly a week after Florida's third deadly storm in weeks, some residents still haven’t been able to return to neighborhoods along coastal areas that had been evacuated and sealed off.

President Bush arrived in the Florida Panhandle early Sunday to tour the areas most devastated when Ivan howled ashore Thursday with 130 mph wind, spawning deadly tornadoes and a huge storm surge that gutted homes and businesses and washed out roads and bridges.

According to news reports more than a million people are without power across 13 states, leaving many in Florida's Panhandle and Alabama's Gulf Coast to sweat it out without air conditioning. At a Pensacola shopping center, people waited in cars or on foot for hours Saturday to receive necessities from Florida National Guard troops.

Hundreds of urban search and rescue workers scoured demolished neighborhoods Saturday, some using tracking dogs to look for victims in the rubble and along flooded river banks. In Escambia Bay, Florida, where a trucker was killed when a bridge collapsed, the Army Corps of Engineers was asked to use sonar to search for possible additional victims.

Even those who escaped the storm unscathed fought back frustration as life as they knew it ground to a halt.

Bill and Janie Sellers tried to salvage a few from things from their home Saturday near Gulf Shores. The couple could not stay in the house because of the stench of sewage and wet carpet and bedding.

Electricity will be off for another two weeks, but the major problem has been ice – or the lack of it. Tractor trailers bringing in ice from out of state are escorted by the Highway Patrol or National Guard.

After four days, the small town of Atmore, Alabama was still without ice and electricity.

As I said, my family was one of the lucky ones. My biggest frustrations were with a new chain saw, and Sunday at the close of the Nextel Cup race.

Before the storm, I had purchased a new Poulan chain saw at Walmart. But it wouldn’t run. I pulled on the cord more than 3,425 times, and it simply wouldn’t come to life. The three big oaks are still there.

On Sunday, I was able to get a glimpse of Pres. Bush as he toured Coastal Alabama.

But the biggest shock came Sunday afternoon while I was watching the race on television and just before Kurt Busch took the checkered flag in the Sylvania 300.

"Gerald," screamed my wife. "There’s a snake out here, and he’s right where Sadie lies. He’s a big one."

Sadie is my wife’s little Pekinese dog, and even though she loves me, I know if push came to shove, who would be the first to leave.

Talk about decision time, buddy that was one tough decision.

But I did give up seeing Busch win the race in favor of protecting my wife and dog from a venomous reptile.

"There he is, do something," she continued. "He might bite Sadie."

Lying stretched out near the edge of the house was about a two-foot long rat snake. Maybe his size made him look poisonous, but I knew he was harmless.

I tried to explain this was a harmless snake, but it was like talking to a wall. I even jokingly called him "Jake, the Snake." Finally, I gave up and went back inside.

"Sadie and I are going to a motel until that thing leaves," she shouted. "And what if he decides to move into the house? Then what are you going to do?"

Things did calm down eventually and I got my Sunday story out.

But in the back of my mind, I know that if Jake ever shows himself inside our home, Ivan was mild compared to the way my wife will be.

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