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MV U-14 Soccer Team Wins 5 County Cup

Dorunda, Scanlon Complete Careers In College By Earning All-Star Honors
By Tom Robinson

Anthony Dorunda capped his football career at Wilkes University by earning second-team All-Middle Atlantic Conference honors and helping the Colonels earn a spot in the ECAC South Bowl.

Dorunda, a Blue Ridge graduate who played quarterback at Susquehanna as part of the football co-sponsorship between the schools, earned the honor at tight end.

Dorunda finished with 25 catches for 211 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown capped a comeback from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter and allowed Wilkes to force overtime where it beat Lebanon Valley.

Showing he has not forgotten how to throw the ball, Dorunda took a lateral and threw a 28-yard touchdown pass against Delaware Valley.

Wilkes finished 6-5.

Mountain View graduate Joey Scanlon also landed a second-team, all-star spot from the Freedom Conference in men’s soccer despite missing almost half the season at Misericordia University with a knee injury.

A team Most Valuable Player and first-team, all-star last year as a junior, Scanlon had four goals and three assists in 12 games. He finished his career with 25 goals and 15 assists.

Scanlon had a goal and an assist when Misericordia opened the ECAC South men’s soccer tournament with a 3-1 in over Marywood University.

Joshua Pfahl, another Mountain View graduate, had an assist in the game. It was the only point of the season for Pfahl, a sophomore forward who appeared in 20 games for Misericordia (13-8).

The fall college sports season included Chris Kimble’s debut as a freshman at West Virginia Wesleyan, which went 9-2 as an NCAA Division II football team.

Kimble, a freshman tight end from Susquehanna, played in a 50-28 win over West Virginia State late in the regular season.

Rob Volk, a freshman quarterback from Montrose, was on the roster at Sacred Heart, another Division II football team.

Three Blue Ridge graduates ran women’s cross country at California University of Pennsylvania, a Division II program.

Sophomore Megan Kleiner was sixth among California runners when the Vulcans placed 12th out of 16 at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Women’s Championships.

Seniors Laurie Hall and Bethany Stone were also on the roster.

Hall was an ESPN the Magazine second-team All-Academic choice in track and cross country last year.

A pair of Susquehanna County graduates led their teams in the Colonial States Athletic Conference Women’s Cross Country Championships.

Kimberly Caines, a sophomore from Elk Lake, placed 13th in the 79-runner field to help Baptist Bible College finish third out of 11 teams.

Caines finished the 3.1-mile course in 20:18.10.

Jenna Fancher, a senior from Mountain View, finished in 21:16:35 to place first among Keystone College runners and 23rd overall. The Giants were fifth in the team standings.

Mike Kubus, a sophomore from Forest City, helped Keystone to a third-place finish out of seven teams in the men’s race. Kubus was 44th out of 60 individuals.

Two more freshmen from Elk Lake competed in cross country. Laura Nulton was the third runner on the Wilkes University women’s team in the season-ending NCAA East Regional. Brent Salsman was a member of the Misericordia University men’s team.

Fancher was named CSAC Runner of the Week early in the season for helping the team win the Keystone College Invitational.

Brackney Brotzman, a junior field hockey player from Montrose, took the CSAC Player of the Week award for Keystone at the same time.

Brotzman tied for second on the team in goals with six and also had two assists. She played all 19 games, 17 as a starter, for the Lady Giants.

Leah Simko, a senior from Mountain View, made the CSAC’s weekly Honor Roll in women’s volleyball for her efforts at Keystone. Simko led the Lady Giants in assists (548) and service points (85) and picked up an all-tournament award at the Kean University Invitational.

In women’s soccer, Keystone had been scoreless in the entire 15-game 2009 season.

Saleta Oakley, a sophomore from Mountain View, made sure there was no repeat of that when she assisted a goal just 57 seconds into the season.

Oakley finished with a goal and two assists while starting all 16 games as Keystone improved to 3-12-1.

Karin Mowry, a freshman goalie from Elk Lake, helped BBC go 12-10 and reach the semifinals of the National Christian College Athletic Association Division II national tournament.

Mowry played 16 games, including nine as a starter. She led the team in goals against average (1.70), save percentage (.761), goalie wins (nine) and shutouts (seven).

In golf, Brad Sparks, a senior from Forest City, is part of the University of Scranton golf team that is alone in third place at the midway point of the Empire 8 Conference Championships.

The Empire 8 conducts its golf championships with two rounds in the fall and two more in the spring.

Sparks tied for the fourth-best Scranton score in the opening round with a 9-over-par, 80 at the Yahnundasis Country Club in Whitesboro, N.Y.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Barry Brust made an American Hockey League season-high 52 saves on Thanksgiving Night to ruin the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ perfect road record while leading the Binghamton Senators to a 5-2 victory at the Broome County Arena.

The AHL East Division-leading Penguins (15-4-0-0) had started the season 9-0 on the road.

Defenseman Derek Smith scored on the power play in the first period then joined forwards Erik Condra and Jim O’Brien in finishing the night with a goal and two assists.

In high school football, the last two Lackawanna Football Conference playoff teams were each involved in blowouts Friday night.

Riverside opened a 30-point halftime lead on the way to a 36-0 rout of six-time state champion Southern Columbia in a Class A game at Valley View’s John Henzes/Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Allentown Central Catholic went up 47 points when it returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown on the way to a 54-14 victory over Abington Heights in a Class AAA meeting of unbeatens at Scranton Memorial Stadium.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Riverside (12-1) meets Schuylkill Haven (11-2) in a state Class A quarterfinal.

Last week’s predictions were 1-1 (50.0 percent), making our playoff record 11-5 (68.8 percent) and our season total 101-33 (75.4 percent).

This week’s prediction: Riverside 32, Schuylkill Haven 23.

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

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NASCAR Racing
By Gerald Hodges

Shakeup At Hendrick Motorsports

On the morning after Jimmie Johnson won his fifth Sprint Cup championship, Hendrick Motorsports announced that three Hendrick teams, all except Johnson’s would have different crew chiefs.

Jeff Gordon will move from the team led by crew chief Steve Letarte to the team led by crew chief Alan Gustafson; Mark Martin will move from Gustafson’s team to that of crew chief Lance McGrew; and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will move to Letarte’s team.

“It’s not one of those things that you can vote in,” Rick Hendrick said. “It’s one of those things that you have to pull the trigger and go do it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will have new crew chief.

“It’s probably one of the most radical moves I’ve made in my years in racing to do this many at one time. When you know the guys - these crew chiefs and drivers, I know well - I felt like the strong personalities, and knowing the motors, chassis and the bodies are all the same, it’s got to be the chemistry inside the team.”

The crew chiefs will keep the cars they have worked with; they will just be repainted and renumbered. The pit crews, for now, will stay with the crew chiefs they were working with at the end of the season.

Steve Letarte said he did not question Rick Hendrick’s decision to move him from working with four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon to Earnhardt Jr., who has struggled the last three seasons at Hendrick under crew chiefs Tony Eury Jr. and Lance McGrew.

“I have 100 percent faith in Mr. Hendrick and the decision he makes,” Letarte said. “I was excited for the opportunity. I was humbled. It’s a task that he has given me that is not a small task, it’s not an insignificant task.”

While Hendrick Motorsports was reorganizing their four teams, the down and almost out Richard Petty Motorsports announced they were downsizing from a four-team operation to two teams in 2011.

Team co-owner Richard Petty issued a statement on the organization's Sprint Cup plans. “Richard Petty Motorsports has completed its restructuring process and is now in the process of moving forward. RPM will shift from running four cars to two in the Cup Series and that is never an easy process for the people involved. Currently, we are concentrating on building two solid programs with AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel of the No. 43 entry and Marcos Ambrose in the No. 9 Ford. We are very fortunate to have an extremely loyal family of partners and are looking forward to the future.”

CUP DRIVERS BANNED FROM NATIONWIDE CHAMPIONSHIP

Nationwide Series teams expect that NASCAR will allow Sprint Cup drivers to compete in as many Nationwide races as they want next year, but that they will not earn points toward the series championship. NASCAR has not announced the change, but Nationwide owners believe that when a driver applies for his NASCAR license prior to the season, the driver must declare whether he is racing for points in Cup, Nationwide or the Truck Series.

“I don't think the Cup guys are going to be getting points at all if they're running the Nationwide Series,” team owner Rusty Wallace said last week. “Once they get their license, they're going to have to commit, do you want your points in the Nationwide Series, do you want your points in the Truck Series or do you want your points in the Cup Series? That's just a guess.”

NASCAR Chairman Brian France said an announcement would be made in January about the exact changes. The last five years have seen full-time Cup drivers win the Nationwide title, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski. Only two races last year were not won by Cup regulars, Justin Allgaier at Bristol and Boris Said at Montreal.

Keselowski and Edwards say they are committed to run full schedules next year, not just to their sponsors but to the crews that work on the cars.

A REAL AMERICAN PATRIOT

This past week, a tidbit of news in our local newspaper caught my eye.

Ann-Margret was being honored as Grand Marshal of the Veteran’s Day Parade in Mobile, Alabama.

I was not directly involved in the Vietnam War, but I was in the Navy and news about her visits to troops reached me onboard ship in the middle of the ocean.

She helped offset the negative war news, which was brought about in part, by Jane Fonda, who openly supported the Viet Cong.

Ann-Margret traveled to Vietnam with the United Service Organization, better known as the USO, and entertained troops on stage, along with Bob Hope and other Hollywood stars.

Ann-Margret in 1968 at Danang, Vietnam. Courtesy of Ann-Margret.com.

“I am genuinely humbled to be chosen to receive the Patriot of the Year award in such distinguished company,” she told the group gathered at a luncheon after the parade. “I’ve always had a deep appreciation for what our military does.

“I can never put into words what it was like looking out from a makeshift stage and seeing so many faces. I remember the applause and the laughter and then we would go home. But those men would have to face another day. You know each of you hold a very special place in my heart. And you represent the America I love and cherish.

“Freedom does not come cheap and I am grateful for all those who have served their country.”

America could use a lot more entertainers like Ann-Margret.

NOTE: The Sprint Cup Awards Banquet, which is being held in Las Vegas, will be shown Friday, December 3, 2010 on SPEED from 9:00-12:00 pm/ET.

Racing Trivia Question. Which former driver was known as “The Intimidator”?

Last Week’s Question: Richard Petty has 200 Cup wins, the most of any driver. Which driver has the second most number of wins? Answer. David Pearson with 105.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.

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MV U-14 Soccer Team Wins 5 County Cup

The Mt. View U-14 team went undefeated this year posting a 13-0 record. The team competes in the fall NEPSAY soccer league. Mt. View beat teams from the region including teams from Scranton, Valley View, North Pocono, Lakeland, Forest City, Carbondale, Elk Lake, Dunmore, Wallenpaupack, Mount Pocono, and Tunkhannock. The 5 County Cup was held the weekend of October 30-31 at Valley View Mellow Field. Pictured (l-r) above: 1st row - Kyle Watkins, Trystan Phillips, Ed Bognatz, Makenna Whitaker, Ewan Sands, Jacob Baranski; 2nd row - Coach Nelson Jesse, Stephen Jesse, Nik Estabrook, Chris White, Aaron Freeman, Masen Suhadolnik, Robert Perry, Jesse Gerfin, Ryan Lavin, Asst. Coach John Suhadolnik; missing from photo - Ed Kiefer, Jake Farnham.

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