Susquehanna and Montrose each suffered disappointing losses when the high school football season opened Friday night, but for different reasons.

The Sabers could not get the ball in from the 1 on the game’s final play and fell short on the road against highly-regarded Hanover Area, 15-12.

Montrose had its losing streak extended to 20 games on a night when it was once again in the Mercy Rule for the entire second half of a 48-14 loss at Nanticoke.

Susquehanna, the defending Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 champion, rallied into the lead in the second half.

Even after giving up what proved to be the game-winning score, the Sabers produced another shot at pulling out the victory.

Taking advantage of a face mask penalty that gave them first down at the 11, the Sabers moved close to another first down before their final fourth-down play fell short.

Parrish Bennett carried 22 times for 91 yards, caught two passes for 82 yards and scored both Hanover Area touchdowns. His 8-yard touchdown with 4:23 to play wiped out a rally in which Susquehanna had scored 12 straight points for a 12-7 lead.

Sean Stanley, who hit six of 11 passes for 127 yards, threw 15 yards to Austin Cowperthwait for the first touchdown in the third quarter. An earlier 52-yard pass to Jesse Pruitt set up the score.

Sophomore James Murnock took over when Greg Price, the team’s top returning rusher, left with an apparent ankle injury. Murnock scored on a 1-yard run with 8:17 to play to put the Sabers ahead.

The Hawkeyes came right back for the game-winner, moving 60 yards on nine plays. Bennett caught a 21-yard pass from Joe Ksiazkiewicz on a third-and-nine from the Sabers 29 then went off tackle for the score on the next play.

Pruitt led the Sabers with 49 yards on nine carries. Price and Murnock added 42 yards each.

Nanticoke got off and running when Montrose turned the ball over on its first two possessions.

Brian Maslowski carried 21 times for 161 yards and four touchdowns for the Trojans. He ran for 32- and 1-yard touchdowns in the first quarter after the Montrose turnovers for a 14-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game.

Maslowski scored again 23 seconds into the second quarter and Nanticoke added two more touchdowns for a 35-0 halftime lead.

The lead reached 42-0 before quarterback Jeremy Dibble scored Montrose’s first touchdown with 18 seconds left in the third quarter.

Following Maslowski’s last touchdown, Zach Loomis caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Dylan Heeman for Montrose’s other score with 1:22 left.

John Lawson led the Meteors in rushing with 41 yards on seven carries and receiving with two catches for 21 yards.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose finished the week as the Lackawanna League Northern Division leader in golf at 4-0.

Honesdale is 3-0 and Wallenpaupack is 2-0-1.

In girls’ tennis, Elk Lake is 2-2 for second place in Division 3.

COLLEGE CORNER

Brackney Brotzman, a senior from Montrose, is a forward on the Keystone College field hockey team.

Brotzman enters the season with 17 career goals and eight career assists. She was tied for second on the team in goals each of the past two seasons.

Keystone lost its first two games, 7-2 to King’s College and 4-3 to Vassar. Brotzman was held scoreless in both.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Northwest (1-0) is at Montrose (0-1) Friday and Holy Redeemer (0-1) is at Susquehanna (0-1) Saturday in non-league high school football games.

Our predictions for the opening weekend of the high school football season were 14-6 (70.0 percent), including 11-4 (73.3 percent) on games involving Lackawanna Football Conference teams. Games involving LFC teams will be picked throughout the remainder of the season.

This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: Northwest 29, MONTROSE 12; SUSQUEHANNA 44, Holy Redeemer 0; LAKELAND 32, Mid Valley 14; WYOMING VALLEY WEST 12, Abington Heights 7; Lackawanna Trail 36, LAKE-LEHMAN 24; VALLEY VIEW 44, Carbondale 0; WEST SCRANTON 35, Wyoming Area 15; Hanover Area 23, WESTERN WAYNE 19; North Pocono 24, BERWICK 22; PITTSTON AREA 19, Scranton 6; GAR 10, Old Forge 6; HOLY CROSS 33, Riverside 27; DUNMORE 49, Meyers 0; Delaware Valley 21, EAST STROUDSBURG SOUTH 20; Wallenpaupack 30, EAST STROUDSBURG NORTH 20; PLEASANT VALLEY 38, Honesdale 0; DALLAS 35, Scranton Prep 22.

In field hockey, the Wyoming Valley Conference season gets underway Wednesday. Elk Lake is home against GAR and Montrose is home with Pittston Area.

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

Keselowski Speaks His Mind

Brad Keselowski has had quite an eventful past few weeks. He won four weeks ago at Pocono after breaking his ankle in a test session and has mounted a first, second and third place finish in the last three weeks. He also won earlier this summer at Kansas Speedway.

Brad Keselowski and young fan at Richmond last week.

After his win last Saturday at Bristol, Keselowski is the hottest driver on the circuit.

And despite his young age, he comes across as being very honest. Which can get you into trouble in the NASCAR circus.

In a Twitter post, he suggested that Danica Patrick’s “marketing strategy only serves to undermine the future credibility of female racers who wish to race in the Cup Series based on racing skills and mental ability.”

But what do other female athletes think when they see Patrick appearing on television in a skimpy swimsuit while beer-drinking men gaze and point?

Keselowski said Patrick has created “a Pandora’s box” for all female racers.

“If she doesn’t succeed, no female will get the chance for years to come,” Keselowski said.

Some reporters jeered Keselowski for daring to express those views.

I commend him.

During a recent appearance at Richmond International Raceway to cook for some fans, Keselowski gave his take on everything from 9/11 to the current NASCAR Chase situation.

“I remember that day (9/11) very well, as I'm sure a lot of people do,” he said. “But specifically where I was and so forth, I was a senior in high school at that time, and I woke up that morning and went to school, which was good (laughing). I didn't always do that. But I went to school, and I was actually in, ironically enough, a current events class, which had a TV and all the technology to keep up with the news. So CNN and those style channels were on, right when it happened.

“It was kind of obviously a surreal day. The way my schedule was at that time I also was in a correspondence style class, work study class, to where later that afternoon by lunchtime I left and went to work in my family's race shop. So I was able to spend the rest of the day there just kind of reflecting on everything that was going on, and obviously in quite a bit of awe.

“When I think of 9/11 now, I think of obviously how it affected a lot of people in my generation, you know, a lot of guys of my age that don't have a college degree and so forth, joined the military and are out there doing those things and making those sacrifices. It's probably had a larger effect on my generation than any other, the events of that day.

“But I guess it hasn't affected me tremendously other than the social relationships that I have with people that have gone on and served in the military and so forth and what that means to me and my generation.”

Keselowski comes from a racing family. His father raced, and his mom and dad tried to run a small truck series which didn’t last too long.

“Growing up with a family race team that had varying levels of success was perhaps in some ways a blessing, some ways a curse,” he continued. “A blessing because I got some inside knowledge behind the sport and how it works and so forth, but then obviously sometimes there's things that come from that, whether you have preconceived notions on how things are going to work, or sometimes you dream small when all you've known is small. But I always consider it a blessing, and I certainly learned a lot and enjoyed some great times with my family.

“I think the successes and the failures that you have with your family you probably hold nearer and dearer to your heart than anything else in this world, and I certainly still do to this day.

“What I learned the most from my dad, was how to be self-reliant and make things happen, make a lot happen with a little, make the most of your resources.

“I think we've seen different variations of the Chase and I think this is probably the best one in my opinion we've seen yet. NASCAR has put an emphasis on winning for the wild cards, and I think that's good. I think there's a good pool of drivers, and I think a lot of them can win it, which I don't know if we've always seen in the past.

“I think when we originally saw the Chase instituted it devalued some other races, and I think the wild card system helps bring value back to races that are not in the Chase.

“I'm feeling pretty good about it, but nothing is ever a certainty until it's done. I think when you look at it, we're obviously not mathematically locked in. Until you're mathematically locked in, then it doesn't really matter. I think we're going to continue the same path we've been down, trying to win races, trying to be smart, trying to build stronger for the Chase, both in momentum and confidence, and also tangible things such as making sure we keep good cars in one piece and not tearing them up.

“I think there's a lot of goals over the next couple weeks that all lead into ramping up for the Chase, but I don't see us doing anything differently than what we're doing right now.

“I think at the end of the day - like obviously we're not curing cancer, we're just driving race cars. There's a time to be serious, and certainly when I'm at the track and focused on the task at hand, I can be just as serious as anyone else.

“I can be the guy that will walk by a fan and not sign an autograph; if it's time to focus, it's time to focus, and when it's time to play, it's time to play. Work hard, play hard is kind of the motto that I have, and when it's time to work, we work; when it's time to play, we play and we have fun. And I think the two fuel and feed off each other.”

Weekend Racing: The Sprint Cup and Nationwide teams are at the .75-mile Richmond International Speedway for the 26th and last race before the Chase begins.

Fri., Sept 9, Nationwide Virginia College 250, race 27 of 34, Starting time: 7:30 p.m.; TV: ESPN2.

Sat., Sept. 10, Sprint Cup Pistachio 400, race 26 of 36, Starting time: 7:30 p.m.; TV: ABC.

All times are Eastern.

Racing Trivia Question: How many drivers will be in this year’s Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship?

Last Week’s Question: Who was the first Truck Series driver to win four consecutive races? Answer. Ron Hornaday.

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