TAYLOR - Montrose went out and found a serious test for its boys’ basketball season opener.

The Meteors fell short in a trip to defending Lackawanna League Division 2 and District 2 Class AA champion Riverside where they faced a team led by Jerry Kincel, the league’s top scorer a year ago.

“I didn’t know if we could play physical with people,” Montrose coach Todd Smith said after the 58-44 loss Friday night. “Obviously we can.”

The Meteors and Vikings went after each other with intense and physical pressure throughout the contest.

Montrose was hurt by two technical fouls but still had a shot late in the game when Riverside ran into serious foul trouble, losing two players and having two others finish with four.

“Getting in the double bonus in the third quarter is not a good thing,” Riverside coach Mike Morgan said.

Kincel, however, made sure it did not matter. He finished with 29 points and nine rebounds.

The Vikings forced 29 turnovers.

Nico Munley led the defensive effort with five steals while Kincel was one of three who had four steals each.

“We had too many turnovers,” Montrose coach Todd Smith said, “but they’re a good team.

“They play hard.”

Vishnesky also had six assists.

Michael King scored 11 points with the help of three 3-pointers, including two in the first 2:10 to assure that Riverside would never trail.

“We’ve been having a lot of trouble with Montrose over the years,” Morgan said. “Any time we get a win in the opener, we’re happy.”

Colby Major led Montrose with 16 points, four steals and three assists. Cameron Dean added 14 points and nine rebounds.

Major made all four of his shots from the floor, including three 3-pointers.

The Meteors missed opportunities at the foul line where they went 17-for-30.

“Our foul shooting was terrible,” Smith said. “Otherwise, we would have been in it right until the end.”

WEEK IN REVIEW

Sawyer Dearborn led the way as Blue Ridge opened its boys’ basketball season by winning the title in the Sayre Tip-Off Tournament.

Dearborn hit six 3-pointers and scored 22 points in a 52-42 victory over host Sayre in Friday’s opener.

The Raiders used a late 13-point run to rally from six down in the fourth quarter and beat Waverly, N.Y., 56-51, in Saturday’s final.

Dearborn finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Susquehanna won its first game under new coach Lawrence Tompkins, beating host Afton, N.Y., 61-43, Friday night.

Mountain View took third in the Hawley Rotary Tournament, beating Western Wayne, 51-47, after losing to Wallenpaupack, 45-23, in Friday’s opener.

Elk Lake fell to visiting Carbondale, 59-56, in the Red Wallace Memorial Game.

Carbondale then defeated Forest City, 47-35, Sunday in a first-round Finan Tournament game at Carbondale.

In girls’ basketball, Montrose defeated Valley View, 41-23, in a Friday opener.

Elk Lake and Blue Ridge finished third in tournaments.

Elk Lake downed Susquehanna, 59-43, for third place in the Tunkhannock Kiwanis Tournament Saturday after each lost openers Friday.

Blue Ridge beat Candor, N.Y., 27-25, Saturday for third place in the Sayre Tip-Off Tournament.

Holy Cross defeated Mountain View, 65-26.

In professional hockey, Matt Rust scored early Wednesday night, then the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins held on for the final 55:09 for a 1-0 victory over the host Binghamton Senators in an American Hockey League game.

Scott Munroe had 25 saves to shut out Binghamton for the second time this season.

COLLEGE CORNER

Brandon Stone, a sophomore from Susquehanna, is a 6-foot-2 guard on the Misericordia University men’s basketball team that won its first five games before dropping two of three to make its record 6-2.

Stone has played a total of five minutes in two games. He is 1-for-2 from the line for one point and has a blocked shot.

As a freshman, Stone appeared in eight games and scored seven points.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Lackawanna League girls’ basketball season opens Tuesday, December 20.

Defending champion Montrose is home against Lackawanna Trail in a Division 3 opener. In other Division 3 games: Lakeland plays at Mountain View, Forest City is at Susquehanna and Elk Lake is at Blue Ridge.

Forest City won the second-half division title before losing an all-season playoff to Montrose. The Lady Foresters then won the District 2 Class A championship.

The opener could present one of the top challenges to Montrose, which returns Dallas Ely, the division’s leading scorer, and Sarah Krupinski to the starting lineup.

Lakeland and Lackawanna Trail could join Forest City as the top threats.

Blue Ridge got its only four wins against Susquehanna a year ago, but could be ready to move up with the entire starting lineup returning.

The Lady Sabers, who were winless, have a new coach in Brian Niblock.

CORRECTION

Jeff Wayman, the Susquehanna punter who was a second-team, all-star on the Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 all-star team selected by www.northeastpafootball.com, was misidentified in last week’s sports column.

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

Patrick Plans To Be “Aggressive”

In a recent interview on ESPN, Danica Patrick said she is an “aggressive” driver. But other statements by her make me question the sincerity of her motives.

Danica Patrick at Kansas, 2011.

“NASCAR reminds me of growing up racing go-karts and how much I loved it,” she said. “The fact that stock cars have bumpers invigorates the rougher side of me that's been tempered by the inability in open-wheel racing to touch anyone. To be able to go out on the track and stake your place excites me. The crazy thing is that I didn't even drive a stock car until I'd already signed a two-year deal to run a partial Nationwide schedule. I had friends in NASCAR who knew my driving style and thought I'd fit in there. So I took a huge leap of faith.

“When I was a kid, I was one of the most aggressive drivers out there. I'd go from 30th to winning a heat race in eight laps because I'd come up behind someone and bump him entering the corner. You don't have to make contact to be aggressive, but when you make a move, you stick it. You take the car to the limit. It's about confidence but respect at the same time. I race everyone fair. If they're not fair back to me, well, then I know where it's going.”

Patrick's long-awaited debut in the Sprint Cup Series will come in the 2012 season-opening Daytona 500.

She will race a No. 10 Sprint Cup Chevrolet, bearing the number she first used in karting, during Daytona's Speedweeks, where she currently will need to qualify on time. Her schedule will also include events at Darlington, Bristol, Atlanta, Chicagoland, Dover, Texas and Patrick's home of Phoenix.

Her home is currently in Scottsdale, Ariz., near Phoenix. She has no plans to relocate, even considering she'll have 43 stock car races on her docket next year.

“I go [to the shops] when I need to go and I'll go when they install a new seat in the car and get to be friends with everybody,” Patrick continued. “But let's face it; we're going to spend 33 weekends together in Nationwide and eight to 10 weekends in Cup together - so we spend a lot of time together.

“I'm always available by phone and if they need me to fly to Charlotte that's exactly what I'll do. But I don't feel the need to set-up shop [near Charlotte] - I don't get that many days off [smiling] so to be honest I probably wouldn't be at the shop that many days.”

Which leads me to believe Patrick might not be as serious as she lets on about her racing.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. hardly ever came to the race shop during the week, but he knew his stuff.

Patrick has yet to start a Cup race.

Her statement about not moving to the Charlotte area might be a signal that she is more interested in being able to stay home and market herself than race. Go Daddy, her sponsor is located in Arizona, which means she will be available for weekly publicity shoots and stunts.

It seems to me anyone just getting into Cup racing would want to learn more about the sport by associating with other drivers away from the track, in addition to establishing a comraderie, which would help her during a race.

Apparently Patrick has other plans. Her schedule doesn’t appear to be that of a serious Cup racer.

Will her role be a sexy, laid-back, dominating female constantly appearing on television as a wannabee racing star, or will she be a real hands on, in-your-face type racer?

For the fans sake and her own integrity, I hope she doesn’t disappoint.

GRUBB HIRED AS HAMLIN’S CREW CHIEF

Darian Grubb, who guided Tony Stewart to the 2011 Sprint Cup Series title, will become crew chief for Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin nearly won the 2010 title, losing the championship lead in the final race, but in 2011 he went from an eight-win season to a one-win season where he finished ninth in the final standings.

That led to the hiring of the 36-year-old Grubb, who was offered a position in the Hendrick Motorsports engineering department. But Grubb still wanted to crew chief after spending the last three years with Tony Stewart.

“I’m thrilled to join Joe Gibbs Racing,” Grubb said. “The chance to work with Denny is something I’m excited about. When you sit down with [owner] Joe and [team president] J.D. Gibbs, you can’t help but be excited about this opportunity and the team aspects of JGR.

“There is no question about the level of support you get here and I’m looking forward to working with everyone across the entire organization.”

Grubb said he does not plan to bring anyone from SHR with him to JGR, and he hopes to attend a track test with Hamlin soon so they can get acclimated to each other before the January test at Daytona.

While the crew chief situation is settled for Hamlin, JGR still has to make a decision whether to keep crew chief Greg Zipadelli with Joey Logano after a year where they struggled to 24th in the standings.

Zipadelli has been rumored as a candidate to rejoin good friend Stewart as his competition director.

“We put a good bit of effort into making sure we made Darian feel like this could be a great fit for him,” Gibbs said. “That’s all we’re really focused on right now. I’m sure we’ll have other discussions [with Zipadelli] in the future, which we do every year.”

Racing Trivia Question: What year did Johnny Benson win the Nationwide Series title?

Last Week’s Question: Mark Martin has never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. How many times has he finished as runner-up? Answer. Four times (1990, ’94, ’98, 2002).

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

Mountain View faced a 2-1 halftime deficit in the District 2 Class A boys’ soccer championship game.

Two goals by Colby Thomas, 4:14 into the second half and again 1:49 later, fixed that.

When Holy Cross closed within, 4-3, with 7:39 left in the game at Scranton Memorial Stadium, Thomas again put together two goals to lock up the district title with a 6-3 victory.

The Eagles found themselves behind again, 1-0, to District 11 champion Schuylkill Haven in the first round of the state tournament.

Thomas again provided the answer with a two-goal combination, first tying the game late in the half, then winning it with less than two minutes to play to send Mountain View into the state quarterfinals with a 2-1 victory.

For his ability to string goals together in Mountain View’s most important games of the year, Thomas is the Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month for November.

The Eagles were eliminated from state play with a 4-0 loss to District 3 champion York Catholic.

Thomas was not just strong in November.

The sophomore finished up October by scoring two goals in a 4-0 district semifinal victory over Wyoming Seminary on Halloween.

Thomas also led Division 1 of the Lackawanna League in goals (22) and points (52) while helping the Eagles to a second-place finish against the top competition in District 2. Division 1 of the Lackawanna League produced all three District 2 champions, including Class AAA champion Abington Heights, which suffered its only regular-season loss at the hands of Mountain View.

“Playing in Division I definitely pushes us to the next level,” said Thomas, who finished with 31 goals and nine assists overall. “When we get to districts, it’s just another tough game.”

Thomas follows the same approach in developing his game personally.

In a phone interview from Alabama, where he was playing with the Lehigh Valley United ’95 team in the National League last week, he explained that he first branched out to play in additional games in leagues at Riverfront Sports in Scranton. When Thomas’ game reached a higher level two years ago, he joined the United, who finished third in the country in their age group last season.

Lehigh Valley will go to Florida for the Disney Showcase later this month and again in February for three more games in the National League, which brings the top club teams in the country together.

“When I started to really excel, we felt we needed to expand to Lehigh Valley,” said Thomas, who was coached by his father Roger Thomas on the youth level and now as a high school player. “I’m really grateful for all the opportunities I’ve received.”

Thomas also had a standout season in baseball as a freshman second baseman for the Eagles last spring. He received the team’s Gold Glove award as its top fielder and was among the top three hitters.

Colby is the son of Roger and Robin Thomas of Kingsley.

The Denise Reddon Christmas Basketball Girls Tournament will be held at Susquehanna Community High school as follows. Tuesday, December 27: Game 1 - 2:00 p.m., Montrose vs. Blue Ridge; Game 2 - 3:30 p.m., Elk Lake vs. Susquehanna. Thursday, December 29: Consolation Game - 2:00 p.m., Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2; Girls Championship - 6:00 p.m., Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2.

The Susquehanna County Boys Christmas Tournament, also to be held at Susquehanna Community High School, is scheduled as follows. Tuesday, December 27: Game 1 - 6:00 p.m., Montrose vs. Blue Ridge; Game 2 - 7:30 p.m., Elk Lake vs. Susquehanna. Thursday, December 29: Consolation Game - 3:30 p.m., Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2; Boys Championship - 7:30 p.m., Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2.