Chris Snee, a Montrose High School graduate, got 2012 off to a roaring start by climbing to the top, winning the biggest team prize in American professional sports for the second time as a starter with the New York Giants.
By the time the year was over, two teams of Susquehanna County athletes rose to the highest level available in high school sports within weeks of each other. The Elk Lake girls’ cross country team, like Snee, reached the ultimate level for the second time, again winning a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association championship. The Mountain View boys’ soccer team followed, breaking new ground with its PIAA championship.
Those efforts stand above the rest, but were just three of a series of accomplishments in another successful year for county teams and athletes.
Basketball season, once the time when the county shined brightest on the highest levels of high school competition, was again an exciting stretch. Montrose capped it with a state semifinal appearance in Class AA, extending a season that saw Susquehanna claim its first district boys’ title in 51 years.
While Snee took home the biggest prize in professional sports, another Montrose graduate, Rich Thompson, made a dramatic return to the highest level of professional baseball.
A look back at the year on fields and gymnasiums for county residents and former residents has to start in Indianapolis on the first weekend of February.
Snee started at right offensive guard for the New York Giants, who turned back the New England Patriots, 21-17, in the Super Bowl for the second time in five seasons.
The title came at the end of a season in which Snee had some serious scares because of a concussion, but only missed one full game.
“I pride myself on myself on playing through the injuries,” said Snee, who had his run of 101 straight regular-season starts in the National Football League trenches come to an end on the way to the Super Bowl. “I have a lot of stuff going on every year and I kind of take pride that I can push through these things and kind of set an example for other guys.
“I’m playing with pain and I’m out there in practice.”
Snee battled again with leg problems throughout 2012 while keeping the Giants in playoff contention during an up-and-down season as defending champion.
Thompson left behind the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, where he was arguably the most popular player in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies top farm team, in a trade that the Tampa Bay Rays.
That trade gave Thompson a promotion and led directly to the first hit of his Major League career.
When Thompson singled to drive in Sean Rodriguez from second in what would ultimately be a 5-3 loss, the Tampa fans responded with a standing ovation and teammate B.J. Upton made sure the ball was saved for him.
“It was great – you never know how long it’s going to be or if it it’ll ever come,” Thompson said of his first hit, which came eight years after he had gone hitless in a six-game debut with the Kansas City Royals.
Thompson went back to the minors, then returned to Tampa for a September call-up. He went 2-for-22 (.091) in 24 games with six stolen bases and five runs scored.
Mountain View broke new ground as the first Susquehanna County team and the first Lackawanna League member to win a state soccer championship.
Three dominant players and a group of determined, role players produced a combination that overwhelmed Division 3 of the Lackawanna League and sent a long-successful Mountain View programs two rounds further than ever before by outscoring four state opponents, 15-5.
“The three keys were right up the middle,” Roger Thomas said after coaching the first team state champion in school history.
Zeb Cross was at midfield where he produced 39 goals and 42 assists.
Thomas’ two sons, Colby and Dylan, led the offense and defense. Colby scored 55 goals and assisted on 10. Dylan, despite his defensive role as center back, still managed 14 goals and 10 assists.
Austin Mack made the long run necessary to convert Colby Thomas’ pass into the only goal of the state championship game with Sewickley Academy.
From there, the Eagles packed it in and played defense, protecting their lead with the help of a tremendous save by goalkeeper Bobby Pfahl.
“We put 11 guys behind the ball and just played defense,” coach Thomas said.
Mountain View reached the final by rallying for a 3-2 semifinal victory over two-time defending state champion New Hope-Solebury.
Elk Lake returned to the top in girls’ cross country, winning the Class A title in the first season since the PIAA switched from two to three classifications in the sport.
The Lady Warriors won the state Class AA championship in 2010.
Jenny VanEtten and Elizabeth Trowbridge earned individual medals while leading the team championship performance. VanEtten was fourth overall on the Hershey Parkview Cross Country Course while Trowbridge was 13th.
Montrose finished eighth.
Elk Lake also had a series of state runner-up finishes.
Luke Jones was second in the boys’ cross country race to help the Warriors to a second-place team finish. Jones, who earlier in the year had finished eighth in the state in Class AA boys’ track in the 3200 meters, went on to place 19th out of 169 runners in the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals Boys’ Championship Race Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y.
Adam Phillips finished out his career by earning second- and fifth-place medals at the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Bucknell University.
Phillips, who is now in the lineup at Division I Rider University, was second in the Class AA 100-yard breaststroke, finishing in 58.04 seconds. He was fifth in the 200 individual medley.
Phillips won District 2 titles in both events to help Elk Lake to a best-ever, fourth-place team finish.
The Elk Lake 3200-meter girls’ relay team finished third in Class AA at the PIAA Track and Field Championships. Maria Trowbridge, Katie VanEtten, Kirsten Hollister and Jenny VanEtten made up the team.
The Montrose girls’ basketball team ended in the equivalent of a third-place tie in the state in Class AA after reaching the semifinals.
Along the way, Dallas Ely became the school’s all-time leader in career scoring. She had a then career-high 37 points in the district tournament and topped it with a 41-point game in the state tournament.
Montrose was the only team to win any of the six Lackawanna League basketball divisions without a playoff in at least one of the halves. The Lady Meteors went unbeaten in 14 league games, ended Dunmore’s six-year District 2 championship run with a 49-45 victory and eventually stretched their winning streak to 26 games.
The last two wins featured fourth-quarter comebacks in the second and third rounds of the state tournament.
Ely had 19 of her 41 points in the fourth quarter of a 55-49 win over Philadelphia’s Carver Engineering & Sciences. She made her final 15 free throws, including six in the last 5:12, in a 27-point effort during a 52-50 victory over Delone Catholic.
Before moving right into the starting lineup at Division II West Chester University, Ely was a first-team, all-state selection in Class AA.
Carly Erdmann was a second-team choice in Class A for Forest City, which won two state tournament games and had a halftime lead on state champion Steelton-Highspire.
The Mountain View boys’ soccer and Montrose girls’ basketball teams were among those from the county that won District 2 titles.
Elk Lake swept all available team and individual cross country championships.
Running in thick mud on their home course, Jones won the individual title as part of the Elk Lake boys’ championship. Trowbridge won a gold medal while helping the Elk Lake girls to their championship.
Mountain View swept both Class A soccer titles for the second straight year and the Lady Eagles went on to also make history as the first Lackawanna League team to win a state girls’ game.
Susquehanna’s 51-year boys’ basketball title drought – dating back to the days of the former District 12 – ended when Austin Cowperthwait, Andrzej Tomczyk and Cole Mallery led the way in a 14-for-17, fourth-quarter foul shooting effort to end Old Forge’s streak of five straight District 2 Class A boys’ basketball titles, 53-45.
In girls’ volleyball, Susquehanna advanced to the District 2 Class A championship match before falling to unbeaten Lackawanna League champion Dunmore.
Blue Ridge’s Zach Edwards won a District 2 Class AA wrestling championship.
Three individuals and one relay team won District 2 Class AA track and field titles.
Brandon Russell won the pole vault and John Lawson the javelin for Montrose and Sean Stanley won the triple jump for Blue Ridge in the boys’ meet.
Allison Lewis, Meghan Gilhool, Myra Lattimore and Samantha Bennici formed the winning 1600 relay team for the Montrose girls.
The Mountain View boys’ soccer team, Montrose girls’ basketball team and Montrose baseball team all had perfect league records while winning Lackawanna League Division 3 championships.
Mountain View was unbeaten with one tie on the way to its Lackawanna League Division 4 girls’ soccer championship.
The Montrose softball team also won a division title.
Montrose won the first half of the Division 3 boys’ basketball race, but lost an all-season championship game.
Both Elk Lake cross country teams were second overall among 22 Lackawanna League teams while finishing first in Class A.
The year’s other highlights at Montrose included winning the Class AA girls’ title at the Jordan Relays track meet and ending a 35-game football losing streak with a 27-8 win over Holy Cross.
Dozens of former county athletes continued to compete on the college level.
Among their highlights:
Erin Keene, a senior third baseman from Blue Ridge, helped Cornell University to the Ivy League softball playoffs by hitting a team-high eight home runs. She made more than 100 career starts and finished fourth in the league in home runs her final season.
Elk Lake graduate Brooke Darling, who was the 2011 Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Year, took over as the starting pitcher at Division I Columbia University as a freshman softball player.
Baptist Bible College catcher Karin Mowry, an Elk Lake graduate, was the Colonial States Athletic Conference softball co-Player of the Year and ranked in the NCAA Division III national leaders in several statistics. Mowry was 12th with a .493 batting average, 16th with 1.2 runs per game, 19th in fewest strikeouts (3 in 143 at-bats) and 25th with a .538 on-base percentage.
Susquehanna graduate Brandon Stone went to the NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament with Misericordia University.
Ellen Squier from Elk Lake earned second-team CSAC women’s cross country honors when she finished 14th in the conference championships at McDade Park in Scranton while running for Cairn University.
Dan Kempa, a Blue Ridge graduate who played football for Susquehanna, set a school record in the King’s College season finale and received a pair of honors for his effort. Kempa was selected as the King’s Most Valuable Player of the Mayor’s Cup and Middle Atlantic Conference Offensive Player of the Week after catching a career-high 10 passes for a school-record 237 yards in a 44-32 loss to Wilkes University. He scored touchdowns on three of the catches and also had 102 return yards.
Susquehanna graduate Dustin Barton shot a 4-under-par, 68 at the Brookdale Invitational Tournament in New Jersey to lead Lackawanna College to a school record team score. His 68 tied for the lowest in the country on the season in junior college golf.
Former Montrose athlete Piper Frick Davis was inducted into the Marywood University Athletic Hall of Fame. The 2002 Marywood graduate won multiple honors as a four-year field hockey and basketball player at the school.
Before heading off to college to become a teammate of Kempa’s at King’s, Susquehanna’s Cowperthwait caught a 61-yard touchdown pass to help the City pull away for a 41-10 victory over the County in the 78th annual Dream Game before 6,746 at Scranton Memorial Stadium.
Scranton’s Matt Byrne and Heidi Peoples made it a hometown sweep of the Steamtown Marathon, which begins each year in Forest City. Byrne became the first three-time overall champion. Peoples matched Charlene Lyford for the record of three women’s titles.
Off-field news included the realignment of Lackawanna Interscholastic Athletic Association sports. The move generally pointed county schools back toward the days of the Northeast Athletic Conference or its predecessor, the Susquehanna League, for divisional competition. It also created controversy when it forced Mountain View down to a lower division in soccer, setting up a series of drubbings of overmatched teams as the Eagles got ready to make the state title run without the benefit of competitive league games.
Nearby, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees spent a season on the road while PNC Field in Moosic was being reconstructed. The team still won a division title, helping earn Dave Miley Minor League Manager of the Year honors from Baseball America magazine.
The team, which has since been renamed the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, will return in April.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Wyoming Seminary rallied in the second half to defeat visiting Susquehanna, 52-40, Dec. 18 in a non-league meeting of boys basketball unbeatens.
Cole Mallery led the Sabers with 20 points in the loss. Mark Zappe added eight points and three assists.
Susquehanna had won its first four games.
Elk Lake crushed Afton, N.Y., 75-20, to end the night as the last unbeaten basketball team – boys or girls – from the county.
Tanner Reyan scored 16 points while Nick Dudock had 15 and Ryan Heft 12 to lead the Warriors.
In professional hockey, the Binghamton Senators rallied from a three-goal deficit in the final 16:08 to defeat the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 4-3, in an American Hockey League game Wednesday.
Shane Prince scored twice, including the game-winner with 2:45 left, and Robin Lehner made 36 saves for the Senators.
COLLEGE CORNER
Sara Krupinski, a freshman from Montrose, and Cassie Erdmann, a sophomore from Forest City, are members of the King’s College women’s basketball team that is off to a 4-3 start.
Krupinski has played 30 minutes in five games, scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds. She also has two assists and a blocked shot.
The 5-foot-7 guard is 4-for-15 from the floor, including 1-for-6 on 3-pointers, and 1-for-1 from the line.
Erdmann has two points, a rebound, an assist and a blocked shot in 10 minutes in her only appearance.
The 5-foot-9 guard was 0-for-4 from the floor, including 0-for-3 on 3-pointers, and 2-for-2 from the line.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Both holiday tournaments, sponsored by the Community Foundation of Susquehanna and Wyoming Counties, will be held Thursday and Friday at Elk Lake.
The girls will play in the Primary Center gym while the boys will play at Elk Lake High School.
The Denise Reddon Memorial Tournament opens with the Susquehanna and Montrose girls playing at 5:15 Wednesday. Blue Ridge and Elk Lake are scheduled to follow at 6:30.
The Susquehanna County Christmas Tournament for boys will have the same matchups. The Susquehanna-Montrose game is set for 6 and the Blue Ridge-Elk Lake game is scheduled for 7:15.
The following night follows the same schedule. The consolation girls game is 5:15, the consolation boys is 6, the championship girls is 6:30 and the championship boys is 7:15.
Elsewhere, the Forest City girls will compete in the Honesdale Jaycees Tournament Wednesday and Friday. The Lady Foresters open against Western Wayne Wednesday at 4:15.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
