Montrose and Susquehanna added a little something extra to their football rivalry in 2012 by playing for a trophy for the first time in a game that is now billed as the Battle for the Bluestone.
Susquehanna will do its part to keep interest in the game high in the year ahead. School officials have decided to make the Sabers’ annual home game under temporary lights the night they face Montrose.
The Oct. 11 game will be the only night game of the season at William Emminger Memorial Field.
“It seems that we draw a bigger crowd for the night games,” said Kyle Cook, who will be in his first season as Susquehanna’s head football coach.
The schedule is set for the high school football season.
Both Susquehanna and Montrose will begin the regular season on the last weekend of August and end it on the first day of November.
The Sabers open Friday night August 30 at Western Wayne. The Meteors open at home against Carbondale in the only Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 game of the opening weekend.
Susquehanna plays its five divisional games during the final five weeks of the regular season. Montrose plays its other four divisional games in Weeks 6-9 of the 10-week schedule.
The rest of the Susquehanna schedule is: Sept. 7, NORTHWEST; Sept.14, NANTICOKE; Sept. 20, at Riverside; Sept. 27, LAKELAND; Oct. 5, at Holy Cross; Oct. 18, at Lackawanna Trail; Oct. 26, CARBONDALE; Nov. 1, at Old Forge.
The remainder of the Montrose schedule is: Sept. 6, LAKE-LEHMAN; Sept. 13, at Tunkhannock; Sept. 20, HONESDALE; Sept. 27, at Western Wayne; Oct. 4, OLD FORGE; Oct. 18, HOLY CROSS; Oct. 25, at Lackawanna Trail; Nov. 1, at Northwest.
The first Battle for the Bluestone came down to the final play with Susquehanna hanging on for an 18-14 victory at Montrose by intercepting a pass in the end zone.
The game actually takes in players from four of the county's six high schools. Elk Lake students are included on the Montrose team and Blue Ridge players are part of the Susquehanna program as part of cooperative sponsorship in the sport.
WEEK IN REVIEW
The Binghamton Mets and Cesar Puello continued their torrid pace by winning three out of four games in an Eastern League series with the Trenton Thunder, the Class AA farm team of the New York Yankees.
Binghamton reached the 50-win mark prior to July 1 for the first time in franchise history when it defeated Trenton, 5-4, Sunday.
The win was the third in four games in the series against the Thunder, giving the Eastern Division-leading Mets their 10th straight series victory and a 19-5 record for June.
Puello is batting .429 with eight home runs and 16 RBI in 11 games vs. Trenton. He has 15 home runs overall on the season.
After Trenton scored in the top of the first, Puello answered with a two-run homer off of Michael Pineda.
Pineda, who made the 2011 All-Star Game while pitching for Seattle, is on an injury rehabilitation assignment from the New York Yankees while trying to recover from a shoulder injury.
Jeff Walters picked up his league-high 20th save.
Binghamton won the first game of the series Friday and split a doubleheader Saturday.
LOOKING AHEAD
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders manager Dave Miley will match Rick Sweet as the only people to manage three times in the 26-year history of the Triple-A All-Star Game.
Miley will manager the International League against the Pacific Coast League in the 26th annual game July 17 in Reno, Nev.
Miley received his third IL Manager of the Year award and was named Baseball America Minor League Manage of the Year for his work in the 2012 season. He led the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees to five IL North Division titles in six seasons before the team was renamed this season before its return from a year of playing all of its games on the road.
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.
KENSETH WINS AT KENTUCKY
Matt Kenseth wins at Kentucky. Furnished by NASCAR
SPARTA, Ken.—Jimmie Johnson led 198 laps of Sunday’s 267-lap Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway, but it was Matt Kenseth that led the last 20 on the way to his fourth victory of the season.
Johnson at one point in the race was over 13-seconds, ahead of the second-place driver. His flawless performance was overshadowed by a terrible restart with 24 laps to go in the 267-lap race.
It all started when Brian Vickers hit the outside wall on lap 240, after blowing a right front tire to bring out a caution. All the lead lap cars pitted. Johnson took on two outside tires and fuel, while Kenseth only took on fuel. Back on the track, Kenseth was lined up first on the outside, while Johnson was second on the inside.
When the green flag was given, Kenseth and the rest of the field, except for Johnson took off. It appeared Johnson’s car actually stalled, and several cars in the inside row stacked up behind him.
Joey Logano bumped Johnson, and then got under him. As Johnson and Logano went into the first turn, Johnson came down, bumped the front of Logano’s No. 22, and spun around.
The caution flag came out again. Johnson pitted for four fresh tires. This time he restarted the race from 25th position.
When the green flag was given, Kenseth was gone again. He was followed by Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon, and Jamie McMurray. As the race neared its end, McMurray moved into second, but was never close enough to challenge Kenseth.
“I didn’t think there was any way we could win this race,” said Kenseth. “We had older tires, and our car wasn’t handling the way I thought it should. There had to be a lot of luck on our side for us to win today.”
Jamie McMurray was second, followed by Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Kevin Harvick.
Kurt Busch caused a seven car pileup on lap 48. Going into turn-3, Busch was racing down on the track apron. As he came back onto the track, he clipped the rear end of Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 car. Keselowski’s car veered up, initiating a seven car pileup.
Greg Biffle, Travis Kvapil, Paul Menard, and Dave Blaney were finished for the day.
“It was all my fault,” said Busch. “I misjudged the distance between cars when I started back up.”
The race, which had been rescheduled from Saturday due to rain, was red flagged while speedway crews cleaned up the mess.
Top-10 leaders after 17 of 36: 1. Johnson-610, 2. Edwards-572, 3. Bowyer-569, 4. Harvick-544, 5. Kenseth-528, 6. Earnhardt-512, 7. Kyle Busch-500, 8. Truex-490, 9. Biffle-489, 10. Logano-479.
TY DILLON TAKES KENTUCKY TRUCK RACE
Ty Dillon found a burst of speed with 25-laps remaining in Thursday night’s truck race to pass Kyle Busch for his second career truck win.
“My car just took off at the end,” Dillon said. “I knew I was faster, so I just really tried not to kill my car, kill my tires, and it finally came to us. I got a good run through (Turns) 1 and 2 and got by him in 3 and 4. It (Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet) turned into a rocket ship there at the end.
“I wasn't that great in the beginning and the middle, but (crew chief) Marcus (Richmond) and the guys kept digging and kept digging.
“To beat Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, two of the best drivers on four wheels right now is pretty special.”
Brad Keselowski finished second, followed by Kyle Busch, James Buescher, Ryan Blaney, Timothy Peters, Miguel Paludo, German Quiroga, Jeb Burton, and Matt Crafton.
Top-10 leaders after 8 of 33: 1. Crafton-319, 2. Burton-297, 3. T. Dillon-279, 4. Buescher-275, 5. Sauter-272, 6. Blaney-272, 7. Gaughan-267, 8. Paludo-268, 9. D. Wallace-236, 10. Peters-234.
KESELOWSKI WINNER OF NATIONWIDE RACE
Brad Keselowski was declared winner of Friday’s Kentucky Speedway Nationwide race after NASCAR shortened it by 30 laps, due to rain.
Top-10 leaders after 15 of 33: 1. Smith-521, 2. Hornish-513, 3. Allgaier-510, 4. Sadler-5012, 5. A. Dillon-501, 6. Larson-477, 7. Kligerman-475, 8. Vickers-473, 9. Scott-466, 10. Bayne-453.
IS DANICA A REAL RACE DRIVER
This past week in an interview with Jim Utter for the Charlotte Observer, Kyle Petty gave his take on Danica Patrick, “I’ve said from the very beginning, she’s just a marketing machine.”
That’s right.
Danica is a marketing machine, but so are the other 42 drivers that start each NASCAR race. It’s just that Danica being the only woman, plus her attractiveness, makes her marketing machine, more attractive than most of the men.
But is she a race car driver?
Of course she is. She is out there on the track every week driving during a race.
I think what Kyle was referring to is that in his opinion, she’s not a “real” driver. “Lot’s of drivers can drive fast, but very few drivers can race,” he said.
In that case, most of the 43-car fields in NASCAR races aren’t racers, because only a small percentage of drivers ever win a race.
Take Paul Menard as an example. He too is a marketing machine. He drives the No. 27 Richard Childress Chevrolet, and in seven years of Cup racing, has won only once. How has he managed to stay in the big league all those years?
It’s simple. His daddy’s company, Menard Supply Company, pays Childress to provide him a car and crew at a cost in the neighborhood of $12-$15-million per year. In exchange Menard’s gets publicity and use of the car in its marketing strategy.
No different than GoDaddy, the sponsor on Patrick’s No. 10.
It’s all part of the NASCAR game.
What most fans don’t realize is that “on track racing,” is only a small part of the NASCAR game plan.
It doesn’t matter how good a driver you are, if you can come up with someone, (which includes your father’s company) to shell out between $10-$20-million, you can go racing. You might not win a race, but once you get on the track, in a race car, and the green flag drops, you are a race car driver.
I think Kyle and a lot of fans confuse the past, when drivers had to race by the seat of their pants, with today’s modern style of racing.
They aren’t the same.
Danica and Paul race in the here-and-now.
No doubt Danica and Paul are racers. How good are they? I don’t know. It’s in the minds of the beholders.
Weekend Racing: The Nationwide and Cup teams will be at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. The trucks do not race again until July 13.
Fri., July 5, Nationwide race 16 of 33; Starting time: 7:30 pm ET; TV: ESPN.
Sat., July 6, Sprint Cup race 18 of 36; Starting time: 7:30 pm ET; TV: TNT.
Racing Trivia Question: What old-time driver had three stints in NASCAR—1950-’54, 1971-’78, 1980-93, and didn’t retire from racing until 2001?
Last Week’s Question: A. J. Foyt focused mainly on Indy-racing, but he raced several partial seasons in NASCAR. What year did he win the Daytona 500? Answer. It was in 1972.
You may e-mail the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.
