Colby Thomas and the Lehigh Valley United ’95 boys’ team are headed back to US Youth Soccer Nationals for the third time in four years.

The US Youth Soccer Nationals are scheduled for Overland Park, Kan. July 22-28.

Lehigh Valley United finished third in the nation in its age group in 2012 with a big contribution from Thomas, who received “Best 11” recognition for his play in the tournament.

Thomas went on to lead Mountain View to its first Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A boys’ soccer championship in the fall. He finished his junior season with 55 goals and 10 assists.

Lehigh Valley earned its return trip to the nationals for this year’s U-17 Boys’ Tournament by finishing second in the National Division at the Disney Soccer Showcase in Florida. The team won five of its first six games in the tournament in Florida.

Colby Thomas

WEEK IN REVIEW

MOOSIC – Derek Jeter completed his recovery from a broken ankle with two more games for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders before returning to the New York Yankees.

Jeter’s debut in New York ended early because of a quadriceps injury that was then being evaluated.

While with the RailRiders, Jeter went just 1-for-9, but did draw four walks.

“I’ve tried to see a lot of pitches,” Jeter said after his final game at PNC Field Wednesday in a 5-1 International League loss to Rochester. “I’ve walked a lot, which is not normal for me, but I somewhat consciously tried to see a lot of pitches.”

Jeter struggled defensively in his final injury rehabilitation game, failing to get an out on three straight groundballs. One was ruled a fielder’s choice when he tried unsuccessfully to get the lead runner at third base, another was ruled an infield hit when he could not connect with the second baseman on a force play on a grounder up the middle, and the last was ruled a throwing error on Jeter for bouncing a throw past the first baseman.

After only handling one routine groundball in his first game with the RailRiders, the game did at least serve to test Jeter’s ability to move in different directions defensively. He had been out since suffering the broken ankle in last October's American League Championship Series.

“I just need to play games,” Jeter said. “You never know what will happen in a game. I may play 30 more games and not have that many different kinds of groundballs.”

Jeter scored his second run with the team July 8 in a 6-3 win over Rochester. He played in front of two sellout crowds and one near sellout while drawing attention throughout the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area with every coffee and restaurant stop during his stay.

“The fans have been great to me while I’ve been here,” said Jeter, the New York Yankees captain and all-time hit leader. “I didn’t know there were that many Yankees fans in Scranton. I thought, being in Pennsylvania, there might be more Phillies fans or Pirates fans.

“I’ve enjoyed meeting most of Scranton while I’ve been here.”

In the Eastern League, the Binghamton Mets dominated the first half of the season, opening an 8 ½-game lead in the Eastern Division, but their representatives struggled in Wednesday’s EL All-Star Game in New Britain, Conn.

Jeff Walters struck out a batter during a hitless eighth inning for the Eastern Division, which lost to the Western Division, 5-0.

The other B-Mets pitcher, Logan Verrett, gave up two runs on four hits in the fourth inning while the three Binghamton batters went hitless.

Cesar Puello started the game in right field and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, but he did throw out a runner at the plate.

First baseman Allan Dykstra, who was 0-for-2 with a strikeout, and second baseman Josh Rodriguez, who was 0-for-2, also started for the Eastern Division.

Binghamton had the last EL Player of the Month and Player of the Week before the All-Star Game.

Puello was named Player of the Month for June when he led the league in the Triple Crown categories with eight homers, 24 RBI and a .441 average.

Danny Muno was named Player of the Week for July 1-7. He hit .417 with three homers and 12 RBI. Muno drove in seven runs July 4.

The Mets returned from the All-Star Break and immediately started adding to their lead with a doubleheader sweep of the second-place Portland Sea Dogs Thursday night in Binghamton to stretch their lead into double figures at 10 1/2 games.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Right-handed pitcher Chris Bootcheck and outfielder Thomas Neal are scheduled to represent Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on the International League roster for the Triple-A All-Star Game Wednesday in Reno, Nev.

Dave Miley of the RailRiders will manage the IL team against the Pacific Coast League.

Bootcheck and Miley were each selected to the game for the third time.

Bootcheck won his third straight start July 8, giving him a team-high eight wins. He improved to 8-2 with a 3.59 ERA in 15 games, including 14 starts.

Neal leads the RailRiders with a .324 batting average.

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.

VICKERS IS VICTORIOUS AT NEW HAMPSHIRE

Brian Vickers, New Hampshire Cup winner

LOUDON, N.H.--Brian Vickers pulled off an upset of sorts, by winning Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire. It was the Michael Waltrip Racing driver’s third career win, and first since Michigan in 2009.

“Man, this car was good today,” said Vickers. “We really showed everyone what we could do. They gave me a car that I knew was capable of winning.

“After the last restart, I knew I had the car. It handled great, and I was able to drive to the front. When I got the lead, I was pretty sure no one was going to be able to catch me.”

Vickers didn’t take the lead until lap 286 of the 301-lap race. He caught and passed Tony Stewart, and then held off Kyle Busch on a green-white-checkered finish.

“I think we were the fastest car,” said Kyle Busch, who finished second. “When I got into lap traffic, I couldn’t turn it. We’ve got to figure out how to get better on the long runs.”

Jeff Burton ran in the top-5 for most of the day and finished third.

“We had a good car,” said Burton. “I was able to run up front most of the race. We’ve usually been able to run better than our results show. Most of the races we’ve been in the top-10, but things have happened late in the race to take us out.”

Brad Keselowski, the pole sitter finished fourth, followed by Aric Almirola, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Jeff Gordon.

Tony Stewart, who ran strong in the latter stage of the race, ran out of fuel with two laps to go, and wound up 26th.

“I was pretty nervous there at the end,” said Stewart. “I knew it was going to be close, but that last caution didn’t help. I just got tired of trying to calculate fuel mileage and drove.”

Kurt Busch had a fast car, but was involved in two separate accidents and finished 31st.

Danica Patrick lost control of her car on lap 237. She slid up the track into Travis Kvapil, who made contact with Patrick’s boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse. None of these three drivers completed the race. Stenhouse was 34th, with Patrick being credited with 37th, and Kvapil 38th.

Top-10 leaders after 19 of 36: 1. Johnson-696, 2. Bowyer-646, 3. Edwards-623, 4. Harvick-622, 5. Earnhardt-578, 6. Kenseth-576, 7. Kyle Busch-576, 8. Biffle-545, 9. Keselowski-529, 10. Kahne-523.

“ROWDY” KYLE CLAIMS NATIONWIDE RACE

Kyle Busch dominated Saturday’s Nationwide race at New Hampshire. Not only did he start on the pole, but led the most laps, and survived three green-white-checkered finishes on the way to his 58th career Nationwide victory.

Brian Vickers finished second, followed by Austin Dillon, Brian Scott, Michael Annett, Trevor Bayne, Sam Hornish, Regan Smith, Matt Kenseth, and Alex Bowman.

Top-10 leaders after 17 of 33: 1. Smith-594, 2. Hornish-589, 3. A. Dillon-582, 4. Allgaier-574, 5. Sadler-570, 6. Vickers-548, 7. Larson-546, 8. Scott-534, 9. Bayne-526, 10. Kligerman-535.

PETERS WINS IOWA TRUCK RACE

Timothy Peters scored his first truck win of the season Saturday night at Iowa Speedway. Peters passed leader, Ty Dillon with 27 laps remaining in the 200-lap race. Dillon hit the wall with five-to-go, and Peters streaked to victory lane ahead of Erik Jones.

The remaining top-10 finishers were: James Buescher, Ron Hornaday, Chase Elliott, Matt Crafton, Miguel Paludo, Darrell Wallace, Joey Coulter, and Dakoda Armstrong.

Top-10 leaders after 9 of 22: 1. Crafton-357, 2. J. Burton-319, 3. Buescher-317, 4. T. Dillon-309, 5. Sauter-305, 6. Blaney-290, 7. Paludo-285, 8. Peters-281, 9. Gaughan-280, 10. D. Wallace-272.

JACK ROUSH SLOWING DOWN

Jack Roush said in an interview last week with USA TODAY Sports, that he was “moving to the sidelines.”

“There aren't so many firsts left for me, but I've not lost my passion for competition or my desire to operate at the top of my game,” Roush said, “I just look forward to enjoying vicariously the success of drivers winning their first race or championship, and the crew chiefs and engineers able to share in those firsts. It's less about me and more about being a parent or a grandparent to them.”

Roush is the founder and CEO of Roush Fenway Racing and has a net worth of $200 million. He earned his money through his company "Roush Enterprises" which covers racing, freelance engineering and the selling of high performance automobiles and car parts and as co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing.

Roush was born in Covington, Kentucky and earned a Mathematics degree with a bachelors in physics from Berea College, and a masters in Scientific Mathematics from Eastern Michigan University.

Roush worked at Ford after graduating in 1966, and left in 1970 to pursue his own company. He worked for a year at Chrysler before leaving to open his own engineering business, that catered to NHRA, IHRA, and AHRA drag racing events.

Throughout much of his career Roush offered for sale the parts that he developed for his own team. In 1982, he began to develop road racing vehicles for Ford. This led to a very successful run in the Trans-Am series and IMSA Camel GT in the 80s and early 90s.

In 1988, Roush moved south and founded a NASCAR Sprint Cup team now called Roush Fenway Racing with driver Mark Martin.

On April 20, 2002, Roush almost lost his life when his private plane, went down in a lake in Troy, Alabama. Roush was underwater and unconscious, suffering from a head concussion, when a retired Marine in a nearby boat, rescued him.

On July 27, 2010, Roush crash-landed in his private jet, during an approach to the Oshkosh, Wisconsin Airport in the late afternoon. He walked out of the plane and was taken to a nearby hospital. He suffered a fractured back, broken jaw, and lost his left eye as a result.

After a quarter-century of owning stock-car teams that have 314 wins in NASCAR and two championships in its premier series, Roush still works seven days a week but doesn't set his alarm for dawn anymore. He no longer spends 90 minutes before every race tinkering with each of his cars' carburetors.

Until a couple years ago, Roush could always be spotted with his trademark hat, inspecting all the spark plugs that were to be used in his team’s race cars.

“I've gone from wanting to be the mechanic that I hoped everyone else would be to now I'm the point-and-grunt guy,” Roush continued. “Hopefully, I'll become less viable before I'm gone. The challenge is to give up the management and decision-making at the right time.”

Weekend Racing: The only racing is a Sunday Nationwide race at the 1.5-mile Chicagoland track. The Cup and truck teams have an off weekend, the trucks race Wed., July 24 on the dirt at Eldora Speedway.

Sun., July 21, Nationwide Series race 18 of 33; Starting time: 3 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Racing Trivia Question: Which Cup team did J. J. Yeley start off driving for in 2004?

Last Week’s Question: Terry Labonte, former NASCAR Cup champion is in negotiations to buy James Finch’s No. 51 Cup team. How many Cup championships did Labonte win? Answer. Two, 1984, and 1996.

You may e-mail the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.