Susquehanna rallied to tie once and cut into two-touchdown deficits twice Friday night.
The comeback attempts ultimately fell short, however, when the Sabers lost to host Western Wayne, 25-20, in Kyle Cook’s debut as head football coach.
Austin White ran for three touchdowns, Curtis Mills had a huge game defensively and Brett Hepler turned in a strong all-around effort.
That combination led the way as the Sabers produced a 45-point improvement over last year’s opener. Western Wayne posted a 50-0 rout in Susquehanna in the first game of 2012.
Cook was pleased that the Sabers did not let down when they fell behind, but said they will have to improve their tackling after Western Wayne’s Jayson Figueroa ran for 372 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries.
White, the junior quarterback, ran for touchdowns of 3, 1, and 28 yards in the second half. The last score on a rollout and keeper down the left sideline cut the deficit to five with 2:41 left, but the Sabers never had the ball again.
Mills, a senior linebacker, made nine tackles, including a sack for a 10-yard loss and two other tackles for seven more yards in losses. He also assisted on seven other tackles.
Hepler ran for 132 yards on six carries. His 73-yard run on the first play of the second half set up White to tie the score, 6-6, on the next play. He had another 32-yard run to help lead to White’s other third-quarter touchdown.
On defense, Hepler contributed six tackles and seven assists. Hepler also averaged 33.7 yards on six punts, pinning Western Wayne at the 2 and the 5 with two of the kicks.
Figueroa scored the only touchdown of the first half on a 65-yard run with 2:05 left in the first quarter. He ran 79 yards for another touchdown on the first play after the Sabers tied the game.
Kyle Smith, who took over at quarterback in the second quarter, scored on a pair of 1-yard sneaks to give Western Wayne leads of 13 in the third quarter and 12 in the fourth.
Steve Jesse kicked the extra points after the Sabers second and third touchdowns. His only miss came after the attempt was pushed back by a penalty.
White finished with 63 yards rushing on 17 carries. He also completed four of nine passes.
Christian Miller, White and Jon Haines joined Mills and Hepler in leading the defense.
Miller had five tackles, including one for a loss, and four assists. White had four tackles, including one for a loss, along with five assists and a broken-up pass. Haines had three tackles, including a sack and another for a loss, while assisting on two more and batting down a pass.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Montrose played well defensively, but the Meteors struggled on offense and special teams in the Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 opener.
Carbondale took advantage of turnovers and scored touchdowns on returns of both a fumble and a kickoff Friday night while shutting out host Montrose, 34-0.
In high school golf, Forest City is 5-1 and tied for third in Division 2 of the Lackawanna League with Old Forge behind unbeatens Holy Cross and Dunmore.
In girls’ volleyball, Mountain View defeated Forest City, 25-20, 25-16, 25-12, in a Lackawanna League opener Friday.
In professional baseball, the Binghamton Mets set a franchise record Aug. 27 with their 83rd win of the season, a 3-2 Eastern League victory over the host Bowie Baysox.
Jeff Walters set his team record 37th save in the win.
Walters and first baseman Allan Dykstra were named to the Eastern League all-star team.
Dykstra was hitting .274 with 22 doubles, 20 home runs and 79 RBi in 119 games at the time the team set the wins record. The 26-year-old led the league in walks (101) and on-base percentage (.438) and started at first base for the Eastern Division in the midseason EL All-Star Game.
Walters ran away with the league save lead while going 4-3 with a 2.13 earned run average. He also played in the EL All-Star Game.
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders captured the first Iron Rail Trophy by beating the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 3-2, Saturday night in Allentown.
The trophy went to the winner of the season series between the two Pennsylvania rivals. The teams finished with eight wins each against each other, but the tiebreaker was which team won the final meeting.
The RailRiders also knocked the IronPigs out of playoff contention with the win.
Ronnier Mustelier of the RailRiders was named International League Batter of the Week for the period of August 19-25.
Mustelier had multiple hits in five of six games to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. He batted a league-high .556 (13-for-23) for the week.
COLLEGE CORNER
Cynthia Good, a junior from Elk Lake, is a member of the Kutztown University women’s tennis team.
Good won in both singles and doubles during a match against Cheyney University in April. She went 1-4 in singles and 8-8 in doubles during the combined 2012-13 season.
An art education major, Good was named as a PSAC Scholar-Athlete at the end of her sophomore year.
Kutztown hosts an invitational Friday and Saturday to begin its season.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Susquehanna (0-1) plays its home football opener Saturday against Northwest (1-0).
Montrose is home Friday night in a meeting of 0-1 teams.
Our picks were 12-3 (80.0 percent) on the first weekend of the high school football season. This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: Lake-Lehman 42, MONTROSE 0; SUSQUEHANNA 22, Northwest 15; NORTH POCONO 23, Crestwood 15; WEST SCRANTON 43, Tunkhannock 7; Lakeland 17, VALLEY VIEW 14; Wallenpaupack 28, HONESDALE 6; CARBONDALE 42, Riverside 23; OLD FORGE 32, Meyers 10; Scranton 32, PITTSTON AREA 18; WYOMING VALLEY WEST 23, Delaware Valley 22; Lackawanna Trail 32, HANOVER AREA 12; WYOMING AREA 33, Mid Valley 8; ABINGTON HEIGHTS 35, Dallas 6; Holy Redeemer 39, HOLY CROSS 24; SCRANTON PREP 54, Western Wayne 15; Dunmore 28, GAR 13.
In professional baseball, the Binghamton Mets open their best-of-five Eastern Division series Wednesday and Thursday in Trenton against the Thunder.
The series matches Class AA farm teams from the New York Mets and New York Yankees organizations.
The series continues with Game Three Friday at 7:05 at NYSEG Stadium in Binghamton. If additional games are needed, they are set for Saturday at 7:05 and Sunday at 1:05 in Binghamton.
If the Mets advance, they will host the first two games of the EL Championship Series, beginning Tuesday, September 10 with a 7:05 p.m. game.
In high school cross country, the Lackawanna League season opens Wednesday with a series of cluster meets.
Montrose hosts what could be the league’s most important opener with the Meteors, Blue Ridge and Elk Lake each competing against both Abington Heights and North Pocono. Montrose, Blue Ridge and Elk Lake will not be scored against each other until a meet later in the season.
Abington Heights and Elk Lake were first and second in the overall Lackawanna League girls’ standings last year while North Pocono and Montrose were sixth and seventh out of 18 teams. Elk Lake, Abington Heights and North Pocono were three of the top five boys’ teams.
Forest City is at Wallenpaupack where it will also run against Delaware Valley.
Susquehanna and Mountain View will run against Scranton Prep and Holy Cross in a meet at Lackawanna Trail.
In boys’ soccer, defending state Class A champion Mountain View opens the Lackawanna League Division 3 season Sept. 9 against its top challenger with a home game against Holy Cross. The Crusaders were second in the division and in District 2 Class A to the Eagles last year.
Mountain View petitioned the Lackawanna League to move out of Division 3 in an effort to seek a more competitive schedule that it had played prior to last season, but was declined. The Eagles are back playing in a division against opponents they often overwhelmed a year ago.
In other division openers Sept. 9, Old Forge is at Elk Lake, Lakeland is at Montrose, Mid Valley is at Forest City and Riverside is at Blue Ridge.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com and followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
