Montrose graduate Chris Snee had his 2013 season come to an end, but is not about to join in speculation that his career is in danger as he faces the likelihood of a second hip surgery in less than a year.

The New York Giants placed Snee, their four-time Pro Bowl offensive guard and one of their team captains, on injured reserve Friday, officially ending his National Football League season.

Snee had major surgery on his left hip following the 2013 Pro Bowl and went through an extensive rehabilitation that caused him to miss part of training camp. Since joining the team in time for the start of the regular season, he has developed serious problems with his right hip.

Snee had played in 141 of the last 142 Giants’ regular-season and playoff games since missing the end of the regular season as a rookie. In an interview posted on the team’s Web site, he said the latest setback at 31 years old does not have him thinking about whether his career could be over.

“That’s not something I’m thinking about right now,” Snee said. “I’m honestly just trying to get over the frustration of this and deal with surgery and deal with rehab.

“I’ll think about that later.”

The 6-foot-3, 305-pounder was selected by the Giants with the first pick of the second round of the NFL draft in 2004.

After being a big factor in two Super Bowl championships, Snee was part of the team’s struggles in the offensive line while losing the first three games while he was in the lineup this season.

Snee left the game in a loss at Carolina Sept. 22, did not make the trip to Kansas City the following week and was unable to work through both the pain and lack of mobility caused by the injury.

“It’s frustrating,” Snee said. “It’s just a new situation for me. I’ve always been able to play through things; sometimes things nobody knew about; things that I kept to myself.

“But I had to be honest with everyone, because it really got to the point where I was doing no good, to be honest.”

The Giants fell to 0-5 Sunday with a 36-21 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

WEEK IN REVIEW

DUNMORE – Lewis Esposito and Zach Conrad made sure the Susquehanna Sabers smoothly made it through some shortages in the line while overwhelming winless Holy Cross, 41-7, in their Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 opener Saturday at St. Anthony’s Playground.

Austin White ran for three touchdowns, Esposito and Conrad kept the Sabers in control up front and Susquehanna coasted to a merciful rout over the Crusaders.

Susquehanna coach Kyle Cook never called a pass, chose to kick off both halves rather than receive in the second half with a 41-0 lead and played his substitutes on both sides of the ball for the entire third and fourth quarters.

Still, the Sabers put the game into the Mercy Rule by halftime. From there, the substitutes allowed just one score while facing pressure from constant blitzing and nine fourth-quarter passes by the Holy Cross starters.

Esposito, normally a part-timer at tight end, moved to center with Susquehanna missing linemen to illnesses and academic issues. Conrad, a sophomore linebacker, was one of three new starters in the defensive front.

Together, Esposito and Conrad led the defensive effort.

Esposito did all of his work in the first half with eight tackles, including two for losses, five assists and an interception that he returned 26 yards. The extra offensive responsibilities did not detract from Esposito’s defensive work.

“It worked our pretty well,” Cook said of Esposito, who last played center in junior football. “He had a good game.

“He read his keys well. He stepped in front of that ball.”

Conrad returned to linebacker with the second unit after making four tackles while playing in the defensive line. He finished with eight tackles, including two for losses, six assists and a pass rush.

The defense also provided the score that put the game into the Mercy Rule by creating a lead of 35 or more points.

Craig Monks returned an interception 39 yards for a touchdown with four seconds left in the half.

The Sabers opened a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, scored twice in 24 seconds to begin the second quarter and two more times in 23 seconds in the final minute of the half.

Susquehanna scored on its second offensive play when Brett Hepler ran 28 yards. Steve Jesse added the first of five extra points in six attempts.

Esposito returned his interception to the 8 and White scored on the next play with 2:07 left in the half.

The Sabers scored on three straight offensive plays and four of their first eight.

Austin Felter ran 35 yards for a score, James Murnock recovered a fumble on the next play, then White ran 13 yards for a touchdown in the first minute of the second quarter.

Holy Cross, which has allowed more than 43 points per game in a 16-game losing streak dating back to a victory over Montrose in 2011, turned the Sabers away on second-quarter possessions that had reached the 1 and 11.

Monks then helped Susquehanna blow the game open. His 20-yard punt return to the Holy Cross 20 set up White’s third touchdown, another 13-yarder, with 27 seconds left in the half. Two plays later, Monks returned the interception for the final Susquehanna score.

Luke Brinton carried six times for a team-high 70 yards to lead a balanced ground game that saw eight players combine for 250 yards on 34 carries. Felter added 62 yards on four carries.

Dalton Hogle and Curtis Mills also were among the defensive leaders. Hogle had six tackles and seven assists. Mills had six tackles and two assists while forcing one fumble and recovering another.

Montrose remained winless while losing, 49-6, to defending champion Old Forge Friday night in another LFC Division 4 game. The start of the game was delayed by lightning.

In girls’ tennis, both Montrose and both Elk Lake players won their first matches in the District 2 Class AA singles tournament before being eliminated with losses to the tournament’s top three seeds.

Jen Reed of Montrose and Sonya Griffiths of Elk Lake had byes in the first round, won in the second round and were eliminated in the third round.

Reed defeated Western Wayne’s Sarah Gardner, 6-1, 6-0, before losing by the same score to top-seeded Nathalie Joanlenne of Wyoming Seminary.

Griffiths beat Honesdale’s Jeneen Gallick, 6-2, 6-2, before losing to Scranton Prep’s Grace Reilly, the second seed, 6-1, 6-1.

Elk Lake’s Darci Warner and Montrose’s Anna Ruseski won first-round matches.

Warner topped Kella Pacifico of Holy Cross, 6-2, 6-3, before being knocked out by Joanlenne, 6-0, 6-0.

Ruseski beat Wyoming Area’s Anna Thomas, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, then fell to Wyoming Seminary’s Madison Nardone, the third seed, 6-3, 6-3.

In high school soccer, both Mountain View teams remained unbeaten.

The Lady Eagles faced a serious challenge from visiting Montrose Wednesday before managing a 1-0 victory when Hannah Richner scored in the second half on an assist from Jenny Molenko.

In professional hockey, the Binghamton Senators and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins opened their American Hockey League seasons with victories Saturday.

Defenseman Cody Ceci scored at 2:13 of overtime to lead the Senators to a 4-3 win over the Syracuse Crunch at the Broome County Arena.

Binghamton trailed, 3-1, with less than 14 minutes left in regulation.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was also behind until Chris Conner scored two straight goals then Harry Zolnierczyk added two more in a 5-2 win over the host Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Conner tied the game on the power play with three seconds left in the second period. The Penguins then scored three goals in a span of 3:17 in the third period.

COLLEGE CORNER

Elk Lake graduates Jeff Horvath, a junior, and Matt Horvath, a freshman are part of the Gettysburg College men’s cross country team.

Jeff Horvath was among Gettysburg’s top four finishers in all eight meets last season. He was fourth on the team and 19th overall when Gettysburg placed third of 10 teams in the Division II-III portion of the Delaware Invitational.

Matt Horvath was 95th out of 119 in Delaware.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Susquehanna will host Montrose Friday night at 7 in its annual night football game under temporary lights at William Emminger Memorial Field.

The teams will battle for the Bluestone Trophy that was created last year to be awarded to the winner of the game between Susquehanna County’s only two high school football teams.

Susquehanna is 1-0 in the division and 3-3 overall. The Sabers have three wins and a four-point loss in their last four games.

Montrose is 0-2 in the division and 0-6 overall. The Meteors have been outscored, 246-26.

Our high school football predictions were 8-2 (80.0 percent) last week, bringing our season record to 61-20 (75.3).

This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: SUSQUEHANNA 34, Montrose 14 … Scranton 36, NORTH POCONO 22 … Delaware Valley 23, VALLEY VIEW 8 … DUNMORE 47, Lakeland 12 … MID VALLEY 27, Western Wayne 8 … Honesdale 34, RIVERSIDE 14 … WEST SCRANTON 23, Wallenpaupack 18 … OLD FORGE 43, Lackawanna Trail 18 … Carbondale 45, HOLY CROSS 0 … SCRANTON PREP 30, Abington Heights 10.

In girls’ tennis, the District 2 doubles tournament is scheduled to conclude Wednesday.

The team tournaments open Friday to advance teams to the semifinals, which are scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 15.

In high school golf, the PIAA East Regional individual tournament is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 15 at Golden Oaks Golf Club in Fleetwood.

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.

“HAPPY’ HARVICK WINS AT KANSAS

Kevin Harvick, winner at Kansas. Furnished by NASCAR

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Kevin Harvick started on the pole in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race, led the most laps, and crossed the stripe 2.4-seconds ahead of Kurt Busch.

“These guys did a great job all weekend,” said Harvick. “From the first practice I knew we had a great race car. The only times I had problems was when we got stuck in traffic. Then, it was tight. Once I got to the front, I knew nobody was going to catch us.”

Kurt Busch, the second-place finisher began the race from the 41st starting position, because his team made changes to his car after qualifying. At one point, he was two laps down, but rallied to finish as the runner-up.

“Well, we had a good race, but I sure wish we could have passed Harvick. “That would have made it a great day.”

Jeff Gordon, the third-place finisher had a discussion with Busch after the race ended.

“This was one of our better days,” said Gordon. “Restarts are always tough. On that last one I had a little problem with Kurt, about the way he drove me. But it wouldn’t be a NASCAR race if there wasn’t these little disagreements and discussions.”

Joey Logano was fourth, followed by Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Marcos Ambrose, and Aric Almirola.

Kyle Busch had three spinouts, and finished 34th.

Busch had a problem on the very first lap, and had to pit several times under caution for his team to make repairs and adjustments.

During lap 186 of the 267-lap race, Busch was nudged in the left rear quarter panel by Juan Montoya and spun out.

On lap 201 he was bumped from behind. This time he hit the outside wall very hard and was finished for the day.

He dropped from third to fifth in Chase points.

There was a record 15 cautions.

Top-10 Chase leaders after 30 of 36: 1. Kenseth-2183, 2. Johnson-2180, 3. Harvick-2158, 4. Gordon-2154, 5. Kyle Busch-2148, 6. Biffle-2139, 7. Kurt Busch-2136, 8. Earnhardt-2129, 9. Bowyer-2128, 10. Logano-2124.

KENSETH TAKES NATIONWIDE RACE

Matt Kenseth won Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway, but it was Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski that provided the most entertainment in a wild race that saw 11 caution periods in the 200 lap race.

Kenseth took the lead with 34 laps remaining, and went on to victory by nearly a second ahead of Paul Menard. It was Kenseth’s second Nationwide win of the season and 28th of his career.

Keselowski gained the lead on lap 151, but lost it to Kenseth 15 laps later. While Kenseth and Keselowski were running 1-2, Kyle Busch slipped into the third spot. Kenseth was able to pull away, while Keselowski and Busch started battling each other.

Busch tried going under Keselowski several times, but was unable to make the pass. The pair raced bumper to bumper for several laps, with Busch unable to get by.

As the leaders entered turn-2 during lap 187, Busch was right on Keselowski’s rear bumper. There was contact between Busch’s No. 54 and Keselowski’s No. 22, and Keselowski slid into the outside wall.

Kyle Busch continued on.

Keselowski’s car would not restart, and he was out of the race.

“I got wrecked by a dirty driver,” said Keselowski. “There’s no other way of putting it. I have raced him really cool over the past year to be respectful and try to repair our relationship.

“He put me in the fence during the Chicago truck race. It’s not going to last. I can tell you that. I feel sorry for his guys that are going to have to fix all his stuff.

“Now we’re at war.”

Kyle Busch said he did not have a plan to wreck Keselowski.

“It was hard racing,” said Busch. “There were several times I felt a little crowded, but the contact was because I got tight off the turn. I got too tight, got inside and just got too close and spun him out.

“Brad Keselowski knows what dirty drivers are because he’s done it plenty of times. I have yet to wreck a person on purpose.”

Paul Menard finished second, followed by Regan Smith, Kyle Busch, Justin Allgaier, Austin Dillon, Parker Kligerman, Brad Sweet, Trevor Bayne, and Elliott Sadler.

Top-10 leaders after 29 of 33; 1. A. Dillon-1024, 2. Hornish-1016, 3. Smith-989, 4. Sadler-981, 5. Allgaier-959, 6. Vickers-957, 7. Scott-942, 8. Bayne-939, 9. Larson-878, 10. Kligerman-858.

NASCAR’S OLDEST DRIVER CALLS IT QUITS

James Hylton, NASCAR’s rookie of the year in 1966 has hung up his driving helmet. At the age of 79 years old, he was the oldest driver to race in each of NASCAR's three highest divisions. Hylton called it a career after Friday night's ARCA Series race at Kansas.

Hylton was one of thirteen children who grew up on a farm and became obsessed with racing. He had no plans, no funds and no backing in racing. All of his experience was on the family farm.

From 1959-63, he prepared cars for Rex White, helping White to the 1960 Grand National title. In 1964-65, Hylton served as crew chief for Ned Jarrett, and Jarrett won the series title in '65.

Hylton got his chance in 1964, making three starts in Jarrett's back-up car. The 30 year old driver grabbed 20 top-'5s in 41 starts. He finished second in points behind David Pearson and was the hands-down choice as Rookie of the Year. He ran the whole season with one car and one engine; he never crashed or blew an engine during that period.

His consistency in the point standing between 1966 and 1975 was surpassed by only Richard Petty’s average finish of 2.2. Hylton averaged 4.0 easily topping David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison.

So why isn't James Hylton's name known more these days? Simple, he didn't get enough wins. In 601 starts he had only two wins, Richmond in 1970 and Talladega in 1972.

“If I'd gotten some help, I feel like I could have run with anybody,” he said. “If I’d had some financial backing where we could have hired people to let me concentrate on racing, I feel I could have driven with anybody. I'm not too happy with NASCAR for not supporting the independent drivers. Not only me, there were a dozen independent drivers who could have been winners if they'd had some financial help.

“I know it wasn't NASCAR's responsibility to see that everybody's got the best of the best. But I know there were opportunities there, that with a little bit of coaching from NASCAR, they could have shoved a little sponsorship our way, but they never did.

“I have a little resentment there, because I feel like I was left out, not because of a lack of ability or a lack of working myself to death. It was all a financial deal.”

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide cars at Charlotte for night racing. The Trucks do not race again until Oct. 18.

Fri., Oct. 11, Nationwide race; 30 of 33; Starting time: 7:30 pm ET; TV: ESPN2.

Sat.., Oct. 12 Sprint Cup race; 31 of 36; Starting time: 7:30 pm ET; TV: ABC.

Racing Trivia Question: How many Hendrick Racing drivers are in this year’s Chase?

Last Week’s Question: Where is the headquarters of Furniture Row Racing, owner of Cup car No. 78, driven by Kurt Busch? Answer. They are headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

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

Jenny Molenko

Jenny Molenko was well aware the 100-goal mark for her career was approaching.

The senior soccer player’s Mountain View teammates knew as well.

“Our entire team was feeding me the ball,” Molenko said. “It was like I got nervous right before. Somebody was saying, ‘this could be it.’

“The girls definitely fed me the ball a lot.”

Molenko took advantage of those chances to score three goals in the first 10 minutes while assisting on another and helping the unbeaten Lady Eagles to a quick 6-0 lead in a 16-0 rout of Mid Valley Sept. 24.

The third goal of the game, from about 10 yards out, was the 100th of Molenko’s career, completing a milestone effort that helped her earn Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month honors for September.

“Hannah Richner chipped the ball down and I missed the first touch, but I got around it,” said Molenko, who finished September with 27 goals and 12 assists. “I came back and I turned my plant foot and hit it with my right and it went and hit the far post, then net.”

Molenko moved within range of the 100-goal mark with five goals and three assists against Elk Lake in her previous outing.

The scoring proficiency has led to Molenko drawing extra defensive attention through the years. Defenses try to keep her from getting the ball, but once Molenko has possession she is confident in her ability.

“I love looking up, seeing defenders in front of me and having a challenge,” Molenko said.

Molenko is also a basketball cheerleader at Mountain View. She works on her soccer game in the spring and summer, including playing for United FC of Binghamton prior to this season. United FC finished in third place in the New York State U-17 Championships.

Molenko hopes to continue playing soccer in college. Messiah and Liberty are among the possibilities, but she said she is not ready to limit her options yet.

Jenny is the daughter of Mike and Judy Molenko of Brooklyn.