The 2013 Susquehanna Sabers Football Team
The Susquehanna offense broke loose for three touchdowns in a span of 2:28 in the third quarter to join a game-long dominance by the defense Friday night.
The host Sabers used that outburst to put away a 35-0 rout of rival Montrose in the Battle for the Bluestone during the only night game of the season under portable lights at William Emminger Memorial Field.
Susquehanna won its third straight and fourth in the last five games. The Sabers are in a three-way tie for the Lackawanna Football Conference Division 4 lead with Old Forge and Carbondale at 2-0. They also have climbed into a four-way battle among 4-3 teams for the final two spots in the District 2 Class AA playoffs.
Lyle Lawson, Jon Haines, Christian Miller and C.J. Mallery led the way as the Sabers controlled the line of scrimmage while outrushing the Meteors, 224-24, and outgaining them, 264-42.
Susquehanna gave up just one first down in each half and did not allow Montrose to cross midfield until the Meteors pinned the second-team Sabers offense deep and got a 19-yard Trevor Tompkins punt return to set up at the Susquehanna 30 with 9:30 left.
The Sabers eventually held on downs at the 7 to preserve the shutout.
“We watched film and we practiced everything they did all week,” said Lawson, a center/defensive tackle who returned to the lineup after missing the previous game with the flu. “We knew what they were doing, but they still put up a helluva fight.”
Haines, a two-way tackle, was part of the battle up front with several players who were teammates when he was learning the game. Haines, a senior, transferred from Montrose to Susquehanna as a freshman.
“It was a tough game, but we pulled it out,” Haines said. “Our offense started a little slow.”
The winless Meteors kept the Sabers offense in check to stay within, 6-0, until the final five minutes of the first half. The margin was still at 14-0 when Susquehanna put together three quick scores with the help of fumble recoveries by Haines and Lawson.
“In the second half, we really turned it on,” Sabers coach Kyle Cook said.
The Susquehanna defense made sure Montrose never got started.
Montrose went backward on the game’s opening possession, ending with a third-down sack by Miller. The sack was the ninth of the season for Miller, who later added two more tackles for losses.
Lawson and Mallery also had sacks as Montrose only managed to get off five passes.
Junior quarterback Austin White led the offense, rushing for three touchdowns and passing for another to Austin Darrow. Austin Felter ran for a touchdown and a two-point conversion. Steve Jesse added three extra-point kicks in the third quarter to complete the scoring, which forced the game into the Mercy Rule with 4:11 left in the third quarter.
Defense and special teams set up good field position. Until pulling their offensive starters with the game in the Mercy Rule, the Sabers had started their average drive at the Meteors 44 while Montrose started from its 29.
Susquehanna moved 36 yards in five plays on its second possession.
White went around right end for an 11-yard touchdown with 3:07 left in the first quarter.
“Our offense is really starting to click,” Cook said. “(White) is running the offense very well and making all the right reads.”
The Sabers had a field goal blocked on their next possession, then covered 65 yards in six plays. White rolled right to get away from trouble and Darrow got behind the defense to pull in a 34-yard pass in the end zone. Felter’s conversion run made it 14-0 with 4:44 left in the half.
Susquehanna broke the game open with a third quarter in which it outgained Montrose, 120-0.
The Sabers took the second-half kickoff and went 70 yards in 10 plays. White carried five times for 53 yards in the drive, including the 9-yard touchdown with 6:39 left in the third.
Susquehanna wound up scoring three times in four offensive plays.
White ran 23 yards on the first play after the Haines fumble recovery.
Lewis Esposito forced a fumble that Lawson recovered on the next Montrose play. Brett Hepler ran for 19 yards, then Felter scored from 6.
Hepler added 56 rushing yards on seven carries.
Susquehanna is allowing 13 points per game, fifth best out of 20 teams in the LFC. The Sabers have given up just 53 points in five games since the opener. The shutout was the first of the season by a defensive unit that has allowed only three touchdowns in the last four games.
Linebacker Curtis Mills, the season leader in tackles, had nine tackles and an assist. Two of his tackles were for losses.
Esposito had four tackles and five assists in addition to forcing the fumble.
Brett Shelp led Montrose with six tackles, an assist and the blocked field goal. Brenton Warner had four tackles, including one for a loss, and eight assists. Tompkins had five tackles and four assists.
While his teammates were combining for minus-6 yards on 22 carries, Tompkins led the Montrose offense with eight carries for 30 yards and a catch for 6 yards.
WEEK IN REVIEW
ELMHURST – Forest City placed two golfers in the top 10 in Class AA boys at the District 2 Individual Golf Championships Oct. 8 at Elmhurst Country Club.
Adam Kowalewski and Dylan O’Dell shot 82s to finish tied for ninth at the tournament where the top six qualified to advance to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association East Regional.
Montrose’s Kory Morrison and Mountain View’s Chad Wescott shot 86 to tie for 13th in the 43-player field made up of players who had already made it through Lackawanna League qualifying.
Codi Benedict and Austin Smith of Montrose were part of a tie for 16th with 87s.
Mountain View’s Tyler Salak shot 88 to tie for 21st.
Montrose’s Cameron Dean was 35th with a 96.
In girls’ tennis, Montrose reached the District 2 Class AA team tournament, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals with a 3-2 loss at Valley View Thursday.
Montrose finished third out of 10 teams in the Lackawanna League Class AA Division.
The final standings were: Scranton Prep 15-0, Valley View 13-2, Montrose 10-5, Honesdale 6-9, Elk Lake 5-10, Western Wayne 5-10, Mid Valley 5-10, Holy Cross 4-11, Dunmore 4-11, Riverside 0-15.
Montrose also had both of its doubles teams advance in the District 2 Class AA tournament.
Jen Reed and Erica Reeves won twice to advance to the quarterfinals before losing. They topped Leanna O’Hora-Sarah Gardner of Western Wayne, 6-3, 6-0, before knocking off seventh-seeded Natashia DeNunzio-Abigail Aronica of Dunmore, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
Second-seeded Jacqui Meuser-Madison Nardone from Wyoming Seminary knocked out Reed and Reeves, 6-2, 6-0, in the quarterfinals.
Anna Ruseski-Victoria Hinds defeated Dionna DeFazio-Kelsey Shaughnessy of Riverside, 6-1, 6-0, then lost to eighth-seeded Audra Stafursky-Brittney Mecca of Valley View, 6-2, 2-6, 6-0.
Both Elk Lake doubles teams lost in the first round.
MMI Prep’s Claire Sheen-Gaby Becker defeated Danielle Callas-Kalie Murray, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, and Honesdale’s Maddie Ludwig-Jeneen Gallik defeated Kayla Mosier-Becca Phillips, 6-1, 6-2.
In girls’ soccer, Mountain View improved to 10-0 to clinch a repeat of its Lackawanna League Division 4 title.
In boys’ soccer, Mountain View is 10-0 to clinch at least a tie of repeating in Lackawanna League Division 3.
In girls’ volleyball, Blue Ridge (10-6) and Susquehanna (9-6) are fourth and fifth in the 10-team Lackawanna League as it nears the end of the season.
In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins won their home opener, 3-1, over the Hershey Bears Saturday night.
The Penguins improved to 3-0 when captain Tom Kostopoulos scored two goals Saturday in a 6-3 win in Syracuse.
In running, Fred Joslyn of East Syracuse, N.Y. beat out two former champions to win the 18th annual Steamtown Marathon Sunday morning.
The marathon is run from Forest City High School to downtown Scranton.
Joslyn finished in 2:22:08 to win by almost two minutes over Peter Kemboi, a Kenyan running out of Hebron, Ky.
Kemboi and Dickson City’s Kevin Borrelli, who finished fourth, are both former champions.
Carol Jefferson from Schwenksville finished 16th overall and won the women’s title in 2:45.10.
The top Susquehanna County finisher was Matthew Nebzydoski, a 38-year-old from Montrose, who was 79th in 3:01:56.
A total of 2,166 runners completed the race.
COLLEGE CORNER
Blue Ridge graduate and former Susquehanna quarterback Dan Kempa is the leading receiver and kick returner at King’s College, which has won two straight football games after an 0-3 start.
King’s defeated Misericordia University, 42-41, in double overtime Oct. 5 then handled FDU-Florham, 52-21, Saturday.
Kempa caught a 27-yard touchdown pass for a fourth-quarter lead and a 20-yard touchdown pass to keep King’s alive in the first overtime against Misericordia. He finished the game with eight catches for 165 yards. He has been over 100 yards receiving in four of five games, including 4-for-166 and two touchdowns in a loss to Albright.
Against FDU-Florham, Kempa caught three passes for 42 yards.
Kempa leads the team with more than three times as many receptions as any other Monarch. He has 29 catches for 592 yards and five touchdowns along with two carries for 11 yards. Kempa leads the team with a 25.6-yard average on 12 kickoff returns and is averaging 7.0 on 10 punt returns.
Kempa was one of two former Sabers to play in the rout of FDU-Florham. Jagr Briar, a freshman nose guard and Susquehanna graduate, also played in the win. Briar has appeared in each of the last four games.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Susquehanna puts its three-game winning streak and its share of the Lackawanna League Division 4 lead on the line Friday night at Lackawanna Trail in a meeting of 4-3 teams.
The Sabers are 2-0 in the division while the Lions are 0-2.
Montrose is home against Holy Cross in a game between 0-7 teams.
The Meteors are 0-3 in Division 4 and the Crusaders are 0-2.
Our high school football predictions were 9-1 (90.0 percent) last week, bringing our season record to 70-21 (76.8).
This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: MONTROSE 39, Holy Cross 28 … LACKAWANNA TRAIL 25, Susquehanna 18 … Delaware Valley 25, SCRANTON 20 … Scranton Prep 43, VALLEY VIEW 0 … WALLENPAUPACK 30, North Pocono 10 … HONESDALE 27, Lakeland 25 … MID VALLEY 35, Riverside 3 … Dunmore 46, WESTERN WAYNE 9 … CARBONDALE 29, Old Forge 6 … ABINGTON HEIGHTS 31, West Scranton 6.
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.
