The opening weekend of the high school basketball season was tough on Susquehanna County teams.

Friday night’s schedule, including the annual Michael “Red” Wallace Memorial Scholarship Game between Elk Lake and host Carbondale in boys’ basketball, was postponed because of bad weather.

When action got underway Saturday, the girls’ basketball teams that got in games all lost.

Included in those losses was a rare doubleheader for Blue Ridge.

Friday night’s first round of the Towanda Tournament was postponed because of snow and the teams instead played both rounds Saturday.

Blue Ridge, playing under new co-coaches Paula Finn and Nicole Wellman, lost to Towanda, 44-34, before falling to Sayre, 60-27, in the third-place game.

Megan Houlihan led Blue Ridge with 17 points in the tournament, including 13 in the first round.

Two other new coaches also suffered losses in their debuts.

Elk Lake fell to Tunkhannock, 59-43, in the Tunkhannock Kiwanis Tournament Saturday night. The game was the first for coach Alicia Traver, an Elk Lake graduate who moves up from being assistant/JV coach last season.

Natalie Winters made a similar move at Forest City, taking over for retired 500-game winner Carl Urbas. The Lady Foresters lost, 53-39, to Lakeland Saturday.

Half of the county basketball teams have new coaches this season.

Errol Mannick, the former Mountain View and Lackawanna Trail coach who still coaches the championship Mountain View girls’ soccer team, is the new girls’ basketball coach at Susquehanna.

In boys’ basketball, Matthew Button is the new Blue Ridge coach and Spencer Lunger is the new Mountain View coach.

Forest City opened the season Sunday with a 58-43 loss to host Carbondale in the Finan Memorial Tournament.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Old Forge overcame three lost fumbles and the made the most of two interceptions Saturday afternoon in Hazleton to earn its first Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association football championship game berth.

The Blue Devils returned two of the interceptions for touchdowns and pulled away late for a 26-7 victory over Steelton-Highspire in a Class A semifinal.

Old Forge is the champion of Division 3 of the Lackawanna Football Conference, where its divisional opponents included both Susquehanna and Montrose.

The Blue Devils were in control much of the way and had a 12-0 lead until the final five minutes of the third quarter when quarterback James Warren broke a 55-yard run for the only Steelton-Highspire score.

Old Forge fumbled inside the Steelton-Highspire 5 early in the fourth quarter, missing a chance to add to their lead, and again near midfield to give the Steamrollers one more chance.

The Blue Devils finally broke the game open with two touchdowns in the last minute.

Jake Manetti passed 20 yards to Joey Gutowski on a daring fourth-down call for an 18-7 lead. On the next play, Corey Souryavong intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.

Brandon Yescavage, who carried 40 times for 150 yards, ran 2 yards for the first Old Forge touchdown. He made up for a costly fumble with two key plays on the pass rush to prevent a Steelton-Highspire comeback.

Brandon Vahey returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown late in the first half.

Old Forge will try to end District 2’s 15-year drought in the state football championships.

During the first 10 years of state championships, from 1988-1997, the northeastern Pennsylvania district was the most successful in the state, going 10-2 in championship games. Berwick won six titles and lost another final, while Hanover Area split two title appearances and Dallas, Dunmore and Valley View added championships.

After that strong start, District 2 has gone 0-4 in the finals in the last 15 years with Dunmore and Riverside losing twice each. Three of those four appearances came in Class A.

Berwick missed out on its first return to the finals since winning its fourth straight championship in 2007 when the Bulldogs lost, 42-14, to Archbishop Wood of Philadelphia in a Class AAA semifinal at Allentown.

The state final appearance is the third straight for Archbishop Wood, which has split the last two years.

In professional football, Montrose’s Chris Snee had his season with the New York Giants end early because of a hip injury.

The LFC’s other active player, West Scranton graduate Matt McGloin, made the start at quarterback for the Oakland Raiders at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey.

McGloin threw two second-half touchdown passes in a 37-27 loss to the New York Jets.

With snow and cold impacting games throughout the mid-Atlantic, Sunday’s games gave a sign of what could be ahead with the first cold-weather Super Bowl in February at Met Life Stadium.

The Thrilla in Manila is perhaps the most famous fight in boxing history. If the weather issues are the same for Super Bowl XLVIII, it could turn into the Thriller in the Chiller.

THE COLLEGE CORNER

Montrose graduate Nicole Chaszar has her Western New England University women’s basketball team off to a 3-3 start.

Chaszar, who went on from Montrose to become captain at Temple University, is the all-time leader in career coaching victories in the 38-year history of the Western New England women’s program. Her teams are 127-92, including a .667 winning percentage in conference games.

Western New England was 15-11 last year and qualified for its sixth straight Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Old Forge will try to produce the first state football championship since 1992 by any of the schools that are currently members of the Lackawanna Football Conference.

Valley View won the Class AA championship in 1992 while playing in the old Big 11 Conference. Dunmore, another Big 11 team, won Class A in 1989.

The District 2 champion Blue Devils (14-1) play District 7 champion Pittsburgh North Catholic (15-0) Friday at 1 p.m. at Hersheypark Stadium.

Last week’s prediction was correct. After going 1-0, our predictions on games involving LFC teams are 10-5 (66.7 percent) for the postseason and 107-30 (78.1 percent) for the year.

This week’s prediction: North Catholic 20, Old Forge 8.

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.

CAR NUMBER 3 RETURNS IN 2014

Car No. 3 returns to Cup Series with Austin Dillon as driver

The black No. 3 will return to the Sprint Cup Series after an absence of 13 years, with Austin Dillon behind the wheel.

The last time it was driven was during the 2001 Daytona 500.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. was the driver.

It was his last race, and the last time the number was used during a Cup race.

Earnhardt won six of his seven championships and got 67 of his 76 career Cup victories in No. 3. He was racing it when he died on the last lap of the 500. Since then, RCR has retained rights to the number but hasn’t used it in Sprint Cup.

Millions of NASCAR fans still respect that number.

The number had a long history even before Earnhardt got it at RCR in 1984. Hall of Fame driver/owner Junior Johnson used it during parts of 1962, 1963 and 1964; Childress used it between 1976 and mid-1981, the final years of his Cup career.

Earnhardt first ran the number at Michigan in August of 1981, soon after Childress quit driving to concentrate on running his team. Ricky Rudd used the number in 1982 and 1983, giving RCR its first two victories, before Earnhardt returned to RCR from Bud Moore Engineering in 1984.

Dillon drove No. 3 to a dozen Truck Series poles and five victories in 55 career starts. He was the 2010 Rookie of the Year, the 2011 Most Popular Driver and the 2011 series champion. RCR gave him No. 3 for the Nationwide Series, where he was the 2012 Rookie of the Year and the 2013 champion, winning 10 poles and two races in 77 starts.

CHASE ELLIOTT GETS SECOND SNOWBALL WIN

PENSACOLA, Fla.-- Chase Elliott, who started on the pole won Sunday’s 300-lap Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway. He also won Saturday night’s Snowflake 100, becoming the first driver to sweep both races.

Unofficial top-10: Erik Jones finished second, followed by Grant Enfinger, Austin Theriault, Hunter Robbins, John Hunter Nemechek, David Rogers, Kyle Benjamin, Ross Kenseth, and Derek Thorn.

BURTON HAS LANDED ON HIS FEET

It looked bad for Jeff Burton, who was released from Richard Childress Racing after the end of last season, but the good news is, he has landed on his feet.

Burton will assume double duties throughout the 2014 season. He will test and race from 6-14 races for Michael Waltrip Racing, while also contributing to NASCAR programming on NBC. When NBC’s coverage of Cup and Nationwide racing begins in 2015, Burton will serve as a full-time analyst on NBC.

“This is an exciting new challenge and I am thrilled to be joining the NBC Sports family,” said Burton. “I will prepare for each race as if I were driving in it, and I look forward to sharing my experience, views and insights with all the dedicated and passionate NASCAR fans.”

TIGHTER COMPETITION IN NASCAR RACES

NASCAR Chairman Brian France said one of the organization’s 2014 goals is to improve the quality of racing.

“We're after some interesting changes to the rules packages,” he said. “You've heard me say this for a while now, and we'll be validating some of our beliefs, a prior test and other things, and I'm liking what I'm seeing. It's tightening up competition, and that's hallmark. We wake up every day and try to do that.

“The 43 teams probably do just the opposite. They try to get up in the morning, look at our rules package and want to lead every lap and gain the system. That's how it works, right? So we're trying to figure that out in a bigger, smarter way, and hopefully we will accomplish that.”

This past season marked the Gen-6 car’s debut. France noted at the beginning of the season that officials would measure the car’s success on a variety of areas, including lead changes, how well it races and how drivers feel about it.

Lead changes were up slightly in 2013 from 2012. There were 700 lead changes this past season and 679 in 2012. That’s less than one more lead change per race in 2013.

“The number one thing we had to judge in the Gen-6 car was acceptance by the manufacturers, the teams and the drivers,’’ France continued. “That's the number one thing. And then obviously we want to get more lead changes and we want to get closer, tighter competition.”

JOHNSON HONORED FOR SIXTH CHAMPIONSHIP

Jimmie Johnson was honored for his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship celebration last Friday night in Las Vegas.

Johnson and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Lowe’s Chevrolet team’s streak of five titles ended in 2011 and they missed the title a year ago.

“The streak, when it was alive, I didn’t realize how much pressure we were carrying on our shoulders. We almost didn’t get to enjoy the moment,” he said. “We were looking ahead to see what the next year would be.

“This (year) is almost a starting over. We’re just enjoying it for what it is.”

The two seasons away from the head table provided some of the impetus for what Johnson calls “a kick-butt year” in which he won six races. Two victories during the Chase were keys to Johnson emerging victorious from a dramatic and tension-filled battle with 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Matt Kenseth.

Johnson is one championship away from matching the seven NASCAR Sprint Cup titles won by NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

Tony Stewart was honored by the National Motor Sports Press Association (NMPA) as a fierce competitor, championship team owner and race track promoter

The NMPA Myers Brothers Award is presented in the names of pioneer NASCAR competitors Billy and Bobby Myers. Past recipients are a virtual who’s-who of the industry – drivers, owners, track operators, sponsors and members of the media – and include nearly every current member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Stewart was cited for a longtime body of work – and specifically for his role in taking NASCAR back to its roots. He and his staff at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, produced the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series “Mudsummer Classic,” the first national points race on a dirt surface in more than four decades.

Stewart’s 2013 season was cut short by a broken leg suffered in a sprint car accident in early August. He crossed the stage on Thursday without the aid of crutches to accept his award and should be ready to battle for his fourth Cup title when the 2014 season opens with February’s Daytona 500.

“It was hard sitting on the sidelines watching,” he said. “It’s given me a different perspective.”

Racing Trivia Question: Joe Gibbs has been successful as a NASCAR car owner. What other sport has he excelled in?

Last Week’s Question: What is the maximum number of cars that start Cup and Nationwide races? Answer. Each race is limited to 43 cars.

Zeb Cross

Zeb Cross played a big role in bringing Mountain View back to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A boys’ soccer championship game.

The center midfielder scored the game-winning goals in each of the first two rounds of the PIAA playoffs and the go-ahead goal in the penalty kick shootout in the semifinals.

For his part in getting the Eagles back to Hershey, Cross has been selected as the Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month for November. Cross follows teammate Colby Thomas, giving the Eagles consecutive winners of the award.

Cross made major contributions to Mountain View’s 2012 state championship, 35-game winning streak over two seasons and state runner-up finish in 2013 as the second-leading scorer on both teams. In his center midfielder position, he was also vital to the transition between offense and defense for the Eagles, who had 15 shutouts this season while going 20-1.

“His influence on the championship Mountain View teams, as well as soccer in this area, has been so large as to make this type of honor very well deserved,” Mountain View coach Roger Thomas said.

Cross, individually, and the Eagles, collectively, made it into the list of the state’s all-time best boys’ soccer performances during the two-year run.

Although the home-schooled student had just a three-year high school career because he has completed his academic requirements and will be graduating early, he still made the list of state career leaders.

Cross ranks fifth in state history with 95 career assists. He also scored 89 career goals.

After putting up the sixth-best season in state history in that category with 42 assists last season, Cross had 31 assists for the 18th-best total ever this season. He also scored 28 goals this year.

“I know my stats last year were better, but his year, rather than Colby and I trying to score, we were trying to pass around and make everyone else better,” Cross said.

Another strong team developed and the Eagles won their fourth straight District 2 Class A title, including their third with Cross in the lineup.

“To make it back to the state finals was great,” Cross said. “Looking back, we exceeded expectations and I developed some unreal friendships.”

Cross scored a goal in a 3-1 win over Schuylkill Haven in the state tournament opener that was the team’s first game in November. He assisted a Thomas goal in the game’s first 10 seconds, then scored the next two in Mountain View’s 4-1 quarterfinal win over Northern Lehigh.

When the Mountain View/New Hope-Solebury semifinal remained scoreless through two overtimes, Cross was one of the players selected to take penalty kicks.

Eagles goalie Bobby Phafl made the first of his two shootout saves and Cross followed with the shot that put Mountain View ahead to stay.

“That was definitely the most nerve-wracking, most thrilling – I had the most adrenaline in that game – it was definitely the most thrilling moment when Noah Pepper made that last penalty kick,” Cross said. “We worked on penalty kicks at the end of practice every day once we hit the playoffs.

“We know who would take them. We knew how to take them. We felt confident going in. But any time you go into penalty kicks, you know anything can happen. So, I was still shaking standing there watching.”

The successful career at Mountain View allowed Cross multiple college soccer opportunities. Cross has decided to play at Messiah College, which went into the weekend in the Final Four pursuing a possible 10th NCAA Division III national title in the past 14 years.

“I like the way coach (Aaron Faro) runs things there,” said Cross, who turned down an athletic scholarship from Louisville and interest from James Madison, a pair of Division I schools. “Everybody there is very close and always working to build up the friendships they have with their teammates.”

Cross plans to enter Messiah’s pre-med program.

Zeb, a Hop Bottom resident, is the son of Robert and Wendy Cross. He also has played four years of basketball with the Summit Christian Academy and plans to play volleyball in the spring at Mountain View.