The Mountain View boys’ soccer team and Elk Lake girls’ cross country team maintained their stature among the state’s best teams both in the moment and historically to highlight a successful year for Susquehanna County athletes in 2013.
Mountain View went unbeaten all the way to the state final where it fell one game short of repeating its Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A title. Along the way, the Eagles moved into the all-time state statistical leaders as a team and individually.
Elk Lake also fell one spot short of repeating a PIAA Class A state title. The program has finished first or second in the state each of the past four seasons with a title and runner-up finish in 2010 and 2011 in Class AA before Class A was created for the 2012 season.
Mountain View extended its boys' soccer winning streak to 35 games, by taking a 20-0 record into the state final. The Eagles outscored opponents, 144-12, and posted 15 shutouts.
Colby Thomas scored 58 goals this season, the 10th-best total in state history while Zeb Cross had 31 assists, the 18th-best total ever. Thomas finished with 171 career goals, fourth-best ever while Cross had 95 assists, the fifth-best total ever.
Despite their status among the state’s all-time best statistically and helping Mountain View to the only two state championship game appearances in league history, Thomas and Cross were again overlooked by league coaches in Player of the Year honors and their division’s selection for the coaches’ all-state team.
Along the way, Mountain View repeated as Lackawanna League Division 4 champion, won its fourth straight District 2 Class A title and had an exciting run through the state tournament. Thomas scored nine seconds into the 4-1 state quarterfinal win over Biglerville and goalkeeper Bobby Pfahl excelled in a shootout victory over New Hope-Solebury in the state semifinals after the teams remained scoreless through two overtimes.
After winning the state semifinal rematch with New Hope-Solebury, Mountain View lost, 4-2, after leading early in the state final rematch with Sewickley Academy.
The Elk Lake girls battled with Holy Cross all season, finishing second in the Lackawanna League after going 17-1 and second in the District 2 Class A meet to the Lady Crusaders, who eventually won the state title in their final meeting. Earlier, Elk Lake had won the Class A girls’ title during the PIAA Foundation Invitational during the regular season.
Elk Lake remained among the state’s elite despite a series of injuries. Freshman Justine Johns placed ninth and sophomore Katie Bennett 11th to claim individual state medals.
The county’s distance runners again performed on a high level throughout the year.
Montrose earned an extra spot in the state cross country meet by qualifying five individual runners, then placed sixth in the state in Class A girls.
The Elk Lake boys reached the state meet and finished 13th in Class A.
During track season, Elk Lake’s Luke Jones set a Lackawanna Track Conference Robert Spagna Meet record in the 3200 meters in 9:33.28, then improved on that time by almost 12 seconds while finishing fourth in the state in that event.
The county had two other state medalists in track. Elk Lake’s Megan Bush was sixth in the shot put and the Montrose team of Myra Lattimore, Madelyne Pasteka, Allison Lewis and Samantha Bennici was seventh in the 1600-meter relay.
Lattimore and Lewis also had big days when Montrose finished second in the District 2 Class AA meet. Lattimore won the 200 and ran on the winning 400- and 1600-relay teams while Lewis won the 400 and ran on the 1600 relay.
Bush and Montrose’s Brandon Russell (pole vault) and John Lawson (shot put) also won district titles.
The Montrose girls had earlier repeated their Class AA title in the Jordan Relays.
While the Mountain View boys were on their title run, the Mountain View girls also repeated as Lackawanna League divisional champion (Division 3) and as District 2 Class AA champions in soccer.
The District 2 soccer titles were claimed in a Halloween Night doubleheader at Western Wayne when Jenny Molenko and Thomas each put together two-goal, two-assist efforts. Molenko, who had surpassed the 100-goal mark early in the season, led the girls to a 4-1 win over Montrose before Thomas led the boys past Holy Cross, 4-2.
Blue Ridge’s Zach Edwards made it to his third District 2 wrestling final and came within one win of the state tournament by placing fourth in the Class AA Northeast Regional.
The Susquehanna boys’ basketball and girls’ volleyball teams reached the District 2 Class A championships before losing in the final.
Forest City played in the District 2 Class A girls’ basketball final. Carl Urbas earned his 500th career coaching victory along the way before retiring.
The new coaches included Kyle Cook leading Susquehanna’s football team into the District 2 Class AA playoffs. Defense led the way to a four-game winning streak, allowing just four touchdowns in a 5 1/2-game stretch.
The Elk Lake boys and Montrose girls remained on top of county basketball. Both went undefeated in the second half to wrap up Lackawanna League Division 4 all-season titles in the 2012-13 seasons.
The Warriors and Lady Meteors then repeated as champions of county tournaments to wrap up the calendar year. Elk Lake, which fell one game short of qualifying for the state Class AA tournament last season, finished December unbeaten and won its third straight Susquehanna County Holiday Tournament. Montrose has won all four Denise Reddon Memorial girls’ basketball tournaments.
Montrose also won Lackawanna League Division 4 titles in softball and both boys’ and girls’ track while Mountain View won the division in baseball.
In other tournament action, the Saber Shootout made its debut in boys’ basketball and was won by Mountain View and Elk Lake’s Cole Tyler finished as the low sophomore with a 1-under-par, 71 in the Jackman Memorial preseason golf tournament that draws all the Lackawanna League teams to Scranton Municipal.
Montrose’s Lawson was one of the leaders of a 35-28 City victory over the County in the Dream Game, making nine tackles, including a sack, and assisting on three more.
Blue Ridge’s Sawyer Dearborn was the team Most Valuable Player when the Red beat the Blue in the Lackawanna League All-Star Game in boys’ basketball.
Blue Ridge graduate and former Susquehanna football player Dan Kempa set multiple receiving records at King’s College.
Montrose graduate Chris Snee started the year by playing in the Pro Bowl, but the New York Giants guard had his 2013 season shortened by injuries to both hips.
The other Montrose graduate playing professional sports also had his season end early because of injury. Rich Thompson, playing in the outfield for the Class AAA Durham Bulls, suffered a broken foot.
It was a big year for regional minor-league teams.
The International League’s Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the former Yankees, returned to rebuilt PNC Field after a year away and saw a star-studded roster with injury rehabilitation appearances by Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson.
The Binghamton Mets won their first Eastern League divisional title since 2000 with the help of an MVP season from Allan Dykstra.
Rodriguez and Binghamton’s Cesar Puello, however, each received suspensions in baseball’s on-going drug issues.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Elk Lake opened defense of its Lackawanna League Division 4 boys’ basketball title with a 66-28 New Year's Eve rout over Mountain View behind 20 points from Matt Woolcock.
The remainder of the league schedule was set to begin Thursday but was wiped out because of snow.
COLLEGE CORNER
Heather Wimmer, a junior from Montrose who competed at Elk Lake, is the top diver on the Marywood University women’s swimming team.
Wimmer finished third in the most recent Landmark Conference meet against United States Merchant Marine Academy. She won the event in Marywood’s meet against the rival University of Scranton.
The Pacers are 4-7.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Montrose is at Elk Lake in boys’ basketball Friday.
Elk Lake defeated Montrose in a first-half playoff last season on its way to the Lackawanna Division 4 overall title.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.
IS EARNHARDT BOUND FOR VICTORY?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Will this be the year Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets back into victory lane, or will it be another winless season.
“Well, I hope we do,” he said. “We came close, came up short a couple times, but we’d sure like to get another checkered flag.”
Junior is NASCAR’s 11-time most popular driver, is always under the spotlight and this allows him privileges denied to ordinary folks.
“I know I have fans that vote every single day,” Earnhardt continued. “They pour their heart and soul into this award, and I thank them. I’m also happy for them, because I know they wear this 11-in-a-row streak with pride. I do, too.”
During the Gator Bowl at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, Earnhardt drove his No. 88 Hendrick Chevrolet on to the field prior to the race to deliver the game ball and coin.
He has always been a public icon. Even before his first season in the Cup series, he was much sought after by sponsors and the news media.
But popularity doesn’t always transfer to success on the race track.
Several years ago, his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt said, “He needs to decide whether he wants to be a celebrity or race car driver.”
For the past several seasons, the overwhelming question has been the same: Can he win? He enters this season with just two wins in his past seven seasons, six of them with Hendrick Motorsports.
Though he didn’t win, Earnhardt finished strong last season, scoring eight top-10s and five top-fives in the Chase to climb to fifth in the final standings. He was as strong as anybody at the end of the season, scoring three runner-up finishes in his last eight races.
Can he start strong and be a title contender from the start this season? And, more importantly, can he finally win again?
“I thought we had a pretty good season,” he continued. “Wins are always what count the most, but we had a good team and ran well. We had a couple bad races that might have been my fault.
“I’m happy with our team going into the year. They did a good job this year. NASCAR has mandated some changes to the cars, so we’re going to be focused on testing at Daytona in a couple weeks.
“I know we’re going to have good cars. Hopefully, we have that speed when we show up in Daytona. I have to give credit to the team. They are working hard and just because we weren’t in the title hunt doesn’t mean they have given up. They work just as hard as anyone out there.
“I don’t like to talk about luck, but sometimes it’s better than horsepower. If we can put ourselves in the right position, then whether it’s luck or hard work, maybe we can come through.”
Apparently Earnhardt’s team is on the right track for another win. They finished the 2013 season with a third-place finish in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Earnhardt led 28 laps on his way to his third consecutive top-five finish and fifth top-five during the 10-race Chase.
He wound up fifth in Chase points, 56-points back of the leader, Jimmie Johnson.
NASCAR TAX BREAK GONE
NASCAR has lost a big tax break.
This year, Congress let about 55 different tax breaks expire on Dec. 31. One such break was to help NASCAR build race tracks. This tax break allowed anyone who builds a racetrack to receive a tax benefit through accelerated depreciation. (It was called the "NASCAR loophole," but it doesn't just help NASCAR.) Supporters claimed the break is necessary so that NASCAR can compete on a level playing field with other theme parks. But it's gone now, unless Congress decides to extend.
Cost to extend it would have been about $50 million per year.
DAYTONA TESTING TO BE TELEVISED
Some of the preseason testing at Daytona will be televised.
FoxSports1 will provide 12 hours of coverage over three days from Jan. 9-11.
The NASCAR on FOX team of Darrell Waltrip, Larry McReynolds and Mike Joy call the action while NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars are on the track Jan. 9-10 (1:00 pm/et to 5:00 pm/et, Live), with Bob Dillner and Matt Yocum reporting from the pits and Jeff Hammond reporting from the garage.
Setting up camp in the garage area, host Rick Allen and analyst Hermie Sadler offer a location for drivers, crew chiefs and other personalities to talk over the day’s storylines.
NASCAR Nationwide Series tests air on FOX Sports 1 from 3:00pm/et to 7:00pm/et on Saturday, Jan. 11, with Allen, Hammond and Phil Parsons in the booth, and Sadler, Dillner and Ray Dunlap reporting from the pits.
COMEBACK DRIVERS OF THE YEAR
After starting 102 races over the course of six years without a win, Regan Smith took a five-year break from competing in the Nationwide Series to focus on his Sprint Cup Series career.
He returned to the Nationwide Series for the 2012 season finale at Homestead, where he won driving for JR Motorsports. He came back in 2013 as the full-time driver of the organization’s No. 7 Chevrolet. He posted personal bests in wins (two), top fives (eight) and top 10s (19) – all of which eclipsed his career totals heading into the season. Smith finished third in the final standings, 17 spots better than his previous best back in 2005.
No other team in NASCAR’s No. 2 series demonstrated as much dominance as Penske Racing with all five of its drivers winning at least once in 2013, accounting for 14 wins. Four of its drivers – Keselowski, Logano, Allmendinger and Blaney – all piloted the No. 22 Ford to Victory Lane en route to capturing the owners’ title. Hornish also collected one win in the No. 12 Ford, with Keselowski tacking on one more victory in the No. 48 Ford in the season finale at Homestead.
No one can dispute that Kyle Busch was on a mission to prove that his winless 2012 season was a fluke. By season’s end, he had visited Victory Lane 12 times. He led at least one lap in 20 races, and fell one point shy of winning Joe Gibbs Racing its fifth owners’ crown in six years. Hornish ran atop the points standings or in second after 30 of the 33 races, winning at Las Vegas in the third race of the season. He finished as the top points-eligible driver in 10 races, finishing second only three points behind Dillon.
Racing Trivia Question: When was the inaugural year for the NASCAR Truck Series?
Last Week’s Question: How many races will the 2014 Sprint Cup season consist of? The regular points season will consist of 36-races. There will be one non-points race at Charlotte in May.
You may e-mail any questions to the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.
Tanner Reyan
Tanner Reyan and the Elk Lake Warriors were at their best in the Susquehanna County Holiday Tournament boys’ basketball championship game once again this season.
The Warriors won their third straight title in the tournament and Reyan moved up from an all-tournament selection in 2012 to Most Valuable Player honors in 2013.
The holiday week was not the only time Reyan and the Warriors excelled. Reyan averaged a team-high 21.9 points per game in December when the defending Lackawanna League Division 4 champions started the season 8-0.
For his efforts, Reyan is the Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month for December for the second straight year.
Elk Lake’s defense allowed just 41.9 points per game during the month, which included a New Year’s Eve romp over Mountain View in the league opener.
Reyan is also a big part of that defense, which helped fueled the season-high offensive output in an 82-47 rout of Susquehanna in the tournament championship game.
The senior guard hit a 3-pointer in the first minute of the game to open the scoring and another in the first minute of the second quarter for a 27-4 advantage.
By the time he was done, Reyan had 23 points, six rebounds, six steals and five assists while doing a little bit of everything in the championship effort.
“He makes us go,” Elk Lake coach John Warnero said. “He’s really developed into a great team player and gets things done on both ends of the floor.
“He’s done a really good job embracing the leadership role.”
Reyan is comfortable opening up options for teammates or taking advantage of those that they open for him.
“I just try to keep everyone else going, get everyone else involved and that opens my game a lot more,” Reyan said.
Reyan was a first-team division all-star last season when he helped the Warriors to the championship. The team is off to an even faster start this season as it displayed in the tournament final and earlier that week when it defeated Carbondale, 55-33, in the Red Wallace Memorial Game behind Reyan’s 28 points and stopped Montrose, 59-48, in the tournament semifinal with the help of his 22 points.
“That’s what our team brings to the table every night,” Reyan said of the defensive intensity that overwhelmed Susquehanna early. “That’s what we work on every day in practice.”
Reyan is a four-year member of the Elk Lake basketball team and a three-year member of the soccer team. He was a second-team division soccer all-star in the fall.
Tanner is the son of Rob and Holly Reyan of Friendsville.
