TUNNEL HILL – Junior guards Matt Nevins and Noah Fedak scored 17 points each and led a second-half comeback but Forest City still fell short, losing to host Lackawanna Trail, 57-49, in boys’ basketball Friday night.
The win was the second of three in division play by Lackawanna Trail under interim coach Christian Sunseri. Those wins, which included a 50-48 victory over Mountain View Saturday, allowed Lackawanna Trail to share the division lead with unbeaten defending champion Elk Lake heading into their scheduled meeting Tuesday night.
Sunseri is coaching the Lions for the first three weeks of 2014 while first-year coach Jason Nese, the former Mountain View girls’ coach, is out on a medical leave.
Tyler Rzucidlo scored 18 points, including cutting through the lane for nine during a 13-1 run that produced a 39-21 lead with 2:16 left in the third quarter.
The Foresters, who are 0-3 in the division and 1-10 overall, had worked their way back into the game once by using full-court pressure after the Lions opened the game with an 11-2 lead. This time, the offense picked up.
Fedak found Nevins to end the Lackawanna Trail run. Nevins, who also contributed three assists and two steals in the game, then scored seven points in the fourth quarter.
Fedak hit a 3-pointer and added two free throws in a span of 17 seconds to cut the Trail lead to 48-42 with 1:46 left, but the Foresters could not get any closer. He also led Forest City with 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.
Ross Fauquier had 11 points and seven rebounds for Lackawanna Trail before fouling out.
Forest City finished out the week with a crossover loss to Carbondale, 47-31.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Lackawanna Trail went 5-0 to win the title of the Zurn-Bush Duals wrestling tournament at Elk Lake Saturday.
Blue Ridge went 4-1 to finish second.
Montrose, Elk Lake and Mountain View all had losing records in the eight-team event.
Before falling to Lackawanna Trail, 39-36, in the Zurn-Bush, Blue Ridge beat the Lions, 47-20, Wednesday night to take the early lead in the Lackawanna League Division 2 standings with a 2-0 record.
Jon Haines and Evan Aldrich got the win started with pins at 220 and 285 for a 12-0 lead.
Patrick Cramer (120), Zach Edwards (138) and Justin Carpenter (160) all joined Haines in producing first-period pins. Carpenter’s pin gave the Raiders an insurmountable 41-18 lead and Addison Parsons followed up with one more pin at 171.
David Austin added a technical fall at 113 while Dalton Hogle (132) and Michael Kelly (152) pulled out close decisions for Blue Ridge.
In girls’ basketball, Montrose and Forest City share the Lackawanna League Division 3 lead at 3-0 while Mountain View is 2-1.
Both the Lady Meteors and Lady Foresters won back-to-back games Thursday and Friday after cold weather altered the schedule earlier in the week.
Montrose won the consecutive games without scoring a fourth-quarter point. By then, they had more than enough.
The Lady Meteors defeated Elk Lake, 53-25, and Blue Ridge, 46-27.
Against Elk Lake Thursday, Montrose opened a 44-14 lead after three quarters. Against Blue Ridge Friday, the Lady Meteors led 36-8 at halftime and 46-13 after three quarters on the way to their eighth straight victory overall.
Montrose also jumped out to a 28-7 halftime lead in its 54-34 victory over Susquehanna Jan. 6, but the Lady Sabers cut into that deficit during the third quarter.
Meghan Gilhool and Myra Lattimore topped Montrose in scoring, each leading one game while sharing honors in another.
Carly Erdmann had 39 points total when Forest City defeated Lackawanna Trail, 42-23, Thursday and Susquehanna, 49-37, Friday.
The Lady Foresters erased deficits of seven points at halftime and one point after three quarters in the win over the Lady Sabers.
In boys’ basketball, Elk Lake faced its toughest challenge of the season but remained unbeaten and finished the week tied for the division lead by holding off host Montrose, 51-48, Friday night.
Tanner Reyan scored 25 points to lead Elk Lake.
The Warriors (10-0 overall) had won their first two division games by a total of 158-66.
Montrose finished the week 2-1 and in third place, followed by Mountain View at 2-2.
In professional hockey, forwards Mike Hoffman of the Binghamton Senators and Brian Gibbons of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have been selected to play in the American Hockey League All-Star Classic, which will have a different format this year.
The AHL All-Stars will meet Farjestad BK for the Swedish Hockey League in an internationally televised two-day event that will feature a Skills Competition Feb. 11 and the All-Star Game Feb. 12 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
Farjestad BK, which was founded in 1932 in Karlstad Sweden, has won nine Swedish Hockey League championships, including four since 2004. It will become the first SHL team to compete in North America.
The AHL All-Star Classic will take place in the days leading up to the start of the men’s hockey tournament at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
Hoffman, in his fourth season with Binghamton, has 16 goals and 24 assists in 35 games. He is third in the league in scoring while helping the Senators to the East Division lead.
Gibbons, a two-time NCAA champion at Boston College who is in his third season with the Penguins, has nine goals and 18 assists in 23 games.
The AHL captain is St. John’s IceCaps forward Jason Jaffray, a former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin.
COLLEGE CORNER
Dallas Ely, who led Montrose to the state Class AA girls’ basketball semifinals, is developing into one of the top guards in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference as a sophomore at West Chester University.
Ely has been named PSAC Eastern Division Athlete of the Week for women’s basketball twice this season, earning her latest honor Jan. 6. She also shared the award with Kutztown’s Advia Campbell Dec. 9.
The latest award-winning week began with Ely scoring 25 points, grabbing eight rebounds and making five steals in a 78-73 PSAC crossover win over Mercyhurst to begin the New Year. She went 3-for-4 from 3-point range in the second half and 5-for-10 for the game.
The win was the eighth in nine games for West Chester.
Ely added 19 points and five steals in an 87-64 loss to unbeaten Gannon, the nation’s second-ranked NCAA Division II team. Ely went 5-for-5 on 3-pointers in the first half of the loss.
In addition to the 19 points against Gannon, Ely has 20 or more points in six of her last eight games. She ranks second in the PSAC in scoring with 20.3 points per game and third in steals with 2.8.
Ely is averaging 34.3 minutes per game while starting all 13 games for the Rams. She is shooting 90-for-206 (43.7 percent) from the floor, 40-for-106 (37.7) from 3-point range and 44-for-55 (80.0) from the line. She also averages 5.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.
West Chester is 4-0 in the PSAC East and 9-4 overall.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Montrose is at Forest City Thursday in a meeting between the two teams who frequently determine the Lackawanna League Division 4 girls basketball title. They went into the week tied for first at 3-0.
The first half of the Lackawanna League basketball schedule comes to an end Monday, January 20 for the girls and Tuesday, January 21 for the boys.
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.
TONY STEWART SPEAKS HIS MIND
Tony Stewart, September, 2013
Tony Stewart met with members of the media during testing at Daytona last week to discuss his health and the preparedness of Stewart-Haas Racing for 2014.
“We're still on schedule to be clear (cleared medically to race) the day before the Shootout, so we'll be down here for two days hanging out and watching our teams run,” said Stewart who is recuperating from a broken leg.
“I feel pretty good. I still have a little ways to go, but we've got four weeks to get ready the rest of the way. Even when we get here in February, it's not going to be 100 percent. Physically I'm not going to feel 100 percent, but I'll be able to do my job 100 percent, so that's the main thing. I don't mind it taking a little longer for the physical side to heal, as long as I can drive a race car when I need to when I get back.
“I've never had an injury like this so I don't have anything to compare it to. I kind of base everything on a week-to-week deal, and on Sunday I kind of evaluate where I was the Sunday before and go from there. It's been kind of a challenge, I guess, from that standpoint. The physical side of it is an obvious deal. It's getting everything healed back up and going through rehab and doing everything we're supposed to do. But just not knowing exactly what I'm supposed to feel like, if something hurts why is it hurting. I've not had those experiences before. The therapist gets his phone -- I think he sets it on his nightstand at night because I call him at night and ask him a lot of questions. But having those guys around, it kind of takes the psychological side and kind of puts a lot of that at ease.
“It's still a question mark of what's it actually going to feel like when we get in the race car and try to drive wide open for lap after lap.”
In addition to his leg healing, Stewart has to worry about his own team, three other Cup teams, two new drivers, and a new shop under construction.
When asked what to expect from the other teams, Stewart replied: “I think every week we for sure have three guys that can go out and win the race, and I think the fourth driver, Danica Patrick has got potential to be more consistent this year. I think she's got three teammates that are going to be behind her 100 percent.
“You know, I think we can win a lot of races. I think realistically we could get three cars in the Chase. It wouldn't surprise me at all. I'd almost be a little disappointed if three of the cars don't make the Chase. It's not that we're discounting Danica, but it's still a work in progress. She's still learning.
“This year I think will be a big year for her. I think having that first full season under her belt now and being able to go to every place twice and get the feeling of what a Cup weekend is like, I think all the news wore off of that this year and I think she knows more what to expect and it's more a matter of focusing on the things that she can be better at. I think all four of us have the potential to do better than all four of us did last year. But for sure I feel like we've got three cars that can win races and make the Chase right now.”
Meanwhile Las Vegas odds makers have posted Jimmie Johnson as a 6-3 favorite to win this year’s Daytona 500.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is 10-1, despite not having won a restrictor-plate race since 2004, when he won the Daytona 500 and the fall Talladega race. Since winning those two events, a span of 20 races, no driver has a better average.
Earnhardt will have a new crew chief in 2015.
Steve Letarte, Earnhardt’s current crew chief will relinquish his job at year’s end to accept a new position as a television analyst with NBC Sports Network, beginning in 2015.
Letarte has served as crew chief for Earnhardt since 2011, with one win, 24 Top-5 and 54 Top-10 finishes in 106 starts. Earnhardt finished fifth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings last season, despite failing to win a race. He recorded Top-5 finishes in five of the final eight races and is expected to challenge for the 2014 title.
NASCAR MAY SLOW DOWN RACING
During a session last week on Motor Racing Network’s “NASCAR Live” show, Brian France spent an hour taking questions from fans.
Three main questions he answered involved, better competition on the track, earlier race start times and the current points system.
France said that if slowing the cars meant better racing, he would be all for it.
“We are very committed to getting rule packages that create more side-by-side racing,” he said. “That’s the hallmark of what we do. That’s what we wake up every morning trying to do. I’m confident that we’ll make the racing, which is already very good - and, by the way, statistically better than it ever was - but the standards are higher and we’re going to meet those standards and create the best racing in the world, that’s our job.”
France said there have been discussions with the TV networks about later start times.
“If anything, we’re trying to go a little bit later,’’ France said. “We’re, obviously, trying to get more prime-time events and be in the widest possible audience that’s available on television, although I certainly understand that creates some hardships as well with people trying to get back home from the track.”
On the subject of points, France said, “We’re working on the (race) format of the future, maybe it’s a little bit different, maybe it’s more than a little. We also, I would tell you, we are not satisfied that we have the exact balance we want with winning, consistency, points, running for a championship.
“We think we can make some tweaks to continue to incentivize risk-taking and racing hard. We’re looking at that. We’ll undoubtedly be coming with things that put the incentive on winning races and competing at the highest level.”
Racing Trivia Question: Which family member was the crew chief/engine builder for Richard Petty?
Last Week’s Question: When was the inaugural year for the NASCAR Truck Series? Answer. The series was formed in 1995. Mike Skinner won the first race, which was held, Feb. 15, 1995 at Phoenix.
Note: There was a series called “Winter Heat” that aired during the winter months on TNN between November and January during the 1994-1995 winters and ran through the 1998-1999 winter. The races were held at the 3/8 mile Tucson Raceway Park in Tucson, Arizona.
TNN originally broadcast those races before ESPN took over.There were six to eight races per winter. The first season of “Winter Heat” featured the brand new Craftsman Super Truck Series, the Winston West Series and the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour.
You may e-mail any questions to the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.
Colby Thomas
The Mountain View Eagles came within one game of repeating as Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A boys’ soccer champions.
After leading the Eagles along that route and lifting himself through the ranks of the state’s all-time leading high school scorers at the same time, Colby Thomas was able to repeat an individual accomplishment.
Thomas, a Mountain View senior, has been selected Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Year for 2013, duplicating an honor he received for 2012.
“I’ve been really privileged to go through this experience with my family,” Thomas said after a college recruiting trip.
Thomas played for his father, Roger, the Mountain View coach. His older brother, Dylan, was a teammate on the 2012 state championship squad.
The 2013 team made up for the graduation of Dylan Thomas and others and once again built itself into a Lackawanna League Division 3 and District 2 championship team.
“Offensively, I really believe that we grew a lot. We’ve really gotten better,” Colby Thomas said. “The defense, you have to credit, because that’s where our concerns were after losing three or four guys.
“The guys on defense really improved.”
The support from his teammates, allowed Mountain View to once again set Thomas loose on the attack.
Thomas scored 58 goals, the 10th-highest season total in state history, and added 19 assists to help Mountain View outscore opponents, 144-12, in a 20-1 season that ended with a 4-2 loss to Sewickley Academy in the state final.
Mountain View had won 35 straight, including its 2012 state final victory over Sewickley Academy, before dropping the state final.
Thomas finished as Pennsylvania’s fourth all-time scorer for a career with 171 goals. He also had 47 assists.
Prior to the high school season, Thomas made the all-star team while playing for the Lehigh Valley United ’95 club team at the USA Soccer U-17 National Championships. Earlier in the year, he had another all-star baseball season with the Eagles.
Colby is the son of Roger and Robin Thomas of Harford.
