Linebackers Curtis Mills from Susquehanna and Brenton Warner from Montrose have been selected to play for the City team in the 80th annual Dream Game July 30 at Scranton Memorial Stadium.

The Scranton Lions Club-sponsored game, which benefits sight preservation programs, features graduated players from the Lackawanna Football Conference.

Jack Henzes of Dunmore will coach the City team, which features players from Susquehanna, Montrose, Delaware Valley, Dunmore, Holy Cross, North Pocono, Scranton, Scranton Prep, Wallenpaupack and West Scranton. Mike Schuback of Old Forge will coach the County team with players from his state Class A finalists as well as Abington Heights, Carbondale, Honesdale, Lackawanna Trail, Lakeland, Mid Valley, Riverside, Valley View and Western Wayne.

Mills was a first-team LFC Division 3 all-star linebacker, according to northeastpafootball.com. Warner was a second-team selection.

 “He was by far the leader of the team vocally on the field, at practice every day,” Sabers coach Kyle Cook said. “When he was on the field, it was like having another coach.

 “Preparing through the week, and in the games, he was the one who knew what the other team was doing.”

Mills ranked second on the Sabers in total tackles and tackles for losses last season while leading the team in assists. He made 59 tackles, including 12 for 40 yards in losses, while assisting on 52 more. He had two sacks for 17 yards in losses while breaking up three passes, rushing the passer once, forcing a fumble and recovering another.

Susquehanna finished third in Division 3 with a 3-2 record and went 5-5 in the regular season to reach the District 2 Class AA playoffs where it was eliminated by eventual champion Lake-Lehman.

Warner was the only Meteor to gain all-star recognition. He was also a second-team choice as an offensive lineman.

The Meteors went 1-4 in the division and 1-9 overall.

MORE FOOTBALL

Susquehanna’s Austin White is one of the Five to Watch quarterbacks in District 2 for the 2014 football season, according to northeastpafootball.com.

White is joined on the list by Crestwood’s Jay Popson, Lackawanna Trail’s Vic Mallory, Northwest’s Logan Womelsdorf and Scranton Prep’s Nick Solfanelli.

Last season, White led the Sabers in rushing, passing and scoring. He carried 157 times for 841 yards and 16 touchdowns. He completed 28 of 97 passes for 376 yards and four touchdowns.

Defensively, White was fourth on the team in tackles with 49. Six of those tackles were for 34 yards in losses. He also assisted on 38 tackles and broke up five passes.

Elsewhere, Maryland defeated Pennsylvania, 31-24, in double overtime June 14 at Hersheypark Stadium in the longest game in the 57-year history of the Big 33 Football Classic.

The all-star game for graduated high school football players has featured Pennsylvania against Maryland 10 times. This was just the third victory for Maryland in the series.

Scranton Prep lineman Noah Beh, a Penn State recruit, was the only Lackawanna Football Conference player on the Pennsylvania roster.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Pennsylvania rivals meet for four straight International League games beginning Saturday.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, top farm team of the New York Yankees, play Saturday at 6:35 and Sunday at 1:35 at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the top affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The teams meet again at PNC Field in Moosic in Monday, June 30 and Tuesday, July 1 at 7:05.

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.

EDWARDS IS THE MASTER AT SONOMA

Carl Edwards is the Master at Sonoma. Furnished by NASCAR

SONOMA, Cal.—Carl Edwards held off a hard charging Jeff Gordon on the last turn of the last lap to win Sunday’s Sprint Cup race.

At one point Edwards had over a two-second lead, but in the last seven laps of the 110-lap race, Gordon closed the gap. As the two cars went into the last turn, Gordon tried to pass Edwards on the inside, but came up short.

“It was tough,” said Edwards. “That last lap was ugly. I knew my tires were gone and boy was I worried. I grew up watching Jeff Gordon win races, and today I saw just how tough he is.

“I could see it coming. I knew where he was going to make his move. Our car wasn’t so good at the beginning of the race, but we made some adjustments, and I had just enough car to win.

“Jeff Gordon has been the master here before, but today, I was the master.”

Gordon was running seventh on the last restart with 14-laps to-go. He slowly worked his way past other cars until lap 103, he had gotten by Jamie McMurray for second.

“I was really good in the fast sectors, and he (Carl Edwards) was good in the slow sectors,” said Gordon. “Once I got behind him I tried to put as much pressure on him as I could. Even though we didn’t qualify well, we had a good car.

“I did the best I could. All in all it was a good race.”

Gordon’s teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third.

“The key to winning here is strategy,” said Earnhardt. “We had a good car, but we just needed a little better strategy. Other than that it was a pretty good race.”

Polesitter Jamie McMurray led twice for nine laps, but had to settle for fourth.

Paul Menard, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, and Clint Bowyer were the remaining top-10 finishers.

Clint Bowyer ran into the rear of Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48, causing a multi-car pileup on lap 97, collecting Kevin Harvick.

Bowyer was able to regroup and finish 10th, while Harvick was 20th.

Danica Patrick had an uneventful day. She finished 18th, while her boss and teammate Tony Stewart was 19th.

Matt Kenseth was running about midway of the pack during lap 71, when he made contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and hit an outside tire barricade. His car was damaged too heavily for him to continue the race and he finished 42nd.

Top-16 Chase leaders after 16 of 33: 1. Gordon-580, 2. Johnson-560, 3. Earnhardt-555, 4. Kenseth-515, 5. Keselowski-512, 6. Edwards-509, 7. Logano-483, 8. Newman-473, 9. Harvick-472, 10. Larson-470, 11. Kyle Busch-465, 12. Menard-459, 13. Hamlin-453, 14. Bowyer-452, 15. Biffle-444, 16. Kahne-429.

GAUGHAN GETS FIRST NATIONWIDE WIN

ELKHARDT LAKE, Wis.--Brendan Gaughan, who had never won a Nationwide Series race, took the lead after a green-white-checkered restart, from polesitter Alex Tagliani, in Saturday’s rainy race at Road America.

Tagliani, who was leading the race before the last caution came out, simply ran out of gas, allowing Gaughan to take the lead.

The win came in his 98th career Nationwide start.

Due to the rainy weather teams were forced to use rain-tires for much of the race. This was only the third time NASCAR teams have used them. The other two times were at Montreal, Canada.

Tagliani finished second, followed by Kevin O’Connell, Chase Elliott, JJ Yeley, Jeremy Clements, Andy Lally, Landon Cassill, Elliott Sadler, and Mike Bliss.

Top-10 leaders after 14 of 33: 1. Smith-516, 2. Sadler-506, 3. Elliott-505, 4. T. Dillon-475, 5. Scott-458, 6. Bayne-453, 7. Gaughan-410, 8. C. Buescher-388, 9. J. Buescher-388, 10. Cassill-368.

CAN ROUSH FENWAY SAVE THEIR SEASON

Carl Edwards’ win at Sonoma will help his car owners, but the Roush Fenway Fords still need to find something that is missing in their racing package.

This past week the three teams finished 1st, 9th, and 31st.

Two weeks ago they ran terrible at Michigan. Greg Biffle was 20th, while Carl Edwards was 23rd and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 27th.

“We’ve just got to get better as a group,” Edwards said. “That’s the way it is.”

The poor performance that the teams are showing on the track continues to fuel speculation that Edwards and Biffle, whose contracts are up at the end of this season, might switch teams.

The entire team performance record is one win, with only 193 laps led.

By comparison, Hendrick Motorsports has six wins and has led a total of 1,587 laps.

“Racing is like a business, you go through cycles,” Jack Roush said. “We’ve had times when we’ve been the cars to beat for an extended period of time to everybody’s frustration and now we’re just struggling to get back to where we need to be.

“The underbody of the car has changed and it’s been a revelation. How low is low enough and how low is too low? Too low is higher than we thought it might have been a month ago and we’re sorting that out.

“We’ve worked through a lot of the problems, and everyday, I believe we find little small answers. Sometimes what we discover only makes a small difference, but the engineering department is on it, and we’re going to get better.”

While there has been considerable talk about Edwards switching over to Joe Gibbs Racing, a clause in his current contract prohibits him from discussing his plans until September.

Greg Biffle said Friday he is still working on a new contract to stay at Roush Fenway Racing. Biffle admitted he has talked to other teams in the garage, but he was presently negotiating with Roush.

“My deal is definitely not done,” he told The Associated Press during practice at Sonoma Raceway. “I'm trying to negotiate an extension. Nothing has changed.”

Right now RFR is at a disadvantage with the other teams. Their cars are underpowered and lack the handling capabilities of several other teams. If they are to salvage anything from the 2014 season, they need to find some answers.

Weekend Racing: All the racing will be at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway this weekend.

Thurs., June 26; Camping World Truck series, race 8 of 22; Starting time: 7:30 pm ET; TV: Fox Sports1.

Fri., June 27; Nationwide Series race, 15 of 33; Starting time: 7:30 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Sat., June 28; Sprint Cup race, 17 of 36; Starting time: 6:30 pm ET; TV: TNT.

Racing Trivia Question: Which Cup team did Joey Logano drive for before switching to Penske Racing?

Last Week’s Question: How many drivers will this year’s Chase consist of? Answer. Sixteen.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.