OLYPHANT – After eight years as an assistant coach in Lackawanna College’s highly successful junior college football program, Lou Cella accepted a new challenge this season.
Cella has taken over as the head coach at Montrose, which has gone just 4-46 over the past five seasons for the worst record in all of District 2 during that time.
“I don’t care about the past,” said Cella, who has installed a triple option offense that he instructed as a consultant to programs around the country while coaching at Lackawanna.
Cella said the Meteors will run the same offense used by Army, Navy and Georgia Tech.
“It’s all in,” he said during the LFC Media Day at the Regal Room earlier this month. “It’s everything I do with my clients. The only thing is we are able to refine it because we have a lot more time together.
“We’re able to work on a lot more advanced situations.”
Patrick Parks returns as starting quarterback, but with a whole new set of responsibilities that will have him reading defenses as plays develop and running more often than in the past.
Parks is one of six returning starters, all seniors.
Billy Hewes is back after leading the team in rushing.
Center/defensive lineman Matt Legg, wide receiver/linebacker Jack Fruehan, defensive back Austin Cook and linebacker Bob Purdy return.
Hewes will be the fullback.
Austin Cook will be at one halfback spot while Zoey Casselbury, Will Purdy, David Gardner and Tom Van Nostrand work at the other.
Fruehan and Steven Shelp are the receivers.
Legg anchors the offensive line.
Both guards – 275-pound junior J.J. Heft and 260-pound sophomore Tom Malandri – are from Elk Lake as part of the cooperative sponsorship of the sport between the schools.
Bryce Fair and McCade Calloway are the tackles.
Eric Nichols, who coached the defense at Owego Free Academy in New York State, has been brought in as an assistant coach to install a new multiple defensive approach.
Legg, Malandri, Heft, Kevin Bruno and Zach Summers, a 275-pounder who is the only freshman on the roster, are in the defensive line.
Hewes, Callaway, Fruehan and Bob Purdy are linebackers.
Patrick, Cook, Shelp, Casselbury and Michael Stewart will play in the secondary.
Cella calls coaching at Lackawanna a “life-changing experience” and says that Falcons head coach and former National Football League lineman Mark Duda is the most influential man in his life other than his father.
Adding to the difficulty of Cella's task is Montrose's move up from Division 3 to Division 2 of the Lackawanna Football Conference for the next two years. The Meteors finished fifth of six teams in Division 3 last year, beating only winless Holy Cross in a 1-9 season overall.
The schedule is: Aug. 29 at Meyers; Sept. 5, CARBONDALE; Sept. 12, at Lackawanna Trail; Sept. 20, at Holy Cross; and Sept. 26, SUSQUEHANNA; followed by the five divisional games, Oct. 3, at Lakeland; Oct. 10, WESTERN WAYNE; Oct. 17, RIVERSIDE; Oct. 24, DUNMORE; and Oct. 31, at Honesdale.
WEEK IN REVIEW
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Pennsylvania’s run generated excitement at the 68th Little League World Series before Taney Youth of Philadelphia finished in third place in the U.S. bracket.
Taney fell, 8-1, Wednesday night to Mountain Ridge from Las Vegas, Nevada in the most-watched ESPN Little League broadcast ever with as many as five million people tuning in at a time.
Mo’ne Davis, the team’s 13-year-old female pitcher, became the first Little Leaguer ever featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. She pitched 2 1/3 innings against Mountain Ridge, striking out six while giving up three runs before coming out to keep her eligible to pitch again in a potential U.S. championship game that the team never reached.
Taney’s four games in Williamsport drew total crowds of nearly 100,000, with fans lining up nearly 12 hours in advance for the Mountain Ridge game to get tickets assuring them bleacher seats at the event where admission is free.
“It’s unreal,” said Davis, who aspires to play point guard at the University of Connecticut and in the WNBA. “I never thought at the age of 13, I would be a role model, but now it’s real.
“I always wanted to be a basketball role model, but now I’m a baseball role model and hopefully more girls will play Little League.”
In professional baseball, the Binghamton Mets clinched their second straight Eastern League playoff berth during an off night Thursday.
The Mets were 78-52 at that point and 2 ½ games behind the Eastern Division-leading Portland Sea Dogs, but they were assured of finishing no worse than second in the division.
In high school golf, Forest City shares first place in Lackawanna League Class AA Division golf with Lakeland after a 3-0 start.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The high school football season opens Friday night with both Susquehanna County schools on the road against Wyoming Valley Conference opponents.
Susquehanna is at Nanticoke, a team it defeated, 21-14, at home last season. Montrose is at Meyers in a new addition to its schedule.
We will once again be predicting the outcome of high school football games involving Lackawanna Football Conference teams.
This week’s predictions, with the home teams in CAPS: Susquehanna 21, NANTICOKE 20 … MEYERS 28, Montrose 6 … Hanover Area 34, Carbondale 6 … Scranton Prep 23, DUNMORE 7 … HONESDALE 27, Wallenpaupack 21 … LAKE-LEHMAN 20, Lackawanna Trail 7 … NORTH POCONO 28, Western Wayne 18 … Lakeland 13, NORTHWEST 10 … OLD FORGE 14, GAR 7 … VALLEY VIEW 27, Mid Valley 14 … WEST SCRANTON 40, Riverside 15 … University (Fla.) 30, Delaware Valley 14 … ABINGTON HEIGHTS 10, Pittston Area 7 … Scranton 20, DALLAS 6 … Holy Redeemer 26, HOLY CROSS 20.
Last year’s predictions were 97-25 (79.5 percent) in the regular season and 108-30 (78.3) overall.
In girls’ volleyball, the Lackawanna League season opens Friday with Forest City at Montrose, Lackawanna Trail at Mountain View and Blue Ridge at Abington Heights.
Susquehanna, which went 11-7 last season, opens Saturday at defending champion Dunmore in a rematch of the District 2 Class A championship match that Dunmore won.
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.
PENSKE TEAMS FINISH 1-2 AT BRISTOL
Joey Logano, Cup winner at Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn.—Joey Logano took the lead from Matt Kenseth in Saturday’s Sprint Cup race with 45 laps remaining, and held off his teammate Brad Keselowski for his third win of the season.
“It just means a lot to be able to get this victory, and obviously Penske with the one-two finish puts the cherry on top,” said Logano. “Yeah, right now we have the momentum. We've been fast at every type of race track. I wish we were in Atlanta tomorrow. Well, maybe not tomorrow. I'm going to enjoy tomorrow. But Monday sounds good.”
Keselowski followed Logano for the last 30 laps of the 500-lap race, but was never able to make a pass for the lead, and had to settle for second.
“It was a hard night,” said Keselowski. “I'll tell you, first off, this place, the race pace is really brutal and aggressive. I swear, this is the most grueling race of the year. It feels good just to complete it and be able to kind of look myself in the eye and know I gave it all I had. It just wasn't enough, but I didn't fall out of the seat, so I'm damned near as proud of not falling out of the seat as anything else.”
Logano joined four other drivers, Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, who have three wins this season.
The remaining top-10 drivers were: Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Ricky Stenhouse, Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, and Greg Biffle.
Polesitter Kevin Harvick came home 11th. On lap 160, Harvick moved up the track and bumped Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota in the rear. Hamlin’s car hit the wall, and spun down the track. As Hamlin’s car was spinning around, along came Dale Earnhardt Jr. and slammed into the side of it.
Hamlin was unable to continue and finished 40th. Earnhardt’s team made repairs but when he returned to the track, he was unable to maintain a proper speed and called it quits on lap 178. He wound up 39th.
Kyle Busch, who was involved in several incidents as well as a pit road speeding penalty was told off by his crew chief.
According to a story reported by MRN Radio, Busch radioed his pit crew, and began voicing several complaints to his crew chief Dave Rogers during lap 440.
“Park it behind the truck and take your whiny little ass to the bus,” Rogers told him.
Busch parked the car on pit road. He and Rogers later talked, and Joe Gibbs said the two would be able to move on.
Busch finished 36th and is now 17th in points, which means he is not currently in the Chase.
Chase Contenders with two races to go before the 10-race Chase begins: 1. Gordon-845, 2. Earnhardt-818, 3. Keselowski-776, 4. Logano-761, 5. Kenseth-751, 6. Johnson-726, 7. Harvick-721, 8. Edwards-716, 9. Newman-710, 10. Bowyer-699, 11. Biffle-694, 12. Larson-668, 13. Kahne-661, 14. A. Dillon-654, 15. Menard-649, 16. McMurray-634.
BLANEY WINS OVER KYLE BUSCH
Kyle Busch led 161 laps of the 300-lap Bristol Nationwide Series race and seemed headed for victory lane.
But Ryan Blaney had a different idea.
Beat Busch on the restart with seven-laps-to-go.
On the final restart, Busch was holding back. Blaney suddenly jumped to the lead as the cars took the green and sailed off to victory lane.
“Kyle didn't go on that last restart,” Blaney said, referring to the marked area on the track wall inside which the leader is supposed to accelerate. “He said his tires were jacked up and we got to the second line and we just went.”
Busch finished second, followed by Chase Elliott, Ty Dillon, Regan Smith, Brendan Gaughan, Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones, James Buescher and Chris Buescher.
Top-10 leaders after 23 of 33; 1. Elliott-834, 2. Smith-821, 3. T. Dillon-804, 4. Sadler-792, 5. Scott-783, 6. Bayne-771, 7. C. Buescher-682, 8. Gaughan-664, 9. Reed-632, 10. J. Buescher-621.
Top-10 Truck Series leaders after 13 of 22: 1. Sauter-487, 2. Crafton-479, 3. Hornaday-470, 4. Blaney-463, 5. Wallace Jr.-454, 6. Quiroga-433, 7. Coulter-425, 8. Peters-414, 9. Kennedy-412, 10. Burton-393.
GIBBS SAID STEWART HAS STRENGTH TO RETURN
Tony Stewart’s former car owner, Joe Gibbs believes Stewart has the strength to return to racing at some point following the Aug. 9 incident which left sprint car driver Kevin Ward Jr. dead.
Gibbs, who employed Stewart at Joe Gibbs Racing from 1999-2008, said he has not spoken to Stewart since the incident but thinks the driver will be able to come back and race again.
Stewart has missed the past three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and also has canceled his non-NASCAR racing appearances until further notice. “From what I saw with Tony, he's got great courage, he's smart, he loves this sport,” Gibbs said. “He's totally focused on it.”
Gibbs said he was told by Stewart's representatives the driver is taking some time for himself right now, and is in seclusion.
“We all love Tony, we love what he did for us here,” he said. “We know he's a racer's racer and he's big for our sport. I would love to have a chance to speak with him at some point and encourage him.”
Except to offer one statement right after the accident, Stewart has not made any comments about the accident which took the life of the 20-year-old Ward. He has hired a “crisis team” to advise him on future actions and statements.
He has given several requested statements to the Ontario County Sheriff’s Dept, but because of a possible criminal indictment, and/or civil lawsuits, his team has advised him against making any public statements or appearances.
In an article in the Washington Post last week, NASCAR writer, Jeff Owens said Stewart should: take time off from racing, explain what happened that night, honor Ward in some fashion and think long-term about how to make sprint-car racing safer.
Based on the e-mails I receive from fans, public opinion is against him, no matter what the real or actual circumstances were.
This tragedy is going to haunt Stewart for the rest of his life. He will never be able to distance himself from it.
I would hope that he and his advisors would begin to set the record straight and shed as much light as possible. The longer he waits, the more difficult it’s going to be for the four Stewart Haas Racing teams to maintain a positive outlook. And don’t forget their individual sponsors. These are national 500 Companies that have their reputation on the line.
He needs to face up to the situation for what it really was, rather than use a team of outsiders to make it appear as something it wasn’t.
There is a lot more involved in this scenario than just Tony Stewart.
Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide teams are at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway for night races, while the Truck Series heads to Ontario, Canada for a Sunday afternoon event.
Sat., Aug. 30, Nationwide Series race 25 of 33; Starting time: 7 pm ET; TV: ESPN.
Sun., Aug. 31, Truck Series race 14 of 22; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.
Sun., Aug. 31, Sprint Cup race 25 of 36; Starting time: 7 pm ET; TV: ESPN.
Racing Trivia Question: Which driver has the most Cup wins at Atlanta?
Last Week’s Question: The first NASCAR race held at Bristol was in 1961. Who was the winner? Answer. Georgia’s Jack Smith was the winner.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at: www.hodges@race500.com
