Susquehanna’s defense allowed just one first down in the first half while Nolan Hausser was scoring two touchdowns to lead a balanced offense that carried the Sabers to a comfortable, 35-13 victory over Holy Cross Friday night in the Lackawanna Football Conference opener at William Emminger Memorial Field.
The only first down allowed by the Sabers in the first two quarters of their annual game under portable lights came when they committed consecutive penalties in the second quarter.
While the defense dominated, the offense put together its strongest effort of the season. The Sabers scored four touchdowns in a stretch of 12:12 to take a 35-0 halftime lead, ensuring that the entire second half would be played with a running clock under the Mercy Rule.
Holy Cross ran 26 plays in its first eight possessions through the opening drive of the second half. During that time, just one run went for more than two yards for the Crusaders, who also completed a pair of four-yard passes. The outcome was sealed at that point with Holy Cross still at minus-14 yards rushing and minus-6 yards total offense.
Christian Miller helped drive the Crusaders back. He had two tackles for 15 yards in losses and rushed the passer into two incompletions. Miller was done for the night at halftime with three tackles and two assists.
Sophomore linebacker Jarred Mills led the defense with four tackles, including one for an eight-yard loss, eight assists and a broken-up pass.
Dalton Hogle and Brady Towner also had big games on defense as the Sabers got contributions from many players on both sides of the ball. Hogle had six tackles and four assists. Towner had three tackles and one assist just on kickoff coverage in the first half and finished the game with six tackles and two assists.
The offense got rolling early.
Four different runners had runs of at least 12 yards on the team’s first possession.
Austin White went 12 yards, Brett Hepler 12 and Hausser 14 on the first three plays of a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive. Austin Felter took his first carry 16 yards off the right side for a touchdown with 7:09 left in the first quarter.
Steve Jesse made the first of his five extra-point kicks and finished the night 10-for-10 on the season.
A fumble on the first play ruined the next Susquehanna possession, but the Sabers wound up scoring on five of six first-half drives.
White completed his only two pass attempts for 64 yards and two touchdowns. He was under pressure on a third-and-four rollout late in the first quarter when he lofted a pass over a defender on the sideline to Hausser, who raced 42 yards for the score. White threw across the middle on fourth-and-two with 9:24 left in the half, finding Austin Darrow, who reached high to make the catch then dragged two defenders into the end zone for the 22-yard touchdown.
The Sabers made it three touchdowns in six offensive plays.
Hepler, who returned four first-half punts for 85 yards, had an 18-yard return to the Holy Cross 28. Hausser scored from there on the next play.
After Holy Cross gained its only first down of the half, it tried to convert fourth-and-three from the Sabers 46. Zach Conrad made the first hit to stop the play for no gain.
Susquehanna built the lead to 35-0 at halftime.
Hepler first had a 54-yard touchdown run called back by a penalty. He then carried 47 yards on a third-and-16 run off the left side. Mills scored from the 13 on the next play with 50 seconds left in the half.
Thomas Ware scored for Holy Cross on a 3-yard run in the third quarter and an 18-yard run with 2:04 left.
Susquehanna had 10 of its 13 first downs and 240 of its 270 yards in the first half before passing up the chance to receive the second-half kickoff and substituting freely.
Hepler led the ground game with 73 yards on seven carries. Hausser added 57 on three carries.
The Sabers improved to 2-1 and took the early division lead since no other Division 3 games have been played yet.
Susquehanna is already assured of a berth in the District 2 Class A playoffs because there are four spots and only four teams this season.
The Sabers dropped back down from Class AA when the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association changed the way it counts enrollment when schools cooperatively sponsor a sport.
Instead of counting all the boys from both Susquehanna and Blue Ridge to determine the team’s enrollment figure, the PIAA is now counting all the boys at the host school (Susquehanna) but just half the boys’ enrollment from the sending school (Blue Ridge).
Holy Cross (0-3) is one of the four Class A teams.
Unbeatens Old Forge, last year’s Class A state runner-up, and Lackawanna Trail are the other two Class A teams in District 2.
WEEK IN REVIEW
The Binghamton Mets won the Eastern League championship for the first time since 1994 by allowing just four runs in a three-game sweep of the Richmond Squirrels.
Jayce Boyd’s pinch-hit RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday night at NYSEG Stadium scored pinch runner Gavin Cecchini with the winning run in a 2-1 victory that wrapped up the title.
Steven Matz had a no-hitter for 7 1/3 innings of the clinching game. He struck out 11 and left the game after allowing back-to-back singles with one out in the eighth inning.
The Mets won the first two games of the series in Richmond, 5-2 and 5-1.
Xorge Carrillo, the EL’s postseason Most Valuable Player, hit a two-run homer in the first inning to open the Game Two scoring. Travis Taijeron hit a three-run homer in the eighth to break open what had been a 2-1 lead.
Greg Peavey struck out nine in seven innings of the victory. He had eight of those strikeouts while retiring 12 of the last 13 batters he faced.
In high school cross country, Forest City had runners finish sixth in the varsity boys and girls races as the Lackawanna County Commissions Invitational at McDade Park in Scranton Saturday morning.
Tyler Debrino was sixth out of 144 boys runners to help Forest City place eighth of 13 teams. North Pocono edged Wallenpaupack, 50-52, for the team title.
Susquehanna finished 13th. Justin Acone led the Sabers, finishing 23rd.
Jennifer Korty was sixth of 100 runners, but Forest City did not have a full team in the girls’ race.
Susquehanna placed fifth out of 11 teams. Ivy Christensen was 12th, freshman Skyla Wilson 15th and Mikayla Hargett 16th for the Lady Sabers.
Wallenpaupack won a close team race over Pittston Area, 61-63.
Elk Lake was sixth, Montrose 13th and Susquehanna 15th of 16 junior high girls’ teams.
Sheyanne Bennett was fifth and Lydia Ofalt 17th out of 170 runners to lead Elk Lake.
Montrose was ninth, Elk Lake 14th and Susquehanna 18th out of 19 junior high boys’ teams.
Max Brewer was sixth and Liam Mead 11th for Montrose while Peyton Jones was 20th for Elk Lake out of 179 runners in the race.
Elk Lake’s teams remained unbeaten in the Lackawanna League. The boys finished the week 6-0 and tied for first place with Lakeland. The girls were 5-0 and a half-meet ahead of Scranton Prep and Holy Cross, which were both 4-0 going into their scheduled meeting with the Lady Warriors Tuesday.
In high school golf, Lauren Wallis, a Scranton Prep player from Clifford, finished first in the Lackawanna League qualifier for the District 2 girls’ championships Wednesday when she shot 1-over-par, 73 at Scranton Municipal Golf Course Thursday.
The District 2 individual championships are scheduled for Oct. 6 at Fox Hill Country Club.
Montrose’s Brianna Baker shot 92 and Blue Ridge’s Olivia Rockwell 95 and also qualified for the district tournament.
In high school football, Montrose fell to 0-3 when it lost at unbeaten Lackawanna Trail, 48-0.
The Meteors, who rank last in the 20-team LFC with just six points scored, fell behind 34-0 at halftime.
Montrose also dropped in classification this season under the new cooperative sponsorship enrollment rules. The Meteors co-sponsor football with Elk Lake. They have dropped from Class AAA to AA.
COLLEGE CORNER
Colby Thomas and Zeb Cross, two leaders of Mountain View’s 2012 state champions and 2013 state finalists, reached milestones last week.
Both are playing as freshman at Messiah College, the defending national champion and the nation’s top-ranked team in NCAA Division III men’s soccer.
Thomas scored his first college point by assisting on the second goal in a 3-0 win over Gettysburg Wednesday.
Cross took his first shot in a college game Saturday during a 4-0 victory over Catholic.
Thomas and Cross have each come off the bench as forwards in all six games for Messiah, which has shut out its last five opponents and is outscoring teams, 18-1, this season.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Susquehanna and Montrose each head to Dunmore for non-league games between Lackawanna Football Conference teams this weekend.
The Sabers are at Dunmore Friday night at 7 on the turf at Gatto Memorial Stadium in a meeting of 2-1 teams.
The Meteors travel to St. Anthony’s Playground Saturday for a 1 p.m. game between 0-3 teams that may each be facing their best chance of winning a game.
In its last visit to St. Anthony’s, Montrose ended a 35-game losing streak almost two years ago with a 37-8 win over Holy Cross.
Now, it is Holy Cross trying to end a 25-game losing streak since beating Montrose, 49-6, late in the 2011 season.
One coach will get his first win in the game. Either second-year coach Josh Watters will get his first for the host Crusaders or Lou Cella will get his first at Montrose where he is in his first season.
Our predictions on high school football games were 10-4 (71.4 percent) last week to bring our season record to 32-13 (71.1).
This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: DUNMORE 24, Susquehanna 16 … HOLY CROSS 31, Montrose 28 … SCRANTON PREP 25, Scranton 14 … DELAWARE VALLEY 33, Abington Heights 14 … WEST SCRANTON 23, North Pocono 6 … WALLENPAUPACK 22, Valley View 14 … WESTERN WAYNE 28, Mid Valley 19 … NANTICOKE 22, Lakeland 17 … HANOVER AREA 40, Riverside 6 … HONESDALE 38, Carbondale 6 … Old Forge 24, LAKE-LEHMAN 17 … MEYERS 23, Lackawanna Trail 18.
In high school golf, the Lackawanna League qualifier for the District 2 boys’ championships is scheduled for Wednesday at 8 a.m. at Elmhurst Country Club.
The last two unbeatens in the Lackawanna League Class AA Division meet Thursday. Forest City, which started the week 8-0, is at Holy Cross, which was in first place at 10-0.
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.
