Elk Lake stands alone as the last Lackawanna League girls’ cross country unbeaten after beating the other two unbeatens in a cluster meet Sept. 16 in Scranton.
The Lady Warriors did not stop there. They followed up the major dual victories with an invitational title Saturday in Hershey, winning their 16-team division at the PIAA Foundation Meet.
Elk Lake defeated defending state Class A champion Holy Cross, 27-28, and handled Scranton Prep, 19-36, to improve to 7-0 in the Lackawanna League.
The Lady Warriors won the White Division – for Class A schools – in the PIAA Foundation Meet, which gives many of the state’s top programs a preview of the Parkview Course that is used at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships in November.
Holy Cross had the top two finishers – Mackenzie Greenfield and Lexi Walsh – in the five-team league cluster meet that also included Blue Ridge and Montrose.
Elk Lake had the next four runners with Kenzie Jones, Katie Bennett, Justine Johns and Keri Jones all finishing between 19:49 and 20:12.
Elk Lake’s dual with Holy Cross was even through four runners from each team. When Julie Van Etten rallied late to pass a Lady Crusaders runner for the next spot, she sealed the win for Elk Lake.
Holy Cross and Elk Lake battled again at the PIAA Foundation Meet.
Elk Lake finished first with 78 points, beating second-place Holy Cross by 15.
Walsh and Greenfield were second and third in a field of 125 runners, but Elk Lake again showed greater depth.
Kenzie Jones was fifth, completing the 3.1-mile course in 20:12. Bennett was ninth in 20:32. Johns was 14th, Jones 18th, Jenny VanEtten 43rd, Andrea Rockefeller 46th and Julie VanEtten 50th.
The Elk Lake boys suffered their first league loss Tuesday then came back strong to take second of 26 teams in the Boys White Division at Hershey.
Scranton Prep, which joins Abington Heights and North Pocono as the league’s unbeatens, topped Elk Lake, 18-41.
Hunter Bedell was fourth among the five teams running, helping Elk Lake earn a split on the day with a 15-43 over Holy Cross.
Bedell was 17th and sophomore Daniel Bell 18th when each finished in 18:06 at Hershey. Dakota Oswald was 29th, Seth Owens 47th and Cale Owens 57th of 174 runners.
Forest City was 21st, led by Tyler Debrino in 42nd place.
Montrose also competed at Hershey, running in the Blue Divisions for Class AA teams. The Meteors were 30th of 36 teams while the Lady Meteors were 24th of 30.
Owen Brewer was 56th of 249 in the boys’ race while Emma Washo was 18th of 218 in the girls’ race.
Elk Lake also competed in the junior varsity boys' race for teams of all classifications and finished 28th of 36 teams.
FOOTBALL ROUNDUP
DUNMORE – Austin Cook went around end repeatedly for 114 yards and a touchdown rushing.
Cook went high in the air to pull in floating passes launched by each team.
When Cook came to the ground with an interception with four seconds remaining Saturday afternoon at St. Anthony’s Playground, he secured Montrose’s first win under first-year coach Lou Cella, a 26-20 victory over Holy Cross in a non-league game between struggling Lackawanna Football Conference programs.
“This is like the turning point of our season,” Cook said after the Meteors rallied to win after getting outscored 125-6 in Cella’s first three games as coach.
“We’re been getting better every day,” Cella said. “At this point, we pretty much know what we’re doing. We just need to play more aggressively.”
Montrose took over the game up front, outrushing the Crusaders, 162-64, while shutting them out in the second half.
The dominance in the line allowed the Meteors to overcome a series of mistakes. They committed 11 penalties, including one that wiped out a Cook kickoff return for a touchdown, and threw an interception that Holy Cross turned into a score.
Montrose put together a 14-play, 90-yard, third-quarter scoring drive that did not include a pass. It passed just once in a 14-play, 73-yard scoring drive that produced the winning points with 42 seconds left.
Four different players ran for touchdowns for the Meteors.
Will Purdy ran 6 yards for the score to complete the drive following the second-half kickoff. The Meteors, who had one extra point wiped out by a penalty in the first half, had the try to tie the game blocked with 6:23 left in the third quarter.
The only pass of the second half came with less than three minutes remaining when Patrick Parks hit Cook for 11 yards on fourth-and-six from the Holy Cross 46.
Connor Kojola went around right end on fourth-and-goal from the 1 for the winning touchdown in the final minute.
Cook piled up 238 all-purpose yards. He was 13-for-114 rushing, 2-for-37 receiving and 3-for-87 on kickoff returns. His ran a series of sweeps around left end, including a 9-yard touchdown with 3:53 left in the first quarter to answer a 28-yard Rob Torre-to-Josh Mies, halfback option pass for a Holy Cross touchdown.
“Our team was blocking good,” Cook said. “We finally started acting like a team.”
Montrose led briefly in the second quarter.
Tim Krupski ran 1 yard for a 12-6 Holy Cross advantage with 9:05 left in the half.
Patrick Parks, who passed for 47 yards and ran for 44, went 1 yard for a touchdown and Matt Saravitz added the kick for a 13-12 lead with 4:56 remaining in the second.
Kevin Kizis intercepted two passes for Holy Cross in a 36-second span in the final two minutes of the half. He returned one 54 yards for a score and a 20-13 halftime lead.
Montrose forced three second-half turnovers to help set up the comeback.
Colin Mondi and Cook made interceptions while Jacob Hayes forced a fumble that Jack Fruehan recovered.
Cella said improved blocking and getting off of blocks helped Montrose pull out the win and are necessary for the team to keep making progress.
Zach Summers, a 275-pound freshman defensive tackle, led the Meteors with eight tackles and six assists. Steven Shelp and Kevin Bruno were in on 11 and 10 tackles each.
Hayes played a noticeably physical game, forcing two fumbles and delivering, by far, the game’s biggest hit.
“That gives me hope that that Montrose football is still here,” Cella said.
Cella pointed out that when Montrose football was at its best the Meteors were known for making an impact with their blocking and tackling under coach Tom Lucenti in the 1990s.
“I’m excited,” Cella said. “I just need 111 more wins to get to Tommy.”
Susquehanna was in the same borough Friday night, putting up a strong fight before falling 28-7 to Dunmore, the defending champion and current favorite in Division 2 of the Lackawanna Football Conference.
The Sabers remained within seven points until the final 1:07 of the first half, getting as close as the Bucks 3 and 30 in a pair of second-quarter drives while trying to erase a 7-0 deficit.
Dunmore (3-1) wore Susquehanna down with a ball-control running game that produced 320 yards on 51 carries while getting touchdowns from four different players.
Austin White led the Sabers with 72 yards on 18 carries, including a 17-yard touchdown with 4:28 remaining.
The Sabers moved the ball and had a 7-4 advantage in first downs until Dunmore went on its second scoring drive late in the half.
Susquehanna finished with 176 yards rushing and 213 total offense.
Jarred Mills, Christian Miller and Michael Vaccaro led the way for a busy Susquehanna defense.
Mills had 10 tackles, including one for a loss, and nine assists.
Miller made five tackles and assisted on nine others. He had three tackles for 16 yards in losses, including a nine-yard sack. Miller also batted down one pass and rushed the passer into another interception.
Vaccaro had five tackles, eight assists and a fumble recovery.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Forest City and Montrose each advanced half their team through Lackawanna League qualifying for the October 6 District 2 Boys’ Golf Individual Championships at Fox Hill Country Club.
Forest City’s Adam Kowalewski and Montrose’s Austin Smith tied for third in Class AA by shooting 5-over-par, 77s Wednesday at Elmhurst Country Club.
Tom Dzwonczyk of Holy Cross was medalist with a 72.
Forest City had two golfers in the top six. Dylan Odell tied for fifth with a 78. Mitchell Blake, also from Forest City, shot 91 and was among the 23 league golfers who advanced in Class AA.
Montrose’s other qualifiers were Kory Morrison with an 86 and Bradley Wayman with a 92.
Elk Lake’s Cole Tyler shot 93, the highest score among those still able to advance.
In league action during the week, Forest City suffered its first two losses, at Montrose and Holy Cross to fall into a three-way tie for second place in Lackawanna League Division 2 play at 9-2.
In high school soccer, both Mountain View teams are again in the early leads in the Lackawanna League Division 3 play.
Mountain View, Montrose and Lakeland share the girls’ lead at 2-0 while Mountain View and Lakeland are both 3-0 in the boys’ standings.
COLLEGE CORNER
Elk Lake graduate Cynthia Good is a senior on the Kutztown University women’s tennis team, which will begin the fall portion of its schedule this week.
Good has been selected as a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete in each of the previous three years of her career. She enters her senior season at the NCAA Division II school with a 9-11 career record in singles and a 19-19 mark in doubles.
During the spring season, Good won five straight singles matches from March 16 to April 1 on her way to a 5-4 record.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Battle for the Bluestone Trophy will take place Friday night when Susquehanna County’s two high school football teams square off.
Susquehanna (2-2) is at Montrose (1-3).
Our high school football predictions for last week were 5-5 (50.0 percent), going into a pair of games that were being played Monday night, making our season record 37-18 (67.3).
This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: Susquehanna 36, MONTROSE 0 … Dunmore 41, CARBONDALE 3 … HONESDALE 35, Tunkhannock 9 … Lackawanna Trail 17, LAKELAND 6 … GAR 41, MID VALLEY 24 … Scranton Prep 23, NORTH POCONO 12 … Old Forge 8, RIVERSIDE 0 … Scranton 37, VALLEY VIEW 22 … Abington Heights 8, WALLENPAUPACK 7 … Delaware Valley 40, WEST SCRANTON 16 … Western Wayne 34, HOLY CROSS 14.
In high school golf, the Lackawanna League’s team playoffs start this week. Matchups were not yet determined as of presstime.
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.
