Susquehanna Sabers quarterback Austin White was named Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 Offensive Player of the Year by www.northeastpafootball.com.

The award was given in conjunction with the division all-star team picked through a combination of voting from coaches and reporters.

Division champion Old Forge landed the other two awards with Corey Souryavong named Defensive Player of the Year and Mike Schuback named Coach of the Year.

White rushed for 998 yards and 12 touchdowns while passing for 899 yards and nine touchdowns to help the Sabers finish tied for second in the division.

In addition to the Player of the Year Award, White was selected as the all-star quarterback, occupying one of six first-team spots for the Sabers.

Christian Miller filled two of those spots. He joined Souryavong, Old Forge’s Joey Gutowski and Lackawanna Trail’s Matt Cole and Ross Fauquier as the division’s two-way, first-team all-stars.

Miller led the Sabers with seven sacks, 18 tackles for losses, 12 pass rushes and three blocked kicks.

Kicker Steve Jesse joined White and Miller on the first-team offense.

Lineman Michael Vaccaro and junior linebacker Zach Conrad joined Miller on the first-team defense.

Brett Hepler made the second team at two defensive positions – defensive back and punter.

Conrad made the second-team offense as a lineman, along with running back Austin Felter and wide receiver Austin Darrow.

White, on offense, and Miller, on defense, each were repeat first-team choices. Hepler was a second-team punter for the second straight year.

Montrose had just one player recognized on the LFC Division 2 team. Austin Cook was named to the second-team offense as an athlete.

Dunmore’s Jack Henzes was selected Coach of the Year and Tim Drewes Defensive Player of the Year. Western Wayne’s Kyle Haines was named Offensive Player of the Year in the division.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Dunmore led until late in the third quarter Saturday afternoon before falling to South Fayette, 28-16, in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class AA football championship at Hersheypark Stadium.

The Lions became the first Class AA team to repeat as state champions when they stopped the Bucks on downs at the 5 in the final minute of the third quarter and Hunter Hayes went 95 yards for the longest touchdown run in PIAA championship game history on the next play.

Hayes finished with 27 carries for 263 yards, but Dunmore had an advantage in team rushing yards, 265-262, as well as first downs, 15-13.

Brett Brumbaugh, the state’s all-time leader in career passing yards, was held to 8-for-18 for 120 yards by the Dunmore defense. He did, however, find Dave Trimbur with a 37-yard touchdown pass with 8:27 remaining.

Garrett Murray ran 33 yards and Colin Holmes ran 4 yards for touchdowns in the first quarter when Eric DeLuccie intercepted a pass to help Dunmore to a 13-7 lead.

Joey Capooci kicked a 27-yard field goal to make it 16-7 with 9:09 left in the half.

South Fayette, which won its 32nd straight, closed to within 16-14 at halftime.

In wrestling, Susquehanna County teams finished in three of the bottom four places in the standings Saturday in the Lackawanna League Wrestling Tournament at Wallenaupack.

Scranton won the team title over Delaware Valley, 180-173.5.

Elk Lake was 10th with 33 points, Montrose was 12th with 24 and Blue Ridge was last in the 13-team field with 16.5 points.

Blaise Cleveland of Elk Lake and Jacob O’Brien from Montrose each reached the finals before settling for second place.

Cleveland won two bouts at 195 pounds, including one by pin, before being pinned by Delaware Valley’s Matt Wagner in the championship bout.

O’Brien won two of his three decisions at 113. He lost to West Scranton’s Stefhen Caple in the final.

Blue Ridge’s Dalton Hogle went 2-2 at 145 in the tournament to place fourth.

Mountain View did not compete.

In boys’ basketball, Forest City finished second at the Finan Memorial Tournament in Carbondale.

The Foresters had a two-point halftime lead before falling to Honesdale, 55-48, in the Dec. 8 championship game.

Noah Fedak hit four 3-pointers while scoring 19 points for Forest City in the loss.

County boys’ teams are 3-9 combined early in non-league play.

Montrose and Susquehanna were the other teams to pick up wins.

Jack Fruehan scored 28 points to lead Montrose to a 59-49 win over Tunkhannock Friday.

Luke Falletta scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds Saturday when Susquehanna defeated Northeast Bradford, 47-36.

Tyler Williams added 14 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Austin Felter led the Sabers with six assists.

In girls’ basketball, Susquehanna defeated Mountain View, 53-49, Saturday to claim third place in the Mountain View Tournament.

Mikaela Hargett and Nicole Barnes each had 13 points in the win.

County teams have struggled early, going 2-16, with both wins coming in tournament consolation games.

Elk Lake is the only team to beat an opponent from outside the county when it topped Lackawanna Trail, 43-30, in the third-place game at Tunkhannock Dec. 7.

COLLEGE CORNER

Dallas Ely’s incredible scoring outburst helped unbeaten and nationally ranked West Chester University survive its first serious challenge of the season.

Ely scoring 28 points, including 19 in a span of less than 14 minutes in the second half and overtime, as the Golden Rams rallied from a 13-point deficit to defeat host Shippensburg University, 76-73, in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference women’s basketball game.

Shippensburg ran out to a 16-5 lead in the December 6 game and was ahead, 52-39, with 13:43 remaining in regulation.

Ely started her surge with 10:42 left. She hit five 3-pointers between then and the 1:04 mark and added a layup in the final minute to bring West Chester within two.

In overtime, Ely scored the game’s last field goal for a 75-71 lead.

Ely finished 6-for-8 from 3-point range in the game.

An honorable mention Division II All-American last season, Ely led the PSAC in scoring with 19.4 points per game and ranked fourth in steals with 2.5

West Chester is off to a 7-0 start this season, earning the Golden Rams a 15th ranking nationally and the top spot in the Atlantic Region poll.

Ely has averaged 34.7 minutes per game while starting the first seven games. She is producing 17.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

One of the nation’s most accurate shooters, Ely is 41-for-90 (45.6 percent) from the floor, 14-for-31 (45.2) on 3-pointers and 26-for-27 (96.3) from the foul line.

Ely, who has 892 career points, is fourth in the country in free throw shooting among Division II players. She is also 48th in 3-point shooting percentage.

Last season, Ely finished 31st in the nation in scoring and 3-point field goals made per game and 44th in steals.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Lackawanna League Division 2 wrestling season opens Wednesday with Montrose at Blue Ridge, which was second in the division last season.

Mountain View returns to the league for the first time in five seasons and is part of a triple-dual at Lackawanna Trail, along with defending champion Western Wayne.

Elk Lake is at Valley View where it will have duals against the host Cougars and Scranton Prep.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are at the Binghamton Senators in an American Hockey League game Saturday night.

Our football predictions on games for Lackawanna Football Conference teams are done until next season. We were 1-0 last week to finish the playoffs 12-4 (75.0 percent) and the season 101-35 (74.3).

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.

LOT OF CHANGES AT GIBBS RACING

Carl Edwards in August, 2014. Edwards switched from Roush Fenway to Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of 2014 season

The 2014 racing season is barely over, and teams have announced a ton of changes.

For some the change is minor, and for others like Joe Gibbs Racing, there has been a big restructuring since the green flag dropped on the season’s last race at Homestead.

With the announcement last week that Darrell Wallace Jr. has been granted his release from JGR, it shakes up the organization even more.

Wallace was just the latest JGR employee to make the news. Carl Edwards has moved to JGR from Roush Fenway, and Denny Hamlin will have Dave Rogers as his new crew chief.

Wallace Jr., who won four races this season in the NASCAR Truck Series and finished third in the series standings, had asked out of his contract with JGR. Although Wallace, 21, has experienced success in the Truck series with Kyle Busch Motorsports the past two seasons, JGR - with whom he is under contract, had been unable to secure sponsorship for Wallace to run fulltime in any NASCAR national series in 2015.

The move will allow Wallace, whose victory at Martinsville, Va., last season made him just the second African-American to win a national series race in NASCAR history, to join another organization that can provide him a fulltime ride. The most likely destination for Wallace appears to be Roush Fenway Racing. RFR already plans to field Xfinity (Nationwide) teams for drivers Elliott Sadler, Chris Buescher and Ryan Reed in 2015.

Out of all the shifts, changes and turnarounds, Edwards is probably the driver that is making the biggest move.

Edwards has spent his entire life with RFR, starting off in the Truck Series. He finished as runner-up in points in 2008 and 2011. But when his contract was up at RFR at the end of the 2014 season, Edwards opted to make the jump.

“I mean, who could ignore what Matt Kenseth did last year?” Edwards said, referring to Kenseth's series-high seven wins in his first year with Gibbs. “Who could ignore what Joey Logano has done (in moving from JGR to Team Penske, also in 2013)? ... Look at Kevin Harvick's success (in moving from Richard Childress Racing to Stewart-Haas Racing this season). It appears making a change sometimes gets some things going. I hope it works.

“I know that I hope for some really great things and from what I've seen, the little I've seen, I believe we have the ability to go out and dominate next year. That's why I'm doing this and that's what I'm prepared for. Anything less than a championship will be a disappointment for us. We're going to come out guns blazing and just go for wins right off the bat, prepare for the Chase and dominate all the way to Homestead.”

Darien Grubb will be Edwards’ crew chief.

Kyle Busch will remain at Gibbs, but will have a new crew chief. Adam Stevens, who has been a Nationwide Series crew chief for the past four seasons, will be taking the reins for Busch and the No. 18 team.

Kyle and Stevens have worked well in the Nationwide Series over the last two years, with 19 wins under their belt. However, it might not have been the move Busch was hoping for.

“There was definitely a wish list on my end, and there was definitely a, 'Hey, you're getting Adam Stevens' on their end,” Busch told Jeff Gluck of USA Today. “At the end of the day, it just all came down to bringing Adam up.”

Hopefully, the new man in charge of the 18 team will become an asset instead of a so-so type person. Last year Busch had one of the worst seasons of his career in the Sprint Cup Series, with only one win and a 10th-place finish.

Meanwhile Busch’s former crew chief Dave Rogers is moving over to the No. 11 car driven by Denny Hamlin.

“Actually I’m looking forward to working with Dave because I know what he is capable of,” said Hamlin. “I really had no problem with Darian, we just never got to know each other that well. He is a heckuva guy and crew chief. I don’t think he ever realized his capabilities with our team.”

Hamlin’s contract with JGR is up at the end of next season, and it’s possible he might be job hunting.

The fourth Gibbs Racing Toyota will continue to be driven by Matt Kenseth. Crew chief Jason Ratcliff will remain with him.

NO CHANGES IN 2015 CHASE FORMAT

“There will be no changes to the Chase Format,” NASCAR Chairman Brian France said last week on Sirius XM Radio. “We're obviously pleased with everything. And there may be some adjustments down the road. They'll be very small. Nothing, for '15, nothing anybody would notice. But if we can make an already great thing better we will always look at that but we are very content that we have the right positioning to balance this whole thing. And how do you have any kind of a championship run that represents that? I think we've done the best job that we can do to balance that.”

DOWNSIZING FOR MANY TRACKS

They might be called “superspeedways,” but that is in track size only.

The day of the “mega seat” stadium is a thing of the past.

Atlanta Motor Speedway became the latest track to downsize. They are in the process of removing 17,000 seats from the track's previous capacity of 124,000. The track plans to use those areas for premium hospitality, advertising and other facility purposes.

Charlotte, after removing 41,000 seats this winter, will be down to permanent seating of 89,000, a surprisingly low capacity considering it is the center of NASCAR racing.

Dover is removing 17,500 seats to get down to 95,500; and Daytona is removing its backstretch grandstands of 46,500 next spring to go to 101,500 seats. Other tracks on the circuit have made similar changes.

At its peak in 2007, International Speedway Corp.'s 12 major tracks had 1.1 million grandstand seats (not including suites). After the Daytona renovation, ISC will be down 30 percent to approximately 761,000 seats.

In 2013 alone, the following tracks cut seats: Talladega (from 108,000 to 78,000), Richmond (91,000 to 71,000), Chicagoland (69,000 to 55,500), Michigan (84,000 to 71,000), California (81,000 to 68,000), Darlington (60,000 to 58,000) and Homestead (56,000).

While it might seem like the tracks might go out of business, that’s not the case. Their number one source of revenue by far comes from television. Fans are a secondary source.

Racing Trivia Question: Sam Hornish will be in Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 9. Who will be his teammate?

Last Week’s Question: Which Xfinty (formerly Nationwide) team will Elliott Sadler drive for next season? Answer. Roush Fenway Racing.

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