The Lackawanna League sports seasons will get started 5-6 days later in the fall of 2015, according to schedules released last week on the PIAA District 2 website.
Golf and tennis get the league play started August 24.
Montrose, Elk Lake, Forest City and Mountain View all have golf matches that day to start their Lackawanna Class AA Division schedules. They are among the 13 teams in the division.
Elk Lake and Montrose are part of the Lackawanna Class AA Division in tennis and get started the same day. There are 12 teams in the Class AA Division, but the schedule includes one match against each league team, including the four in Class AAA.
Football and girls’ volleyball are next to get started.
Montrose opens at home against Meyers September 4 and Susquehanna is home against Nanticoke September 5 in football. They each begin their Lackawanna Football Conference schedules later with Montrose among the six in Division 2 and Susquehanna among the six in Division 3.
Forest City is at Montrose in a September 4 Lackawanna League girls’ volleyball opener. All the county schools are part of the 10-team league with the other four beginning action September 5.
Cross country season opens September 9 with all six county schools involved in the 24-team Lackawanna League. The league uses cluster scheduling with groups of teams traveling to the same sites each week for multiple team competitions that allow meets against each of the other 23 teams.
Elk Lake, Blue Ridge and Montrose form one cluster, running together every week. Mountain View and Susquehanna are part of the same cluster along with Lackawanna Trail and Lakeland. Forest City is in a cluster with Honesdale and Western Wayne.
Mountain View and Elk Lake each host meets on opening day, September 9. Forest City is among the teams running against Mountain View and Susquehanna in the opener.
Elk Lake is the defending Lackawanna League girls’ cross country champion.
Division 3, which includes the participating Susquehanna County schools, is the last to get started in soccer.
Defending champion Montrose is at Elk Lake and Mountain View is at Blue Ridge when Division 3 boys’ soccer opens September 16. Forest City opens with Riverside and is also part of the 12-team division.
Division 3 girls’ soccer doesn’t begin until September 21. Defending champion Mountain View, Elk Lake, Montrose and Forest City are all part of the nine-team division.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Binghamton Mets starting pitcher Gabriel Ynoa was named Eastern League Pitcher of the Week July 6.
The 22-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic became the first Met to win the award this season. He was honored for throwing a one-hit shutout against the Erie Seawolves July 2.
Ynoa allowed only a double in the third inning. He struck out six and did not issue a walk.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Binghamton Mets have four players on the Eastern Division roster for the Eastern League All-Star Classic, which is scheduled for Wednesday in Portland, Maine.
Shortstop Gavin Cecchini, the first overall pick of the 2012 Major League Baseball Draft, made an all-star game for the second straight year. He was also picked for the South Atlantic League All-Star Game in 2014 while playing for the Savannah Sand Gnats.
Cecchini was a late addition to the East roster, joining Binghamton teammates Brandon Nimmo, Josh Rodriguez, Luis Cessa and Paul Sewald. Nimmo is a center fielder and Rodriguez a third baseman while Cessa and Sewald are both pitchers.
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.
“ROWDY” KYLE CLAIMS KENTUCKY CUP RACE
"Rowdy" Kyle Busch takes Kentucky Cup race
SPARTA, Ken.—Kyle Busch won Saturday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway for his second win of the season, and 31st career win. He led 163 laps of the 267-lap race and finished nearly two seconds ahead of runner-up, Joey Logano.
Busch, who led the most laps, was running second on the last restart. Logano was the leader, and held the front position for the next 20 laps. Finally, Busch was able to draw closer, and closer, until with 15-to-go, he made the pass around Logano.
“I knew that last restart was definitely an opportunity for us to take a chance on winning the race,” said Busch. “When Logano was getting away from me at the beginning of the run I was getting disappointed. I'm trying; I'm driving as hard as I could. I'm hitting all my marks and I'm just not keeping up. I knew that I just had to move. I'm going to give this a few more laps and see if I get anything. If I'm not gaining then, I'm going to move like no matter what. If I lose ground, then it is what it is, I'll finish second.
“But I moved around and I found something and it really worked for me. So I just kept doing it, and here we are.”
While the win was impressive, and he is making progress towards making this year’s Sprint Cup Chase, he still has a ways to go.
Busch was sidelined for six races due to a broken foot and leg, received in a wreck at Daytona.
NASCAR ruled that he would be eligible for the Chase if he won a race and finished in the top-30 in points. His win at Kentucky was his second win, but he is currently in 35th place with 200 points. Cole Whitt is the 30th-place driver, with 287 points.
With eight races remaining before the Chase begins, and the points are reset, Busch must gain at least another 87 points, and maybe more.
It looks like a long road for him, but it’s not impossible.
“I felt like we were able to get the lead on the last start and was able to pull away from Kyle for a little bit and then he started making some ground on the top,” said Logano. “And when you're second place, you have the advantage of trying to move around and taking that chance of losing a little bit of time to try to find something.”
Denny Hamlin was third, followed by Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, and Kurt Busch.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had brake issues with his car for most of the race. On lap 136, he scraped the outside wall. During lap 204, he got into the back of Danica Patrick, and sent her No. 10 Chevrolet into the wall. He finished 21st.
Current Chase leaders with eight races left before the Chase begins: 1. Johnson-624 (4 wins), 2. Harvick-692 (2), 3. Earnhardt-616 (2), 4. Logano-624 (1), 5. Truex-596 (1), 6. Keselwoski-559 (1), 7. Kenseth-540 ((1), 8. Hamlin-522 (1), 9. Edwards-449 (1), 10. McMurray-556 (0), 11. Gordon-537 (0), 12. Kahne-513 (0), 13. Menard-509 (0), 14. Newman-497 (0), 15. Bowyer-490 (0), 16. Almirola-473 (0).
Note: Some of the driver points might be confusing, but this is the official NASCAR standings, based on wins.
KENTUCKY XFINITY RACE TO KESELOWSKI
What was bad for Eric Jones was good for Brad Keselowski.
Eric Jones was leading Friday’s Xfinity race with 19-laps remaining. Keselowski was close behind, when the pair came up on a lapped car. Instead of moving up, the car went down. This caused Jones to lose momentum. Keselowski zipped by and went on to win his first Xfinity event of the season.
“I just caught a little break, to be honest,” Keselowski said. “One of the lapped cars locked in Erik. He had done a heck of job and still was doing a heck of a job, and sometimes things don’t go your way.”
The victory was Keselowski’s third at Kentucky and the 33rd of his career.
The remaining top-10: 3. Kyle Busch, 4. Daniel Suarez, 5. Elliott Sadler, 6. Paul Menard, 7. Darrell Wallace, 8. Dale Earnhardt, 9. Brendan Gaughan, 10.Regan Smith.
Top-10 leaders after 16 of 33: 1. C. Buescher-593, 2. Elliott-557, 3. T. Dillon-547, 4. Sadler-528, 5. Smith-527, 6. Wallace-510, 7. Scott-478, 8. Suarez-477, 9. B. Gaughan-473, 10. Reed-471.
CRAFTON GETS TRUCK WIN
Matt Crafton, two-time Camping World Truck Series champion took the lead from Erik Jones on the restart on Lap 145 of the scheduled 150-lap race. Going down the backstretch, Ben Kennedy’s truck collided with David Gilliland and was pushed into the SAFER barrier, then into the fence, knocking out a big hole in it. Since it was going to take up to two hours to repair the fence, NASCAR decided to end it.
Crafton led twice for 43 laps, while runner-up Erik Jones led three times for 55 laps.
Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Timothy Peters, Tyler Reddick, David Gilliland, John Wes Townley, Cameron Hayley, and Brandon Jones rounded out the top-10.
Top-10 points leaders after 10 of 22: 1. Crafton-417, 2. Reddick-397, 3. E. Jones-388, 4. Sauter-359, 5. Townley-330, 6. Peters-322, 7. Hayley-315, 8. Gallagher-308, 9. Hemric-308, 10. Kennedy-297.
ON POLIICAL CORRECTNESS
Last week I asked for reader’s input on some of NASCAR’s recent decisions and P/R releases regarding the Confederate flag, Donald Trump, and other issues. A lot of fans contaced me. What is so strange is that everyone was of the opinion.
And these weren’t just Southern race fans. They were from all parts of the country, including Pennsylvania, New York, and Wisconsin.
One newspaper editor said she was ‘sick and tired’ of NASCAR’s political correct stance.
A lady from Georgia said her grandfather died fighting for the South, and that she never regarded the Confederate flag as a hate symbol. She wishes people would get over that, because her family fought for individual rights. She went on to say, “What if the young man that killed those seven people in South Carolina had been holding a U. S. flag?”
“NASCAR should stick to racing, they have enough problems getting that right,” said S. M. “I am offended by the recent political babble from them. What do they plan to do for me?”
That last statement pretty much summed up all the others.
Weekend Racing: The Sprint Cup and Xfinity teams will be at the 1-mile New Hampshire Speedway for daytime races.
Sat., July 18; Xfinity Series race 17 of 33; Starting time: 4 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Sun. July 19; Sprint Cup Series race 19 of 36; Starting time: 1:30 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Note: NBCSN is NBC’s Sports Network Channel. The listings I have are: Mediacom-827; DirecTV-603; Dish-159; Time Warner-060. With Cablevision and AT&T you must buy a complete sports package, and those channels are not the same in all parts of the country.
Racing Trivia Question: Who won the 2014 Xfinity Series championship?
Last Week’s Question: Which team owner helped Carl Edwards break into NASCAR? Answer. It was Jack Roush Racing.
You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.
