The 81st annual Dream Game was close until the City defense took over in the second half.

And, nobody played a larger role in that dominance than Christian Miller, a defensive end from Susquehanna.

Miller led a defense that did not allow a second-half first down while paving the way for the City to roll to a 41-6 victory before a crowd of 7,298 at John F. Henzes/Veterans Memorial Stadium.

All three Susquehanna position players in the game earned starting assignments while Steve Jesse handled the kicking duties.

Austin White led the City offense as starting quarterback while Miller spent the night, particularly the second half, destroying the County offense.

Craig Stanley started at wide receiver.

The City led just 13-6 until the final 13:34.

During the remaining time, the City scored four touchdowns with the defense forcing three straight turnovers, one that produced a touchdown and the other two that led to scores. White was at quarterback for two of the scoring drives.

Miller was in on as many tackles in the second half as any other Dream Game player had in the entire game.

The Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 two-way, all-star concentrated on defense in the game. He had five tackles, including a seven-yard sack and another four-yard loss, and three assists in the second half.

“We had a great defensive line,” White said. “You could see that all week at practice.

“Miller did a spectacular job.”

Miller finished with six tackles and five assists along with rushing the passer into three incompletions.

“I thought it would be a lot closer game,” Miller said, “but we stepped it up and pulled away.”

White also was more productive in the second half on the way to finishing 4-for-11 passing for 75 yards with one interception. He also carried nine times for 15 yards.

Jesse made his last five extra-point attempts after missing on his first try. He also sent kickoffs to the 2-, 3-, 4- and 6-yard lines.

Miller started and finished strong, making the City’s first and last tackles. He stopped Mid Valley’s Corey Tomasetti for no gain on the first County offensive play, then got down the field on the kickoff with 21 seconds left to slam Western Wayne’s Kyle Smith to the turf after just an 11-yard return.

The game’s final two plays were incomplete passes, including one caused by Miller’s pass rush.

White hit Dunmore’s Joe Waters with a 23-yard pass on the game’s first drive to cross midfield. The drive ended on a fourth-and-six from the County 26 when White’s pass was intercepted by Lakeland’s Jared Bomba.

The City scored on its second possession when Delaware Valley quarterback Brett Cohen hit Scranton Prep’s Kevin Sompel with two passes for 56 yards. Dunmore’s Sal Marchese completed the 73-yard drive with a 4-yard run for the score with 33 seconds left in the first quarter for a 6-0 lead.

The County tied the game with 7:18 left in the half on a 38-yard pass from Lackawanna Trail’s Vic Mallory to Western Wayne’s Kyle Haines.

Cohen, who finished 7-for-9 for 145 yards, led the City right back on a drive to take the lead for good. He hit Scranton Prep’s Justin Belardi for passes totaling 42 yards on the first two plays of a 77-yard drive.

Delaware Valley’s Lex Rosario scored the first of his two touchdowns from the 1 with 3:10 left in the second quarter and Jesse added the kick for 13-6 halftime lead.

“We were fortunate to have some talented kids making plays,” said West Scranton’s Brian Fahey, who coached the City. “Our quarterbacks were buying time and allowing routes to come open.”

White led the first drive in the closing 28-point burst.

The drive actually started after what had a chance to be the only big County play of the second half.

Honesdale’s Josh LoBasso found Abington Heights’ Jake Henzes deep down the middle for a 39-yard pass that would have been a County first down. Instead Scott Gorton knocked the ball loose from Henzes and Scranton teammate Victor Burns recovered.

All of the other County plays in the second half combined for minus-4 yards.

“Our defense played real well,” said West Scranton’s Brian Fahey, who coached the City team. “They committed to taking pride in the rules that we were forced to play defense under and wanted to overcome that.

“They wanted to shut it down.”

Following the fumble, White started the ensuing 12-play, 59-yard scoring drive with a 10-yard pass to Rosario in the left flat. He got out of two second-and-long situations by hitting Sompel with a 13-yard pass, then a 29-yarder to the County 5.

Rosario scored from there for a 20-6 lead with 1:34 left in the third quarter.

The City ran away in the fourth quarter, tacking on three more scores.

Belardi scored touchdowns 1:06 apart.

Following an interception by West Scranton’s Kyle Kroptavich, he capped a 65-yard scoring drive by pulling in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Cohen. Then, he returned a fumble 11 yards for a 34-6 lead with 7:23 left.

With the City comfortably ahead, White guided a 60-yard scoring drive that featured nine straight runs, including two of his keepers. North Pocono’s Pat Monahan scored on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 21 seconds left.

“We wore them down after a while,” While said. “They were definitely putting up a fight.

“We were not really missing assignments, but we weren’t getting a push.”

For the second straight year, the lone Montrose selection in the game did not report to practice and the Meteors were the only Lackawanna Football Conference team that was not represented.

The City had players from Susquehanna, Delaware Valley, Dunmore, West Scranton, Scranton Prep, North Pocono, Scranton, Holy Cross and Wallenpaupack.

The County was coached by Donnie McDonough from Western Wayne, who had his own players along with those from Abington Heights, Carbondale, Honesdale, Lackawanna Trail, Lakeland, Mid Valley, Old Forge, Riverside and Valley View.

The Scranton Lions Club-sponsored all-star game, which features recent graduates of LFC teams, raises money for sight preservation projects.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.

Kenseth Wins Fuel Game At Pocono

Fuel--or the lack of it--was the most significant factor in Sunday’s 160-lap Sprint Cup race.

The top-three leaders: Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Busch all ran out of gas with less than two laps to go, handing the win to Matt Kenseth.

When Kenseth passed under the white flag, signifying only one more lap, he was 16-seconds behind the leader.

“The car ran O.K., but we had no idea the race was going to end this way,” said Kenseth. “They told me to keep saving gas, and it sure paid off today. This is the first time I’ve won at Pocono, and my first fuel mileage win.”

Brad Keselowski, who finished second, over ran his stall about midway of the race, knocking down two of his crewmembers. Both were bruised, but O.K.

“We had a really fast car today,” said Keselowski. “We had that little pit road incident, which I really hate, but this shows what this team is made of.”

Jeff Gordon was third, followed by Dale Earnhardt, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, and Carl Edwards.

Martin Truex, one of the drivers that ran up front most of the day was 19th.

Joey Logano led the most laps (97), came in 20th.

Polesitter Kyle Busch was 21st.

Kevin Harvick lost an engine on lap 20, and wound up 42nd.

On lap-3, Kasey Kahne lost the handling on his No. 5 Chevrolet coming out of turn-4. He spun down on to the apron, and hit the wall separating the teams and equipment from pit road. Crewmembers scattered, and one team member was treated for cuts.

The race had to be red flagged while track personnel repaired the busted wall.

“The back end came around and I got loose,” said Kahne. “It was scary seeing all those people standing behind the pit wall.”

He was the last place car (43).

Top-10 drivers after 21 of 36: 1. Harvick-780, 2. Logano-734, 3. Earnhardt-717, 4. Johnson-713, 5. Truex-494, 6. Keselowski-681, 7. Kenseth-662, 8. McMurray-631, 9. Kurt Busch-620, 10. Gordon-617. Note: The top-16 drivers will have their points reset after race No. 26 at Richmond on Sept. 12. These will be the Chase drivers.

BLANEY DOMINATES IOWA XFINITY RACE

Ryan Blaney dominated Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway, but had to survive a double green-white-checkered finish before he could claim the victory.

Blaney led 252 laps of the 260-lap race, but had to race hard at the end to hold off runner-up Regan Smith, and third-place finisher Brian Scott.

Ty Dillon finished fourth, followed by Brendan Gaughan, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, Elliott Sadler, Chase Elliott, and Ross Chastain.

Top10 Xfinity leaders after 19 of 33: 1. C. Buescher-682, 2. Elliott-662, 3. T. Dillon-660, 4. Smith-643, 5. Sadler-630, 6. D. Wallace-601, 7. Suarez-596, 8. Gaughan-576, 9. Scott-568, 10. Reed-551.

KYLE BUSCH TAKES TRUCK RACE

The top-10 finishers of Saturday’s Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, PA: 1. Kyle Busch, 2. Kevin Harvick, 3. Tyler Reddick, 4. Cameron Hayley, 5. Austin Dillon, 6. Johnny Sauter, 7. Timothy Peters, 8. Adam Tift, 9. Daniel Hemric, 10. Eric Jones.

Top-10 leaders after 12 of 23; 1. Reddick-479, 2. Crafton-468, 3. E. Jones-463, 4. Sauter-420, 5. Hayley-391, 6. Townley-387, 7. Hemric-382, 8. Peters-380, 9. Gallagher-366, 10. Kennedy-362.

WILL MICHAEL WALTRIP RACING SURVIVE

Is Michael Waltrip Racing about to reach the finish line?

Based on information released on Thursday, MWR’s principal owner Rob Kauffman has agreed to purchase an interest in Chip Ganassi Racing, with plans to switch manufacturers, from Toyota to Chevrolet.

If that happens, this might be the last season for MWR. Kauffman, a billionaire financier has poured millions of dollars into the MWR operation, but with the last win in 2012, maybe he felt like he was throwing money down a rat hole.

In 2006, MWR signed an agreement with Toyota to field cars in the Cup Series for 2007.

However, the MWR team had a disastrous opening season. In February, 2007, Waltrip's teams were disallowed from their starting spots in the Daytona 500 due to an illegal fuel additive. The team members each faced a $100,000 fine and many team members were suspended.

The team was unable to recover, failing to qualify for many events and losing two major sponsors, Burger King and Domino's Pizza.

Kauffman, the founder and managing partner of Fortress Investment Group, came on board in 2009, and was given a fifty per cent ownership.

Ganassi released a statement Thursday: “We confirm that Rob Kauffman has agreed to acquire an interest in the team. Further discussions regarding the 2016 season and beyond are underway.”

If Kauffman drops his affiliation with MWR and Toyota, he could bring one or both of MWR's drivers, Clint Bowyer or David Ragan, with him to CGR.

“We’re not sure what Michael Waltrip Racing is going to do,” David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development, said in an interview with SiriusXM Radio. “They’ve yet to announce their plans. Certainly we have had a rich history in the sport together. We got our butts kicked together in 2007, our first year, and you forge very close and personal relationships when you have those trials together.”

Kauffman’s announcement caught everyone off guard, including MWR driver Clint Bowyer.

“I read the statement the same as you guys,” said Bowyer. “You need to bear with us. There's obviously some change on the horizon. I got the same release you guys did. Like I said, there's a lot of work to be done in the future and we're all working on it and when I have something to tell you guys you all know me and I'll tell you.”

MWR is also the only original Toyota team in the Sprint Cup Series to still be in operation. Bill Davis Racing and Red Bull Racing Team have both folded.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Xfinity teams are at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen, New York road course with its 11 twisting turns.

Sat., Aug. 8; Xfinity Series race 20 of 33; Starting time: 3 pm ET; TV: NBCS.

Sun., Aug. 9; Sprint Cup race 22 of 36; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: NBCS.

Racing Trivia Question: How many road courses are on the 2015 Sprint Cup schedule?

Last Week’s Question: Can a driver make the Sprint Cup Chase without winning a race? Yes, as long as the driver is in the top-16.

You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.