Montrose and Susquehanna are headed in different directions as they prepare to meet in the Battle of the Bluestone football game Friday night.

The Meteors are on a three-game winning streak after winning just five games in six seasons and starting this season with a loss.

The Sabers are on a three-game losing streak after playing in the District 2 Class A championship game last season and opening with a win.

MONTROSE FOOTBALL

Derek Nunez continues to pile up yards and the Meteors keep adding to their win total.

Nunez carried 19 times for 382 yards and six touchdowns Friday night in a 49-12 win over visiting Holy Cross in a non-league game between Lackawanna Football Conference teams.

Nunez scored on runs of 76 yards in the first quarter, 38 in the second, 1, 19 and 37 in the third, then 99 yards in the fourth to push his season touchdown total to 13.

Montrose finished with 489 yards rushing and 522 yards total offense.

The Meteors opened a 14-0 halftime lead, had it cut to 14-12 in the third quarter, then scored the game’s final 35 points.

The streak started when Nunez ran 24 yards and Montrose took advantage of three penalties to set up his 1-yard run.

Montrose recovered a Holy Cross fumble on the ensuing kickoff and Nunez scored from the 19 on the first play, giving the Meteors two touchdowns in 14 seconds and a 28-12 lead with 4:47 left in the third quarter.

Zoey Casselbury’s interception set up the 37-yard run for the third Montrose touchdown in 2:17.

Holy Cross pinned Montrose at the 4 with a punt and Nunez was tackled within inches of a safety on first down before going the length of the field on the next play with 9:16 remaining.

Montrose took advantage of a fumble for the fourth lost Holy Cross turnover to score on a John Herman run with 3:06 left.

Herman carried eight times for 55 yards.

The Meteors picked up 21 first downs in the game.

Matt Saravitz made all seven of his extra-point kicks.

SUSQUEHANNA FOOTBALL

Susquehanna’s problems with early mistakes continued for a third straight week when Dunmore’s Garrett Murray scored on returns of a fumble and a blocked punt in the first quarter Saturday to spark a 55-0 rout.

Murray touched the ball three times and scored on each in the first 10:20 of the non-league game.

The Sabers lost a fumble on the game’s first play, but the defense held, yielding just one yard in four plays.

Murray made sure Dunmore, a state Class AA finalist last year, broke out to a comfortable lead, even while Susquehanna was otherwise controlling early play.

After 16:16, the Sabers led, 6-2 in first downs, 87-46 in total yardage and 14:33-1:43 in time of possession, but Dunmore had the 20-point lead.

After Susquehanna ran for two first downs on its second possession, Murray stripped the ball away, forcing and controlling a fumble in one motion, and ran it 36 yards down the left sideline to open the scoring. He scored again on Dunmore’s next offensive play, going 45 yards to the end zone. Murray then stepped across the goal line after Logan O’Boyle blocked a punt in the end zone and Murray picked it up at the 1.

“They made some early mistakes and Garrett Murray just played an outstanding football game,” said Dunmore’s Jack Henzes, who is closing in on become just the second coach in state high school football history with 400 career wins.

Dunmore needed just two plays to score after stopping Susquehanna’s best scoring threat, which got as close as the 5 in the second quarter.

Dominic Mesko stepped up and took a big hit while delivering a pass to Michael Dougherty behind the defense down the middle for an 87-yard touchdown with 68 left in the half.

The Bucks held the Sabers to five yards total offense in the second half while adding to their 27-0 lead.

Dunmore scored on its first four possessions of the second half to close the scoring with 11:25 remaining.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose’s Austin Smith shot 78 and Forest City led all teams with four players advancing from the Class AA portion of the Lackawanna League boys’ golf qualifier for the District 2 Tournament held Wednesday at Elmhurst Country Club.

Only 16 Class AA boys met the qualifying standard of 93 or better to play in the District 2 Tournament Oct. 12, back at Elmhurst.

Tom Dzwonczyk from Holy Cross finished as medalist with a 76, one shot ahead of Lakeland’s Connor Albino and Dunmore’s Joe Weber.

Smith finished fourth.

Forest City’s Dylan O’Dell tied for sixth with an 80, while Chris Bebla tied for eighth with an 81, Adam Kowalewski finished 10th with an 85 and Mitchell Blake was 12th with an 88.

Montrose’s Paul Motsko shot an 87 to finish as the 11th qualifier.

In cross country, both Elk Lake teams finished fifth in the White races for Class A teams at the PIAA Foundation Invitational Meet.

The meet, held on the Hershey Parkview Course that will host the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships in November, annually draws many of the best runners and teams from around the state, thus serving as somewhat of a state meet preview.

Justine Johns finished fifth out of 156 runners in the girls race. Katie Bennett was 16th, Keri Jones 19th and Shyanne Bennett 38th.

Elk Lake was fifth out of 23 teams in the standings.

Forest City’s Jennifer Korty ran as an individual and finished 13th.

Cody Oswald was 23rd, Hunter Bedell 27th and Seth Owens 41st in a 190-runner field to help the Elk Lake boys finish fifth out of 27 teams.

Forest City was 26th.

In girls soccer, Mountain View opened Lackawanna League Division 3 title defense by hammering Carbondale, 11-0, and Mid Valley, 13-0.

Montrose also reached 2-0 with a pair of shutouts, 3-0 over Dunmore and 6-0 over Elk Lake.

In boys soccer, Mountain View defeated Carbondale, 5-0, and Elk Lake, 2-1, to improve to 2-0-1.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Montrose (3-1) is at Susquehanna (1-3) Friday night at 7 in the Sabers’ annual football game under temporary lights.

The teams will play for the Bluestone Trophy and one player will receive the first Thomas E. Robinson Memorial Award for outstanding play while respecting opponents and officials.

Our high school football predictions last week were 5-7 (41.7 percent) for a season record of 39-18 (68.4).

This week’s picks, with home teams in CAPS: Montrose 32, SUSQUEHANNA 21 … SCRANTON PREP 39, North Pocono 0 … DUNMORE 23, Carbondale 10 … DELAWARE VALLEY 21, West Scranton 3 … SCRANTON 13, Valley View 8 … WESTERN WAYNE 32, Holy Cross 15 … Lakeland 22, LACKAWANNA TRAIL 0 … OLD FORGE 21, Riverside 18 … Honesdale 31, TUNKHANNOCK 30 … Wallenpaupack 19, ABINGTON HEIGHTS 16 … WILKES-BARRE GAR 50, Mid Valley 12.

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.

KENSETH GETS FIFTH CUP WIN

Matt Kenseth Gets His Fifth Cup Win

LOUDON, N.H.—Matt Kenseth won his fifth Sprint Cup race of the season this past Sunday at New Hampshire. Kenseth was running second behind Kevin Harvick, with four laps to go in the 300-lap race. Kenseth had been chasing Harvick’s blue No. 4 for over 20 laps, and didn’t appear to have any chance of catching him before the race ended.

But on lap 297, Harvick slowed and headed for pit road.

He was out of gas.

Kenseth then coasted the remaining three laps to victory lane, smiling all the way.

“There at the end we could actually run faster than I thought,” said Kenseth. “We had a great car. We’ve got the momentum and we’re going to enjoy this one, because it could change at anytime.”

Teammate Denny Hamlin ran second, followed by Joey Logano, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex, Kasey Kahne, and Ryan Newman.

Overall, it was a bad day for Harvick and the Stewart-Haas Racing teams. Tony Stewart’s 11th place finish was the highest of the four drivers. Kurt Busch never led a lap and ran out of fuel. He finished 19th. Harvick wound up 21st after leading 216 laps. Danica Patrick hit the wall and finished 40th. After bouncing off the wall she was tagged by David Ragan. Both drivers were done for the day and could not continue.

Brad Keselowski led four different times, but jumped the restart during a late race caution and had to serve a pass through penalty. He finished 12th.

Here are the 16 Chase leaders after two races into the 10-race Chase. 1. Kenseth-2099, 2. Hamlin-2093, 3. Edwards-2089, 4. Logano-2089, 5. Johnson-2083, 6. Newman-2074, 7. Kurt Busch-2073, 8. Keselowski-2072, 9. Truex-2071, 10. Gordon-2068, 11. McMurray-2058, 12. Earnhardt-2057, 13. Kyle Busch-2056, 14. Menard-2056, 15. Harvick-2034, 16. Bowyer-2018.

The points will be reset after Sunday’s Dover race, and the field reduced to 12 drivers. Drivers that need to have a good finish include Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer.

The top three leaders are Joe Gibbs drivers.

BLANEY GETS XFINITY WIN

Ryan Blaney won Saturday’s Kentucky Xfinity race over Ty Dillon on a green-white checkered finish.

Blaney, who had ran behind Dillon for most of the race was able to stay under Dillon’s No. 3 car through Turn 1 on the restart, and keep his momentum through the backstretch to win by less than half a second ahead of Dillon.

“We were lucky to get a good push and just get a little position on (Dillon) and use up the race track. I knew once we were clear, we had a really good shot at it,” said Blaney.

During the race Brian Scott and Darrell Wallace Jr. got together on the track. The pair exchanged cuss words with each other after the race which carried over to Twitter.

Wallace said he was blindsided by Scott, his wife, and truck driver.

Scott accused Wallace of being classless and cursing out his wife.

The remaining top-10: 3. Regan Smith, 4. Chase Elliott, 5. Brandon Jones, 6. Brendan Gaughan, 7. Chris Buescher, 8. Erik Jones, 9. Darrell Wallace, 10. Matt Tift.

Top-10 leaders after27 of 33: 1. C. Buescher-982, 2. T. Dillon-963, 3. Elliott-957, 4. Smith-935, 5. Wallace-874, 6. Sadler-872, 7. Scott-857, 8.Suarez-852, 9. Gaughan-836, 10. Reed-735.

AUSTIN DILLON IS TRUCK WINNER

Austin Dillon won Saturday’s Truck race at New Hampshire.

Matt Crafton finished second followed by Johnny Sauter, Timothy Peters, John Nemechek, Daniel Hemric, Erik Jones, Austin Theriault, Dalton Sergeant, and Gary Gaulding.

Top-10 leaders after 17 of 23: 1. E. Jones-666, 2. Crafton-659, 3. Reddick-647, 4. Sauter-617, 5. Hemric-558, 6. Peters-552, 7. Hayley-549, 8. Townley-518, 9. Gallagher-509, 10. Kennedy-504.

TRUEX AND TEAM MOVING TO TOYOTA

The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team has re-signed Martin Truex Jr. for 2016, and beyond.

“It's not just the place, it's the people - especially this year,” Truex said. “Last year almost made me want to retire. It's funny what a year and a couple of different people can bring to the table.”

Furniture Row Racing will switch to Toyotas in 2016, forming a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing from which it will receive chassis and engines. FRR will become just one of two factory-backed Toyota teams in the Sprint Cup Series next season. It will remain a single-car team next season.

The 35-year-old Truex said he is ready and anxious to drive the No. 78 car in 2016 and rejoin Toyota. He drove a Toyota Camry for four seasons as a member of the Michael Waltrip Racing team from 2010 through 2013.

“I am happy to continue in my role with Furniture Row Racing and feel that we’ve just begun a growth spurt that will take us to a new level,” continued Truex. “It’s a great organization and Barney (Visser, team owner) gives us whatever we need to be successful.”

TOP-25 AND THEIR WINNINGS

NASCAR is about winning and money. It’s hard to tell sometimes which is the most important, but here are the total winnings of the top-25 Sprint Cup drivers after the Chicago race. This is the amount won by the car. Each driver receives between 40 and 60 per cent of this total, depending on their contract.

1. Matt Kenseth-$4,921,697, 2. Denny Hamlin-5,307,887, 3. Carl Edwards-3,584,573, 4. Kyle Busch-3,229,421, 5. Kurt Busch-3,607,841, 6. Joey Logano-6,439,716, 7. Jimmie Johnson-5,614,748, 8. Ryan Newman-4,153,058, 9. Brad Keselowski-4,863,087, 10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.-4 851,635, 11. Martin Truex-4,221,111, 12. Jeff Gordon-4,225,668, 13. Jamie McMurray-3,963,227, 14. Paul Menard-3,237,015, 15. Clint Bowyer-4,188,431, 16. Kevin Harvick-7,104,268, 17. Aric Almirola-3,982,527, 18. Kasey Kahne-5,428,379, 19. Kyle Larson-3,608,288, 20. Greg Biffle-4,047,520, 21. Austin Dillon-3,385,903, 22. Casey Mears-3,494,392, 23. Danica Patrick-3,101,174, 24. A. J. Allmendinger-3,627,520, 25. David Ragan-3,568,409.

Weekend Racing: The Truck teams race at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Speedway, while the Sprint Cup and Xfinity teams are at the Dover Mile.

Sat., Oct. 3; Xfinity Series race 28 of 33; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: NBCS.

Sat., Oct. 3; Truck Series race 18 of 23; Starting time 10 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.

Sun., Oct. 4; Sprint Cup race 29 of 36; Starting time: 2:30 pm ET; TV: NBCS.

Racing Trivia Question: What year was the Sprint Cup Chase instituted?

Last Week’s Question: What year did Kurt Busch win his only Sprint Cup championship? Answer. It was 2004.

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