Zach Mead finished second in a six-team cluster meet at Western Wayne and teammates Brandon Curley and Owen Brewer were close behind Oct. 20 to help the Meteors beat the final three opponents they needed to complete an unbeaten run through the Lackawanna League boys cross country season.
Mead finished in 16:45, just three seconds behind winner Jacob Pasake from Western Wayne.
Curley and Brewer placed third and fourth, giving the Meteors three runners within five seconds of the lead.
Montrose defeated the host Wildcats, 22-39, while also beating Honesdale, 17-44, and Forest City, 15-49.
Elk Lake also went 3-0 on the day while competing against the same three teams.
The final Lackawanna standings were: Montrose 20-0, Wallenpaupack 19-1, Elk Lake 17-3, North Pocono 17-3, Abington Heights 17-3, Scranton Prep 15-5, Valley View 14-6, Holy Cross 13-7, Honesdale 12-8, Lakeland 10-10, Scranton 8-11, Mountain View 8-12, Delaware Valley 8-12, West Scranton 7-12, Forest City 6-14, Western Wayne 6-14, Lackawanna Trail 5-15, Mid Valley 4-13, Dunmore 3-17, Blue Ridge 1-19, Old Forge 0-20.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Montrose’s Austin Smith earned another trip to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Golf Championships.
Smith shot a 3-over-par, 75 at Golden Oaks Golf Club in Fleetwood Oct. 19 to tie for third out of 28 Class AA boys aiming for 14 berths in the PIAA Championships, which were scheduled to be played Monday and Tuesday.
Dylan O’Dell from Forest City earned the chance to join Smith, a 19th-place finisher a year ago, at the state individual tournament.
Smith and James Tressler from Holy Cross tied for third two strokes behind East Stroudsburg Notre Dame freshman William Mirams.
O’Dell finished 11th with an 80.
Adam Kowalewski from Forest City was 20th with an 83 and did not advance.
District 2 champion Brianna Baker from Montrose shot 108 and finished 13th out of 14 players trying to qualify for seven spots in Class AA girls.
In girls’ soccer, Mountain View’s four-year reign as Lackawanna League Division 3 champion is over.
The Lady Eagles finished in a three-way tie for first place in the division but lost Thursday night in agonizing fashion in the first of two playoff games needed to decide the title.
Lakeland outlasted Mountain View in a penalty kick shootout that was extended into an extra sudden-death session after two sudden-death overtime periods and a shootout round could not produce a winner.
The Lady Chiefs advanced to face Montrose in a championship game that was scheduled to be played Monday night.
Lakeland and Mountain View played 100 minutes of scoreless soccer, following 80 minutes of regulation with a pair of 10-minute overtimes.
The teams each connected on four of five attempts in the shootout, which then moved on to sudden-death with one attempt each at a time.
Jess Beecroft made her shot for Lakeland then Emily Sashko made a save for the win.
Hannah Phillips made 12 saves for Mountain View during the regulation and overtimes.
Lakeland led 6-2 in corner kicks.
Ali Showalter, Lucy Adams, Steph Ostir and Hannah Richner were successful for Mountain View during the shootout.
Montrose defeated Carbondale, 8-1, in the regular-season finale to finish in the three-way tie then received the randomly selected bye.
Final division standings were: Montrose 7-1, Mountain View 7-1, Lakeland 7-1, Holy Cross 4-4, Dunmore 4-4, Elk Lake 3-5, Forest City 2-6, Carbondale 1-7, Mid Valley 0-8.
In boys’ soccer, the final Lackawanna Division 3 standings were: Lakeland 11-0, Mountain View 9-1-1, Montrose 9-2, Elk Lake 8-3, Blue Ridge 6-4-1, Forest City 5-6, Holy Cross 5-6, Dunmore 4-7, Carbondale 3-8, Mid Valley 3-8, Old Forge 2-9, Riverside 0-11.
In girls’ cross country, Forest City’s Jennifer Korty set a meet record at Western Wayne, finishing the 3.05-mile course in 18:50 in the regular-season finale.
Elk Lake had Justine Johns and Ty Moon second and third, then Keri Jones and Katie Bennett fifth and sixth to win twice in the meet.
The final Lackawanna standings were: Scranton Prep 19-0, Holy Cross 18-1, Abington Heights 17-2, Elk Lake 16-3, North Pocono 15-4, Honesdale 14-5, Wallenpaupack 13-6, Valley View 12-7, Montrose 10-9, Scranton 8-10, Mid Valley 8-11, Western Wayne 7-12, Blue Ridge 7-12, Delaware Valley 7-12, Dunmore 6-13, West Scranton 5-13, Old Forge 5-14, Mountain View 1-17, Susquehanna 1-17, Riverside 0-19.
In football, Montrose and Susquehanna each remained winless in divisional play with losses on the road Friday night.
The Meteors ran into defensive problems while the Sabers struggled offensively.
Mikkell Green rushed for 304 yards and five touchdowns as Lackawanna Football Conference Division 2 co-leader Riverside ripped Montrose, 51-20.
Maverick Tims threw two touchdown passes for the Meteors, who are 0-3 in the division and 4-4 overall. He hit John Herman with a 54-yarder in the first quarter and Bryden Jerauld with a 53-yarder in the third quarter.
Herman added a 50-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
Lackawanna Trail scored on short touchdown runs in the first, second and fourth quarters while shutting out Susquehanna, 20-0, in Division 3.
After not picking up a first down on their first three possessions, the Sabers put together three threats while trailing 13-0.
They ended the first half with a first down at the Lions 11. A 51-yard pass from Canyon Stone to Kyle Donovan moved Susquehanna to the 12 in the third quarter. A fourth-quarter possession ended on downs after getting to the 30.
Stone went 6-for-14 passing for 79 yards while the Sabers picked up seven first downs and rushed for 98 yards.
The Sabers limited Lackawanna Trail to less than four yards per carry and less than seven yards per pass attempt while giving up 229 yards and 12 first downs.
Zach Conrad and Adam Roe had big games while Wes Richardson and Nolan Hausser also made significant defensive contributions.
Conrad had 12 tackles and five assists.
Roe forced fumbles on three tackles that totaled 29 yards in losses. He finished with five tackles total, along with two assists.
Richardson had five tackles and seven assists.
Hausser had five tackles, two assists, a forced fumble and a broken-up pass.
In girls’ tennis, both Montrose teams received a first-round bye, won in the second round and lost in the third round at the District 2 Class AA doubles tournament at Kirby Park.
Eighth-seeded Allie Arnold-Louise Thompson defeated Dunmore’s Allison Aronica-Nina MacClean, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1, before losing to Tunkhannock’s Haley Puterbaugh-Brianna Grey, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.
Victoria Hinds-Bethany Evans beat West Scranton’s Ashley Dunning-Heather Schmidt, 6-0, 6-3, before losing to eventual finalists Mira Patel-Tatiana Klacko from Scranton Prep, 7-5, 6-1.
Both Elk Lake teams lost in the first round.
Western Wayne’s Sam Pritzlaff-Tylea Alpaugh defeated Rebecca Warholic-Kayla Mosier, 6-3, 6-2, and Dunmore’s Anna Chiaro-Alyssa Bielinski beat Darci Warner-Olivia Riscavage, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.
In field hockey, the final Wyoming Valley Conference Division 4 standings were: Wyoming Seminary 8-2, Lackawanna Trail 7-3, Northwest 5-4-1, Meyers 3-6-1, Elk Lake 0-10.
COLLEGE CORNER
Austin White, a Blue Ridge graduate who was northeastpafootball.com’s Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 Offensive Player of the Year while playing quarterback for Susquehanna last season, has gotten in one game as a freshman at King’s College.
The Monarchs are 3-4.
White played Oct. 3 in a 13-7 loss to Stevenson University.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Forest City is one of six Class AA boys teams that will compete at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships Wednesday at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York.
The Foresters will compete with New Hope-Solebury, Lancaster Catholic, Richland, Sewickley Academy and Saegertown for the state team title.
In cross country, many of the state’s top runners and teams will be in Susquehanna County Wednesday for the District 2 Championships at Elk Lake.
The races get started with Class A girls at 11:20 a.m., followed by Class A boys at noon, Class AA girls at 12:40 p.m., Class AA boys at 1:20, Class AAA girls at 2 and Class AAA boys at 2:40. The Class AAA races will be Subregionals because Williamsport from District 4 will run along with the District 2 teams.
The top 10 runners in Class AAA, 15 in A and 20 in AA races will earn medals. Award ceremonies are scheduled for 12:50 p.m. for Class A, 2:10 for Class AA and 4 for Class AAA.
There will be a B Division (junior varsity) race for both boys and girls at 3:20.
In Class A and AA races, the top two teams and the 10 best individuals from other teams qualify for the PIAA state championships. In Class AAA, the winning team and next five individuals advance.
Montrose competes in Class AA while the other five county schools are all Class A.
The Elk Lake boys are defending district champions while the girls team qualified with its second-place finish then went on to finish second in the state.
Forest City’s Korty was an individual state qualifier in Class A girls last year.
William Westgate from Forest City and Travis Hickling from Blue Ridge qualified for the state meet last year as underclassmen.
Defending state Class AA champions Dominic Hockenbury from Lake-Lehman and Ally Rome from Dallas will be among the runners.
According to the District 2 website, if the meet has to be postponed Wednesday, it will be held Saturday.
In football, Montrose (0-3, 4-4) is at four-time defending champion Dunmore (3-0, 7-1) Friday at 7 in an LFC Division 2 game.
Susquehanna (0-3, 2-6) hosts Carbondale (1-2, 2-6) in an LFC Division 3 game Saturday at 1.
Our predictions last week were 9-1 (90.0 percent), bringing our season record to 70-25 (73.7).
This week’s picks, with home teams in CAPS: DUNMORE 46, Montrose 7 … Carbondale 13, SUSQUEHANNA 12 … Scranton Prep 26, DELAWARE VALLEY 20 … Abington Heights 10, NORTH POCONO 6 … VALLEY VIEW 25, West Scranton 12 … Western Wayne 23, HONESDALE 22 … LAKELAND 22, Riverside 13 … LACKAWANNA TRAIL 14, Mid Valley 10 … OLD FORGE 55, Holy Cross 0 … Wyoming Valley West 33, SCRANTON 19 … WALLENPAUPACK 25, Wyoming Area 14.
In girls’ volleyball, the District 2 tournament begins Monday, Nov. 2.
Defending champion Blue Ridge will be the top seed and the prohibitive favorite in Class A.
Elk Lake, Mountain View and Susquehanna are likely to make the playoffs as well, although the worst record of those teams (Susquehanna as of the start of this week) will have to face MMI Prep in a play-in match.
Montrose has a strong chance to be part of the eight-team Class AA field.
In girls’ soccer, Montrose and Mountain View have byes into Friday’s District 2 Class A quarterfinals.
Elk Lake is home against Carbondale and Forest City is home against Wyoming Seminary Wednesday in the first round. The Warriors and Foresters are seeded seventh and eighth out of 11 teams.
In boys’ soccer, third-seeded Mountain View, fourth Montrose, fifth Elk Lake sixth Blue Ridge and eighth-seeded Forest City were all scheduled to play home games in Tuesday’s first round of the 16-team District 2 Class A tournament.
The teams that advanced will play in Thursday’s quarterfinals, trying to land spots in the semifinals Tuesday, November 2.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
