Jarred Mills ran up the middle for a 7-yard touchdown on second down in overtime Friday night, lifting Susquehanna to a 34-28 victory at Carbondale in a Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 game.

The Sabers rallied three times to get the game into overtime where they stopped the Chargers on their series to begin the National Federation 10-Yardline Tiebreaker procedure.

Mills then carried from the 10 to the 7 on first down and scored the decisive touchdown, his third of the game, on the next play.

Carbondale opened leads of 14-0 early in the second quarter, 20-14 on a touchdown on the last play of the half and 28-21 on a long run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The Chargers scored three of their four touchdowns from at least 55 yards.

Susquehanna used its highest-scoring game of the season to offset those big plays.

Kyle Donovan passed for 172 yards and two touchdowns, led the team in rushing with 74 more yards and ran for a two-point conversion.

Mills ran for 70 yards and two touchdowns while also catching a touchdown pass.

Ian Townend and Mills each scored on a short run late in the half and Donovan added the two-pointer after the second score for a 14-14 tie.

The Sabers took their first lead in the third quarter, 21-20, on the Donovan-to-Mills 7-yard touchdown pass.

Susquehanna forced overtime on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Donovan to Shaun Andersen and Mills’ second extra-point kick of the second half.

The Sabers broke a two-game losing streak to improve to 2-2 in the division and 3-2 overall. They also held on to fourth place in the seven-team race for four District 2 Class AA playoff berths by beating one of the other teams in that race.

Carbondale is 0-4 and 1-4.

In another LFC Division 3 game, Riverside defeated visiting Montrose, 49-8.

Nick Sottile returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, the first of three returns for scores that the Vikings used to open a 28-0 lead less than three minutes into the second quarter.

Riverside built the lead to 42-0 at halftime, pushing the entire second half into the Mercy Rule.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Jennifer Korty won the individual title and Elk Lake finished second out of 19 teams Saturday at the PIAA Foundation Meet, which serves as preparation for the state championships for many of the top high school teams and individuals around the state.

The meet is run on the Hershey Parkview Course, which also hosts the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships.

Korty, who is unbeaten on the season, including wins in the Cliff Robbins Sr. Memorial Invitational and Lackawanna County Commissioner’ races, finished 34 seconds ahead of the pack in the Girls White race for Class A competitors with a time of19:08.

There were 122 runners in the field.

Elk Lake scored 69 points, just behind team champion Vincentian Academy’s 62 and well in front of third-place Cranberry’s 150 points.

Justine Johns led the Lady Warriors, finishing seventh. Keri Jones was 12th, Sadie Bosscher 19th, Shayanna Bennett 20th and Lydia Ofalt 30th.

Elk Lake was fifth out of 21 Boys White teams with 167 points.

Winchester Thurston beat out Southern Columbia, 43-131, for the team title.

Cody Oswald led Elk Lake by placing 16th out of 147 runners.

Peyton Jones (23rd), Seth Owens (35th), Brett Carney (41st) and Devin Bennett (65th) completed the team scoring.

Forest City placed 20th as a team.

Earlier in the week, the Montrose boys remained unbeaten in the Lackawanna League when they beat four opponents while hosting a cluster meet.

The Meteors defeated Lackawanna Trail, 16-42, and beat Lakeland, Susquehanna and Mountain View by the maximum, 15-50.

In boys’ golf, Elk Lake’s Jason Mowry and two Montrose players made it through Wednesday’s Lackawanna League qualifier to reach the field for the District 2 individual championships Oct. 11 at Elmhurst Country Club.

Carbondale’s Paul Pisarcik medaled the Class AA portion of the qualifier with a 76.

Mowry tied for 13th with an 88.

Montrose’s Riley Brown tied for 15th with an 89. Teammate Isaac Walker also advanced by shooting 93, the maximum score allowed for a player to advance to the district event.

In girls’ volleyball, Blue Ridge won a first-place battle Saturday, defeating defending champion Dunmore in a lengthy five-game match.

The Raiders won, 29-27, 15-25, 25-20, 24-26, 15-10.

Blue Ridge replaced Dunmore in first place by improving to 7-0 and dropping the Lady Bucks to 7-1.

In boys’ soccer, Blue Ridge is the only unbeaten in Lackawanna League Division 3 play after getting past third-place Dunmore, 1-0, in double overtime Thursday.

Alex Mejia scored the game-winning goal in the 99th minute and Eric Hall made 10 saves in the win.

The Raiders improved to 5-0 while the Bucks dropped to 3-2.

Blue Ridge had a slight edge in shots (14-13) and corner kicks (6-5).

In professional baseball, Chris Parmalee’s three-run, first-inning home run helped the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders win the Triple-A National Championship with a 3-1 victory in Memphis, Tenn. Sept. 20.

The RailRiders did not allow a baserunner over the final three innings with Phil Coke pitching the seventh and eighth and Giovanny Gallegos working the ninth for a save.

COLLEGE CORNER

Freshman Katie Bennett helped get the Marywood University women’s cross country team off to a strong start.

The Elk Lake graduate has been the team’s number-two runner in each of the first four meets.

Bennett placed third when Marywood defeated Clarks Summit University, 19-42, in its dual opener.

Marywood placed four runners in the top eight to finish first out of 10 teams at the Colonial States Athletic Conference Preview.

Bennett took fourth to help the Pacers easily outscore Centennary for the team title, 25-52.

Marywood was 12th of 15 teams at the Vassar Invitational and 15th of 18 teams in a field made up primarily of NCAA Division II schools at the Lock Haven Invitational.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Montrose and Susquehanna are on the road Friday night against the top two teams in Division 3 of the Lackawanna Football Conference.

Montrose (1-3 in the division, 1-4 overall) is at first-place Dunmore (4-0, 5-0). Susquehanna (2-2, 3-2) is at Lakeland, which is tied for second place at 3-1 in the division and has the second-best overall record of division teams at 4-1.

Our high school football predictions were just 6-6 (50.0 percent) last week, dropping our season record to 47-15 (78.4).

This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: DUNMORE 30, Montrose 10 … LAKELAND 26, Susquehanna 15 … LACKAWANNA TRAIL 29, Carbondale 16 … MID VALLEY 44, Holy Cross 7 … Riverside 22, OLD FORGE 9 … North Pocono 21, WEST SCRANTON 16 … Scranton Prep 30, VALLEY VIEW 14 … Western Wayne 41, HONESDALE 3 … WILLIAMSPORT 47, Scranton 21 … Delaware Valley 49, HAZLETON AREA 6 … Abington Heights 35, PITTSTON AREA 9 … WYOMING VALLEY WEST 30, Wallenpaupack 13.

In high school golf, the District 2 team girls’ championship will be determined Thursday at Scranton Municipal Golf Course, beginning at 9 a.m.

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.

TRUEX WINS FIRST CHASE RACE

Truex Wins First Chase Race (Furnished by NASCAR)

JOLIET, Ill.--Martin Truex Jr. captured his third Cup win of the season by winning Sunday's race in overtime.

"The team is responsible for this win," said Truex. They made the right calls and got me out first on that last caution. My car was as good as the competition, and we did what we needed to do to win."

Truex was running second to rookie Chase Elliott, when a caution came out on lap 262 of the 267-lap race. Most of the leaders pitted including Truex and Elliott. It only took Truex's team 11.9 seconds to change four tires, while Elliott had to remain in his pit for 12.2 seconds. That little bit of extra time was all Truex needed to beat Elliott off pit road.

Several drivers did not pit, and on the green-white-checkered restart, the leaders were: Ryan Blaney, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Truex, and Elliott.

As soon as the green flag was dropped, Truex moved to the high side of the track and by the time the field reached turn-3, he was the new leader. Elliott was never able to clear Joey Logano, who finished second, and had to settle for third.

"We gave it our best," said Logano. "We had a good car, one capable of winning, but we were unable to catch Martin at the end."

Elliott drove a strong and impressive race, leading three times for 75 laps. Before the lap 262 caution he appeared to have the fastest car on the track, but came up short.

"That (caution) is a part of racing," Elliott said. "We had a good car, but couldn't get back out front. Things like that are to be expected. This is a good start in the Chase. We'll take it and get going."

Ryan Blaney was fourth, followed by Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Alex Bowman.

Chase leaders: 1. Truex-2050, 2. Keselowski-2049, 3. Kyle Busch-2046, 4. Hamlin-2045, 5. Logano-2042, 6. Elliott-2039, 7. Kenseth-2038, 8. Johnson-2037, 9. Edwards-2032, 10. Kurt Busch-2031, 11. McMurray-2030, 12. Stewart-2028, 13. A. Dillon-2027, 14. Harvick-2027, 15. Larson-2026, 16. Buescher-2016. Note: The Chase field will be narrowed to 12 drivers after the Oct. 2 Dover race.

ERIK JONES GETS CHICAGO XFINITY RACE

Erik Jones took Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Chicagoland Speedway after Kyle Busch, who had led 154 laps of the 200-lap race, spun out with 18-to-go.

Kyle Larson, Elliott Sadler, Daniel Suarez, Justin Allgaier, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Brendan Gaughan, Paul Menard and Brandon Jones rounded out the top-10.

Top-10 Chase leaders after 27 of 33: 1. E. Jones-2012, 2. Sadler-2006, 3. Suarez-2003, 4. T. Dillon-2000, 5. Allgaier-2000, 6. Wallace Jr.-2000, 7. Gaughan-2000, 8. Poole-2000, 9. Sieg-2000, 10. Reed-2000.

CHICAGOLAND TRUCK RACE GOES TO KYLE BUSCH

Here are the results of Friday's Truck Series race at Joliet, IL: 1. Kyle Busch, 2. Daniel Hemric, 3, Cameron Hayley, 4. Christopher Bell, 5. Johnny Sauter, 6. Grant Enfinger, 7. Spencer Gallagher, 8. Timothy Peters, 9. Cole Custer, 10. Tyler Reddick.

The top-8 Chase leaders after 16 of 23: 1. Byron-2015, 2. Crafton-2006, 3. Nemechek-2006, 4. Christopher-2003, 5. Sauter-2003, 6. Kennedy-2003, 7. Hemric-2000, 8. Peters-2000. Note: there are only eight drivers eligible for this year's Truck Series championship.

BOTH GANASSI TEAMS MAKE CHASE

As the Sprint Cup regular season came to an end at Richmod, Chip Ganassi was a very happy team owner. Both of his drivers had made the Chase.

Ganassi has many achievements as owner of teams in NASCAR, IndyCars and other top-tier racing series. But until the end of the Richmond race, he had never put both teams in position to claim the NASCAR Cup championship.

Perhaps Ganassi himself was overstating it, when he told a television reporter prior to Saturday's Federated Auto Parts 400 that getting both Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray into the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup would be "the biggest thing ever" for him.

"Well, when you look at Chip's organization, he's been so successful in IndyCars and sports cars," said McMurray, winner of the 2010 Daytona 500. "We've won some big races in NASCAR, but it's really hard to keep on top, and it's that way for everybody. When you get down, it's really hard to climb your way back up. We made some changes earlier in the year as far as personnel. He moved some people around. The crew chiefs, everybody is working really well together, and they've been able to build some great cars, and he's proud of that because when you make those changes, there's no guarantee that it's going to show up on the racetrack. But it has."

Ganassi said the formula for the improvement of his two Cup teams is simple.

"It's the people within the organization," he said. "We have been really lucky to have some great people and that is what it's all about these days. You know everybody has all the stuff. It's on to your people. It's pit stops, it's the guys that work Monday through Friday (at the shop). It's the guys that bust their butts on the weekends here (at the track). It's the wives of all the guys and the girlfriends and the significant others that put up with everything and get us in this spot. It's people on a team making the team bigger than themselves. That is when you have success like this. It's individuals making the team more important than themselves."

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, is an automotive racing organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, NASCAR, the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Global RallyCross Championship, and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Sabates co-owns the NASCAR and Rolex Sports Car Series divisions, and Rob Kauffman also has a stake in the NASCAR operations. Mike Hull and Teresa Earnhardt formerly had ownership stakes in the team. They have won 10 Open Wheel titles and 5 Grand-Am Road Racing championships.

NEW TITLE SPONSOR HUNT ON TARGET

Brian France still believes NASCAR is on schedule to name a new sponsor for the Cup Series some time next month. "We're on schedule give a week or two here or there," France told Motorsport.com last week.

As for sponsors - or sponsor - France did not offer specifics other than to say it's shaping up to be just one for the entitlement. Although Kroger appeared to be one of the frontrunners in mid-summer, the likelihood of other potential partners such as PayPal and Coca-Cola have emerged as possibilities over the last month.

Weekend Racing: The Truck and Sprint Cup teams are at New Hampshire, while the Xfinity Series will be at Kentucky Speedway.

Sat., Sept. 24, Truck Series race 17 of 23; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.

Sat., Sept. 24, Xfinity Series race 27 of 33; Starting time: 8 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.

Sun., Sept. 25, Sprint Cup Series race 28 of 36; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.

Racing Trivia Question: How many Sprint Cup championships has Jimmie Johnson won?

Last Week's Question? When did NASCAR begin the 10-race Chase format? Answer. It was 2004, and it was patterned after the old USAR Hooter's Pro Cup Series.

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