Susquehanna players celebrate after winning the first-half Lackawanna League Division 4 girls’ basketball title with a playoff win over Forest City Saturday in Carbondale (Tom Robinson photo)

.CARBONDALE – The Susquehanna Lady Sabers are trying to put together a banner season.

They moved ahead of schedule by beating Forest City two times in four days, including Saturday’s 42-36 victory in a playoff to determine the first-half Lackawanna League Division 4 championship.

The title was the first of any kind for the Susquehanna girls in the 2000s, but they are aiming to have a championship at the end of the season.

“We won District 12 in the late ‘90s; ’95-96 is the last time we won a District 12 title,” Lady Sabers coach Errol Mannick said. “I know that really well because we look at that banner on a daily basis.

“We’ve talked about it – we have now for two years – how we need to change that. We’re sick of just seeing the ‘90s on that.”

Although there was hope for the future with players moving up from an eighth-grade team that put together an impressive winning streak last season, an 0-7 start quieted some of that.

Susquehanna has won eight of nine since, including the last six.

“In my mind, I thought we were going to be ready for the second half,” Mannick said. “I didn’t think we would be in this game in the first half. I thought we would be challenging for it in the second half.”

By winning the first half, the Lady Sabers guaranteed themselves no worse than an all-season championship game. If they can win the second half of division play, that won’t be necessary.

Mannick credited senior leaders Lauren Soden and Taylor Williams with driving their talented younger teammates toward the title.

“Taylor and I just took the initiative to bring the team together,” Soden said. “We started working together better.”

Freshman Taylor Huyck scored 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and made three steals while Soden added 11 points and went 7-for-8 from the foul line in the second half to lead Saturday’s playoff win.

Huyck and Mackenzie Steele, who dominated early in the Carbondale gym where her mother and her siblings once thrived, both are in the championship starting lineup as freshmen. Bethany Maby, the other starter, is a sophomore.

In all, the nine players the Sabers used in the title game included four freshman, two sophomores and a junior.

“The freshmen on the court have been incredible,” said Soden, a four-year varsity player and second-year starter. “ … I watched them play last year and during summer league, they stepped up a lot and I knew they were going to help the team a lot.”

The Lady Sabers destroyed the Lady Foresters on the boards, 54-26, and hit their foul shots late to overcome some difficulties with Forest City’s full-court pressure.

Huyck joined Soden with 10 rebounds. Steele had nine, Maby eight and Williams eight.

All five exceeded the total of every Forest City player, allowing the Lady Sabers to build a 14-0 advantage in points off of offensive rebounds.

“It’s definitely important,” Huyck said. “Everyone on the team boxed out and got rebounds.”

Kendra Bendyk led Forest City with 15 points. Caitlin Bonham added eight points and six steals. MacKenzie Hartman had seven assists.

Susquehanna allowed just one basket in the first quarter. Huyck had six points in the quarter and the Lady Sabers scored 10 straight for a 12-2 lead.

Bendyk brought Forest City back to end the first half and start the second half.

She went 5-for-5, including hitting a pair of 3-pointers, in the final 4:27 of the second quarter while scoring Forest City’s last 12 points of the half and cutting Susquehanna’s lead to 23-20.

Bendyk opened the third quarter with another 3-pointer and Susquehanna could not get out of its backcourt on three of four possessions in the first minute.

The Lady Sabers committed 20 of their 29 turnovers in the second half against the defending division and District 2 Class A champions.

Forest City took its only lead of the game when Maggie Kowalewski followed up Bendyk last 3-pointer by making a back-court steal and turning it into a layup for a 25-23 advantage 18 seconds into the second half.

Soden settled the Lady Sabers, who had to get through a tough stretch of the third quarter without Huyck, who twisted her left knee, but eventually returned to play.

After Soden hit four straight free throws, the Lady Sabers never trailed again. She helped the team go 14-for-18 at the line in the last two quarters after being 1-for-8 in the first half.

Huyck’s 3-pointer for the last points of the third quarter and two more Soden free throws with 5:59 left gave the Lady Sabers a 36-30 lead.

Forest City rallied for one last tie, 36-36, but did not score in the final 3 ½ minutes.

Soden worked free on an in-bounds play to put Susquehanna ahead to stay.

The Lady Sabers then secured the title at the line where Huyck was 3-for-4 and Soden was 1-for-2 in the final 1:21.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Ben Woolcock scored 33 points Friday night to lead Elk Lake to a 65-47 victory over visiting Lackawanna Trail to clinch the Lackawanna League Division 4 first-half boys’ basketball title.

Elk Lake used a 22-9 fourth quarter to pull away for the win on Coaches vs. Cancer night for the Warriors.

Reirdan Reyan added 18 points.

Elk Lake also got 23 points from Woolcock in Wednesday’s 72-49 win over Forest City.

Susquehanna used a Saturday make-up game at Mountain View to pick up its first league win in the first-half finale.

Tyler Williams had 15 points in the 47-42 win.

Williams had seven in the third quarter when the Sabers outscored the Eagles, 13-7, to move in front, 34-28.

Mason Deakin added 10 points in the win.

Mountain View’s Matthew Lavin had a game-high 23 points.

The final Lackawanna Division 4 boys’ basketball first-half standings were: Elk Lake 5-1, Blue Ridge 4-2, Montrose 4-2, Mountain View 3-3, Lackawanna Trail 2-4, Forest City 2-4, Susquehanna 1-5.

In girls’ basketball, the division had a series of close games at the top of the standings.

Susquehanna moved into a three-way tie for first Wednesday with a 47-43 victory over Forest City.

Forest City then knocked Elk Lake out of the tie and temporarily took over the division lead with a 53-49 win Thursday.

Susquehanna got past Mountain View, 42-30, Friday night before coming back with a playoff win the next afternoon.

The Lady Sabers went 12-for-13 from the line in the fourth quarter of their first win over Forest City.

Soden hit all six foul shots in the quarter to finish 8-for-10 from the line with a team-high 12 points. Huyck added 11 points and was 1-for-2 late.

Maby made all three of her foul shots while scoring seven of her nine points in the fourth quarter. Steele went 2-for-2.

Soden had 12 points and Huyck 11 for Susquehanna in its first win over Forest City.

Hartman had 10 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter for the Lady Foresters.

Huyck had 13 of her 17 points in the second half of Susquehanna’s win over Mountain View. Steele added 10 points.

Erika Freely led Mountain View with 10.

Skylar Fortuner scored 12 of her 17 points in the second half while Bendyk and Bonham finished with 12 each to lead Forest City past Elk Lake.

Keri Jones had 15 points for Elk Lake, including eight to get the Lady Warriors out to a 19-15 lead after one quarter.

Elk Lake took a 40-36 lead into the fourth, but Bonham scored six points, Hartman had five and Fortuner had four in the comeback.

The final first-half Division 4 girls’ standings were: Susquehanna 5-1, Forest City 5-1, Elk Lake 4-2, Blue Ridge 4-2, Montrose 2-4, Mountain View 1-5, Lackawanna Trail 0-6.

In high school wrestling, Montrose win its final two Lackawanna League Division 2 wrestling matches in a home triple-dual Wednesday, then went 4-1, including a win over Elk Lake, at the Northeast Bradford Duals Saturday.

The Meteors edged Scranton Prep, 42-39, and Lackawanna Trail, 57-12, in the league matches.

Montrose opened a 36-9 lead on Scranton Prep, then got a clinching 38-second pin from Robert Gregory at 285 to stop a Scranton Prep comeback, which was aided by four of the five Montrose forfeits.

Jacob O’Brien, Chuck Rohan and Joseph Hester also had first-period pins, in succession, early in the match.

The Meteors overpowered Lackawanna Trail.

Pins by Mikyle Fabrizio, Makeela Fabrizio, Marc Avilla and Cole Aukema, in a combined 5:46, completed a 39-0 start.

Felix Avila, Robert Gregory and Jacob O’Brien later added three more pins in a combined 3:55. Gregory’s win came in 16 seconds.

The Meteors finished fourth in the division.

The final standings were: Honesdale 8-0, Western Wayne 7-1, Valley View 6-2, Montrose 5-3, Scranton Prep 4-4, Lackawanna Trail 3-5, Elk Lake 2-6, Mountain View 1-7, Blue Ridge 0-8.

O’Brien (120), Mikyle Fabrizio (145) and Makeela Fabrizio (152) all went 5-0 at the Northeast Bradford Duals.

Elk Lake picked up a 42-30 home win in the league Wednesday.

The Warriors combined late pins by Higidia Loboda and Lionel Cordova at 132 and 138 with five forfeits to produce the win.

In professional hockey, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins captain Tom Kostopoulos scored a third-period goal Saturday night in Binghamton to become the 91st player in American Hockey League history to score 500 points.

Kostopoulos helped the Penguins to a 6-2 win over the Senators.

The 38-year-old forward has 15 goals and 18 assists in 45 games this season. He has 197 goals and 303 assists in 662 career AHL games, along with 61 goals and 96 assists in 630 career National Hockey League games during his 18-year professional career.

Teddy Blueger and Dominick Simon each had a goal and two assists for the Penguins in Saturday’s win. Tristan Jarry made 32 saves.

Jarry performed well in goal Sunday, but the East lost to the West in the AHL All-Star Classic Skills Competition, 15-11, in Allentown.

The All-Star Game was scheduled for Monday night.

COLLEGE CORNER

Kenzie Jones ran a career best in the indoor mile Saturday while competing for Mansfield University at the Bucknell Bison Open.

Jones posted the 12th-best time in the PSAC this season, finishing in 5:25.17 and lowering her personal-best from last season by more than 16 seconds. The sophomore from Elk Lake finished 13th in the race while competing against Division I teams.

Mansfield is an NCAA Division II school.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The District 2 Dual Meet Wrestling Championships are scheduled to begin Wednesday with two rounds of competition.

Lackawanna League Division 2 champion Honesdale and Wyoming Valley Conference champion Wilkes-Barre Meyers will each host Wednesday’s Class 2A action to determine which teams advance to wrestle Saturday at Pittston Area.

Official pairings had not been released as of presstime. However, based on the format prepared in advance, it appeared that Montrose would be the fourth seed from the Lackawanna and the only Susquehanna County school in the tournament.

The Meteors appeared likely to be headed to Meyers to face the host Mohawks in the 5:30 quarterfinal.

Western Wayne and Hanover Area will apparently also be wrestling at Meyers.

The winners of each quarterfinal at each site will meet at 7 p.m. in a semifinal while the losers will meet at the same time in the first round of consolations.

The teams that go 2-0 Wednesday will meet in Saturday’s finals. Teams that go 0-2 are eliminated. The four teams that are 1-1 will proceed to Saturday’s consolation action to determine the district’s third-place team.

The district champions advance to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Dual Meet Championships in Hershey.

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.

STEWART AND SCHATZ; TWO HARD RACERS

Donny Schatz in 2016. Winner of eight World of Outlaw championships

Tony Stewart will retain his role as car owner in NASCAR, but will not participate as a NASCAR driver. That doesn't mean he has hung up his driving helmet. No, just the opposite. He plans to run at least 71 races in open wheel and sprint cars in 2017, and many of them will be against his own teammate, Donny Schatz, driver of the No. 15 TSR-Curb Agajanian in the World of Outlaw Series.

Schatz, a 39-year-old Fargo, North Dakota native has created his own dynasty in the World of Outlaw Series by winning eight series titles. When he took the checkered flag at the end of the 2016 season, he had compiled 229 WoO “A-Feature” wins

“I appreciate everyone’s kind words,” Schatz said. “It’s very overwhelming. Twenty times I’ve stood on this stage as a World of Outlaw. I would never have guessed that would be the case back in 1997 when I came out here. Back then, I don’t know what I was thinking, but somehow I won the rookie of the year and to this day it’s still my most prized possession. Here we are 20 years later and it still hasn’t all quite sunk in. What has sunk in is the importance of the people you are surrounded by. I am standing here as an eight-time champion because of the organization Tony Stewart has built and continues to refine. It is nothing short of incredible. It’s a huge honor for me to be a small part of this team’s success.”

Donny's dad also drove sprint cars, but in 1977, he went into the truck stop business, and that pretty much put an end to his driving. Donny was bitten by the racing bug and by the age of ten was behind the wheel of a go-kart.

“You look back on that now and you remember how excited you used to be when the vehicle left the house and you had everything loaded and how nervous you got when you pulled into the track,” said Schatz. “Everything you did was an absolute blast. Some days you wish this level of racing (World of Outlaw Series) was a little bit more like that. But it's a little different when you get money involved.

“You have to love racing in order to survive. I think from the first time I sat in a seat I was drawn to racing. Sitting in a sprint car made chills go up and down my spine. The biggest problem I had in wanting to drive a sprint was my age. None of the tracks would allow a fourteen-year-old to race.”

Occasionally he was able to get out on the track during a hot-lap session. In 1993, while still in high school, he was allowed to make his first start in a sprint car race at Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri.

In January 1997, Schatz joined the World of Outlaws and won Rookie of the Year in his first season, but his first WoO victory didn't come until 1998. He won many big races during the next eight racing seasons, but it wasn't until 2006 that he claimed his first WoO title. He won the title a second time in 2007, and teamed up with Tony Stewart Racing in 2008.

“The reason I started driving for Tony isn't because we didn't have good equipment,” said Schatz. “We had the best. But the entire racing team and operation was a family affair. All my family had obligations outside racing. They had over three hundred employees, and a couple of businesses that had to be taken care of. Everyone wanted to go racing, but it reached a point where they couldn't.

“When Tony called, it offered everyone an out: My parents could take care of the business and still get away to go racing. The family no longer needed to worry about what the race team's needs were. I said O.K to Tony in order to free my family and myself from many of the every day details encountered by the race team.

“I went from a family owned operation, to driving for someone else. It was Tony's team. He had the equipment, and he hired me to drive. He hired the crew chief and other employees. He also had sponsors in place. My role became that of a driver, not someone who wears fifty different hats.

“For me it was the best of both worlds.

“Now, some people think our team operates with a lot of engineers and the latest technical machinery, but that's not true. I guess in his NASCAR operation Tony utilizes them, but we still have to figure things out for ourselves.

“He lets us do the job. He doesn't step on our toes, but we all know that we have to perform on the race track. He takes care of the people, but at the end of the day, we all know it's a business.”

Since 1999, Schatz has spent time during the winter months, racing sprint cars in Australia. His success “Down Under” has been remarkable, as he’s won a number of major events both in the World Series Sprint car tour and major events at Sydney Speedway. As a result, he’s created quite a following.

“Believe me, racing is a lot of fun, but it's not for everyone,” continued Schatz. “ It's something that takes its toll on you. If you are going to beat up and down the road like I have my whole life, you miss out on a lot of things.

“I've got a daughter that just turned eighteen. When you focus on trying to be good at racing and you're traveling, you can't call in sick. If you miss a race, you miss a chance of winning a World of Outlaws championship.”

During the past four seasons, Schatz has expanded his racing to include Dirt Late Model competition. He earned victories in North Dakota in each of the last three seasons. He also made his World of Outlaws Late Model Series debut in July 2014 and competed in both the Knoxville Late Model Nationals Bad Boy Buggies World Finals in each of the last two seasons.

He and his wife, Erica, live in Fargo, N.D., with their daughter, Savanna. Schatz is a licensed pilot and spends a great deal of time working with his parents in their family truck stop businesses in Fargo and Minot. He is also enjoys hunting and snowmobiling.

NASCAR CONTINUES TO MAKE CHANGES

NASCAR announced last week that it is revamping how it will award points during races.

Under the new system, races will be divided into three segments, with drivers earning points on how they finish in each segment. The goal is to make the racing and competition more meaningful throughout the entire race, rather than just the final laps.

Races will now consist of three stages, with the top-10 finishers in each of the first two stages awarded bonus points.  At the end of each stage, there will be a caution period in order to allow added television commercials. The final segment will conclude the race as usual, with the winner receiving 40 points, down to the 40th-place finisher, who earns one.

What else is in the works?

Last week, Lee Spencer NASCAR.com senior writer reported that NASCAR was considering shortening the race weekend for teams.

They are looking at one-day shows for all three of the top touring series, including the newly named Monster Energy Cup Series. When Brad Keselowski was asked whether the driver's council is behind the decision, he replied, “I think the whole sport is. We're trying to be smart with our time, especially with late starts. Because you don't get home to see your family until two, three in the morning if you're on a race team, so you lose part of Monday, too. You have to find a way to get that day back and tie it all together. If you move qualifying closer to the race, you get that day back which is so important to everyone's quality of life in this sport.”

The Associated Press reported that Carl Edwards is considering making a run for a seat in the U. S. Senate in 2018. 

In an e-mail, Edwards said, “I believe firmly in the principles that the U.S. was founded upon. If I could help, I definitely would consider it.” He went on to quote Gen. Douglas MacArthur: “No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.”

On a different note, the average ticket price for a Cup race at an International Speedway Corporation track was $90.12, an increase of 5.4 percent.

Racing Trivia Question: How many points races are in the 2017 Cup Series schedule?

Last Week's Question: Who was the winner of the 1959 Daytona 500? Answer. Lee Petty.

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