Hillary Too, a 39-year-old Kenyan man from Morristown, N.J., made it through the heat and humidity Sunday to win the 22nd annual Steamtown Marathon.

Too completed the 26.2-mile course from Forest City to Scranton in 2:23.40.

Lauren Liuzzo, 26, from Acton, Mass. was the female winner, finishing 26th overall in 3:09.34.

Matthew Nebzydoski, 42, from Montrose was the top Susquehanna County finisher, placing 39th. Nebzydoski finished in 3:14:11 to place third among men in the 40-44-year-old age group.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Blue Ridge put together two of its biggest boys’ soccer wins of the season in a three-day stretch.

Garrett Mansfield scored two goals and Axel Mejia had the other Oct. 2 when the Raiders avenged a loss from earlier in the season with a 3-2, non-league victory over visiting Montrose.

Defending champion Blue Ridge then took sole possession of first place in Division 3 of the Lackawanna League with a 2-0 road win over Forest City.

Mejia, an all-state selection by the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association last season, had a goal and an assist against the Foresters.

Thomas Gudykunst scored the first goal on a Mejia assist. Mansfield set up Mejia’s goal.

Blue Ridge improved to 8-1. Forest City ended the week at 8-2.

In football, both Susquehanna and Montrose were held without a touchdown in Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 road losses.

Dunmore posted its fourth straight shutout and 40th straight division victory when it did all the scoring in the first half of a 35-0 win over Susquehanna.

Mid Valley put two runners over the 100-yard mark while beating Montrose, 21-3.

Frank Damiano scored two touchdowns for Dunmore, on a 19-yard pass and 27-yard run.

Gavin Darcy hit six of seven passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns. The other touchdown pass was a 61-yarder to Steve Borgia.

The Bucks held the Sabers to 3 first downs, 24 yards rushing and 37 yards total offense.

Dunmore had a 9-0 advantage in first downs while building a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and led 12-3 in first downs for the game.

The closest Susquehanna came to scoring was reaching the Dunmore 37 in the second quarter while trailing, 28-0.

The loss was the fourth straight for the Sabers.

Garrett Decker led the Susquehanna defense with four tackles, including one for a loss, three assists and a forced fumble.

Joe Chylak carried 15 times for 196 yards and 2 touchdowns for Mid Valley, giving him 1,048 yards for the season

Colin Hazelton, who also averages more than 100 yards per game, added 117 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.

Mid Valley (3-3 in the division and 4-3 overall) took a 14-0 halftime lead. The Spartans expanded it to 21-0 before Montrose broke the shutout on Bryden Jerauld’s 25-yard field goal with two minutes left.

In golf, Blue Ridge’s Gwen McConnell earned a bronze medal in Class 2A girls at the District 2 Individual Championships Oct. 2 at Fox Hill Country Club.

McConnell shot a 103 to finish third among the five players who made it through league qualifying to get to the district tournament.

Teagan Mills from Elk Lake was fifth with a 124.

Montrose’s Isaac Walker finished tied for 12th out of 45 Class 2A boys with an 86.

The top six players advanced to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association East Regional.

Elk Lake’s Jason Mowry tied for 33rd with a 96, Montrose’s Riley Brown tied for 38th with a 98 and Forest City’s Henry Nebzydoski tied for 42nd with a 100.

COLLEGE CORNER

Colby Thomas and Zeb Cross won a state title and reached another state final together at Mountain View and they have remained teammates through four college seasons.

Thomas and Cross are senior forwards on the Messiah College team that is ranked fifth in the nation among National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III teams.

Messiah has won nine straight to improve to 11-1.

Thomas has started all 12 games, recording 6 goals and 6 assists. He had a career-high in assists when he set up all three goals Sept. 30 in a 3-0 victory over Alvernia.

For his career, Thomas has played in 75 games, making 42 starts. He has 22 goals and 20 assists.

Thomas was a second-team Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth all-star last season when he led the team with 11 assists.

Cross has appeared in seven games. He has one assist, the fifth of his 65-game career.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The District 2 Girls’ Tennis Singles Tournament is scheduled for Thursday and Friday at Kirby Park, Wilkes-Barre.

The first three rounds will be played Thursday, beginning at 9 a.m. to trim the field to Friday’s four semifinalists.

In high school football, Susquehanna and Montrose each have LFC Division 3 games Friday night.

The Sabers (2-4 in the division, 3-4 overall) are at Lackawanna Trail (4-2, 5-2). Montrose (1-5, 1-6) is home against Carbondale (4-2, 4-3).

Our predictions last week were 10-2 (83.3 percent), bringing our season record to 54-20 (72.9).

This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: LACKAWANNA TRAIL 34, Susquehanna 18 … Carbondale 21, MONTROSE 6 … Dunmore 31, MID VALLEY 10 … Riverside 42, HOLY CROSS 3 … Old Forge 44, Lakeland 10 … Scranton Prep 23, WESTERN WAYNE 22 … VALLEY VIEW 43, North Pocono 26 … West Scranton 24, HONESDALE 20 … Delaware Valley 33, SCRANTON 15 … WALLENPAUPACK 44, Abington Heights 9.

The LFC Division 1 schedule gets underway Friday. The four-team division has three divisional games over the final three weeks.

Our predictions for the division are: Delaware Valley, first; Wallenpaupack, second; Scranton, third; Abington Heights, fourth.

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 Gets Charlotte Overtime Win

Truex Wins In Overtime At Charlotte (Furnished by NASCAR)

CONCORD, N.C.--Martin Truex Jr. won Sunday's Cup Series race at Charlotte, guaranteeing himself a spot in Round 8 of the Chase playoffs.

Truex battled Kevin Harvick for much of the 334-lap race, but a slow pit stop by Harvick's team late in the race took him out of contention for the win.

There were two restarts within the last eight laps. Each time Truex put the pedal to the metal and pulled away from the rest of the field in his No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota.

“This was a hard one,” said Truex. “We're just lucky today, what with all those restarts. I knew that if we didn't stay out front, it was going to be hard on us.

“It seems there was a lot of pressure on us. We didn't qualify well (17th), but all the guys really did a super job on giving me a winning car.”

The win was Truex's sixth of the season.

Chase Elliott, who started seventh, rallied to finish as runner-up again.

“It was a solid run,” said Elliott. “We need to be just a little better, because we couldn't get in position that we needed to be in several times. The team gave me great pit stops all day and that's what allowed me to start up front on those last restarts.”

Harvick led the most laps (149), but had a bad pit stop on the race's next-to-last caution, which put him back in the sixth starting position. He was able to finish third.

“For the most part we had good stops,” said Harvick. “It's unfortunate that we had that bad one near the end. I was running as fast as my car would go, and we probably didn't have but a second or third-place car today.”

Polesitter Denny Hamlin was fourth, followed by Jamie McMurray, Daniel Suarez, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney, Kasey Kahne, and Kyle Larson.

 Kyle Busch had a rough day. Busch lost it on the backstretch during lap 137 and scraped the wall. His team cut away sheet metal, taped it up and he returned to the track. On lap 386, he spun again. After his team stuck more tape on the side of his car, he went back racing. He hit the wall again on lap 325, but was able to continue on to the finish.

After the race ended, Busch crawled from his car and slumped to the infield grass. He was exhausted from the heat and carbon monoxide which had built up in his car. His 29th place finish dropped him from second to sixth in Chase points.

Two other racing favorites, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick didn't fare well. Earnhardt had a lackluster 12th-place finish, while Patrick ran into David Ragan after he spun and finished 38th.

Top-12 Chase leaders: 1. Truex-3106, 2. Larson-3072, 3. Harvick-3069, 4. Elliott-3059, 5. Hamlin-3056, 6. Kyle Busch-3055, 7. Johnson-3051, 8. McMurray-3044, 9. Kenseth-3043, 10. Keselowski-3042, 11. Blaney-3039, 12. Stenhouse-3034.

BOWMAN GETS FIRST XFINITY WIN

Alex Bowman gained the lead with 32 laps left in Saturday night’s 200-lap, rain-delayed race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and took the checkered flag by 1.39-seconds ahead of Sam Hornish Jr.

Bowman, who will take over Dale Earnhardt's No. 88 Cup ride next season, celebrated his first career Xfinity win. It was also his first start of the year.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Bowman, who admitted to being slightly rusty in his return to competition. “I’ve got to thank Mr. Hendrick and Chip and everybody that made this possible. It’s been a long time since I’ve raced, so to come here and be as competitive as we were all night, even until that last restart, I was really pleased with how competitive we were.”

Top-10 finishers: 1. Bowman, 2. Hornish, 3. Ryan Blaney, 4. Austin Dillon, 5. Brennan Poole, 6. Cole Custer, 7. Daniel Hemric, 8. Daniel Suarez, 9. Matt Tifft, 10. Elliott Sadler.

The race cut the playoff field from 12 to eight drivers. Byron leads with 3,026 points after the reset. 2. Allgaier-3023, 3. Sadler-3020, 4. Hemric-3009, 5. Custer-3007, 6. B. Poole-3006, 7. Reed-3005, 8. Tifft-3004.

SPREAD THE WEALTH AROUND

Do you think NASCAR drivers need to be paid more?

During an interview last week with Bob Pockrass of NBC Sports, Denny Hamlin said there needs to be a redistribution of money in NASCAR.

Despite the fact that most teams are struggling to find dollars, Hamlin feels that since drivers put their lives on the line during every race, they don't get paid enough.

“We're way underpaid as race car drivers,” he said. “There's no doubt, doing what we do, the schedule that we have and the danger that we incur every single week, NASCAR drivers should be making NBA, NFL money.”

Hamlin looks at the million-dollar and multi-million-dollar deals that stars in other sports make and feels there's a huge disparity in salaries between them and NASCAR drivers.

There is no mandatory pay scale for NASCAR drivers. While it's true lower tier drivers in the trucks might not gross over $250,000 for a full year of racing, it's a different story in Cup Series competition. Drivers and teams don't go around talking about salaries, but I don't believe there is any Cup driver that runs the entire 36-race season that makes less than a million dollars per year.

I recall talking with a minor league baseball player, that played in the Double-A League for the Chicago Cubs. His salary was less than $400 per week.

Drivers like Hamlin probably take home $6-7 million dollars per season, based on their contract and sponsor contingencies.

Hamlin is a pretty good driver. He has won 31 races at NASCAR’s top level, and he is one of 12 drivers who can still win this year's Chase playoffs.

Stock car racing is costly, and the sport has become dominated by deep-pocketed, multi-car teams like Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin’s powerful team, and Hendrick Motorsports.

Feeling the pinch, team owners have gone to youngsters, who will sign for less money. Two Cup openings at Hendrick Motorsports, originally held by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne will be filled in 2018 by Alex Bowman, 24, and 19-year-old William Byron.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that the new drivers are only getting a fraction of what the older drivers used to get.

Veterans such as Matt Kenseth, the 45-year-old driver from Wisconsin who is still in title contention, have essentially priced themselves out of the free-agent market dominated by younger drivers.

But there is always more than one side to every story. Sometimes there are five or six different viewpoints.

What Hamlin fails to mention is that in his thirteen year NASCAR Cup Series career, he has run 423 races. His net worth at the end of 2016 was listed at $47-million.

I return to my original question. Do you think NASCAR needs to distribute more money to the drivers?

Weekend Racing: The Xfinity teams have an off week. The Cup and Truck teams are at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.

Sat., Oct. 14, Truck Series race 19 of 23; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Sun., Oct. 15, Cup Series race 31 of 36; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: NBC.

Racing Trivia Question: Which Cup team does Ryan Blaney drive for?

Last Week's Question: Whatever happened to Cale Gale, winner of the 2012 Truck Series race at Homestead, after he pushed Kyle Busch into the wall? Answer. He works in the engineering department at Roush Fenway Racing, and is still looking for another truck ride.

Gerald Hodges is a syndicated NASCAR writer and author. His books may be viewed and ordered online at Amazon.com. You may contact him by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.

Garrett Mansfield, Blue Ridge Soccer

Garrett Mansfield has seen change during his time in the Blue Ridge boys' soccer program.

The Raiders were 5-6 when Mansfield was part of a team that managed to improve its Lackawanna League Division 3 record by two wins from the 2013 season despite going with several freshmen in key roles.

The four-year starter was there as a sophomore in 2015 when Blue Ridge moved above the .500 mark by going 6-4-1.

Last season brought a 12-0 division championship effort, which leads to Mansfield as a senior captain trying to help keep the Raiders on top.

Blue Ridge entered the week as the only Susquehanna County team holding down first place in any division of the Lackawanna League this fall.

For his efforts in helping get the Raiders there, Mansfield has been selected as the Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month for September.

"We've been playing together since we were young," Mansfield said. " … We look a lot more like a team these last couple years than we did when we first started.

"We've been playing together all the time, during the summer and over the winter, doing indoor stuff."

Blue Ridge handed Forest City its only loss of the month when it overcame a 2-0 halftime deficit before eventually pulling out a 4-3 overtime win when Mansfield assisted the game-winner by Cameron Franks.

"It was pouring down rain and you couldn't see anything," Mansfield said. "I remember we were down, 2-0, at halftime and were kind of shocked and surprised. We didn't expect that."

The Raiders took the lead on their home field before the Foresters forced overtime.

"We just knew we didn't want it to end in a tie," Mansfield said. "I looked over and saw Cam. He put it in with his left foot, the first time he ever scored with his left foot.

" … That was a pretty awesome moment."

Mansfield was a first-team division all-star selection by opposing coaches last season for his play as a defensive midfielder.

This season, Mansfield has moved between offensive and defensive midfielder depending on the team's needs. He leads the Raiders in scoring with 14 goals and 6 assists.

"He's a great leader," Blue Ridge coach Eric Stalling said. " … He has a very high soccer IQ."

Mansfield has also been a member of the varsity volleyball team since his freshman year. He moved into the starting lineup as a junior in the spring when he helped the Raiders to an unbeaten, Lackawanna League championship season.

When he had time in the spring, Mansfield also filled in on the track and field team as a jumper.

Garrett is the son of Kevin and Dawn Mansfield from Hickory Grove.