Home → Sports ( July 25, 2018 )
The City team takes the field for the 84th annual Dream Game, which it won, 49-20, over the County
PECKVILLE – Just being part of the 84th annual Dream Game was a thrill for Susquehanna offensive lineman David Armitage.
Armitage got a bonus when he was part of the City offense that dominated the Scranton Lions Club-sponsored all-star game for recent Lackawanna Football Conference graduates by posting a 49-20 victory over the County.
"It's an honor," Armitage said after playing in the game before a crowd of 7,546 at John Henzes/Veterans Memorial Stadium. "I always remember as a little kid coming to it.
"I never thought I'd play in it, but here I am standing here as a winner of it."
Armitage was the only Susquehanna County participant in the game. The only Montrose player selected did not take part in practices leading up to the game and was scratched from the roster.
"We really meshed over that last week of practice," Armitage said of the City team, which was led by Scranton's Robbie McAndrew, the team's only quarterback, who accounted for five touchdowns.
Armitage came off the bench to play left guard and also participated on the special teams. Along with being on an offense that produced 371 yards and 6 touchdowns, he was part of the receiving team on kickoffs and punts.
McAndrew threw for three touchdowns and ran for two for the City, which trailed for more than nine minutes of the first half before scoring the game's final 35 points.
The City held the County scoreless in the second half and limited it to two yards total offense after the County picked up 265 in the first half. The County was at negative yardage for the half until the final play of the game.
Ty Holbert from Wallenpaupack caught 2 of McAndrew's 3 touchdown passes and finished with 4 catches for 134 yards. McAndrew credited Holbert with helping him learn the offense run by Wallenpaupack coach Mark Watson, who guided the City team.
McAndrew completed 7 of 12 passes for 196 yards. He also carried 11 times for 51 yards.
Old Forge's Brendan Mozeleski ran for two County touchdowns. Chase Overholser from Abington Heights scored the other on a 17-yard interception return.
McAndrew repeated beat the County defense with deep passes down the middle. He hit Holbert with a 49-yard touchdown pass after the County had taken the opening kickoff and driven for an 8-0 lead. McAndrew also found Holbert for a 36-yard touchdown pass and hit Dunmore's Nate Fangio for 50 yards to set up scores on similar plays.
"We definitely followed the game plan," McAndrew said. "We knew we were going to kill them with the deep ball, then go on from there.
"That definitely worked out and we didn't have to change much."
Andre Chollette from West Scranton ran for a touchdown, Azzan Jett from Scranton recovered a muffed punt in the end zone and Matt Gilmartin from Scranton Prep caught a McAndrew pass for the other City score.
Zach Maldacker from Wallenpaupack made all seven City extra points and also averaged more than 40 yards on his four punts.
In addition to players from Susquehanna and Wallenpaupack, the City roster also included players from Dunmore, Scranton, West Scranton, Scranton Prep, North Pocono, Lackawanna Trail and Holy Cross.
Armitage said he enjoyed being on the same team as Dunmore players after seeing the way the Bucks played as an opponent and championship team throughout his high school career.
George Howanitz from host Valley View coached the County.
Graduates of LFC Division 1 champion Delaware Valley, which was switched from the City side prior to last year's game, helped keep the County competitive.
In less than half the game, Reilly was the County's top passer. The Warriors also provided the team's top two tacklers (Anthony Scillia and Brendan Heaney), top receiver (Dylan Kelly) and second-leading rusher (Ryan Obiso).
The City now leads the series, 42-38-4.
Susquehanna will have a bigger impact on the 85th Dream Game, scheduled for the summer of 2019. Sabers coach Kyle Cook is in line to be the City coach in the game.
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.
"Happy" Harvick Is Back In Victory Lane (Furnished by NASCAR)
LOUDON, N.H.--What has happened to all the young guns of NASCAR that were supposed to make their presence felt this year?
Kevin Harvick won his sixth Cup Series race of the season this past Sunday. Kyle Busch finished second, and Martin Truex Jr. came in fourth. This trio of veteran drivers have won 14 of the 20 races held this season. No rookie or young driver has taken a checkered flag.
While Harvick's win might be considered a gift from his teammate Aric Almirola, who finished third, a win is still a win in NASCAR.
Almirola led 42 laps and appeared to have the fastest car in the 37-car field. The race's last caution came on lap 264 of the 301-lap race after Clint Bowyer had a right front tire blow. All the leaders pitted. Almirola went in first, but after a slow tire change from his crew, he exited third, behind Kyle Busch and Harvick.
But that was only half of Almirola's troubles. He spun his tires on the restart and fell back to seventh with just 40 laps remaining on the 1.058-mile track.
Busch moved to the front but never got far ahead of Harvick. With 10 laps remaining, Harvick had caught Busch and began putting love taps on his rear bumper. Finally, after one particularly hard tap, Busch slid up the track, allowing Harvick to get by. Busch was able to regroup, but could not challenge Harvick before the race ended.
"We were just running our laps trying to stay up with him (Kyle Busch)," said Harvick. "I got up to him and when I got the opportunity, I knew I had to take it, because I might not get that close to him again. We're just like him. It's about winning and points."
Busch was able to hold on for runner-up.
"There's not a whole lot to talk about there at the end," said Busch. "It was just one of them racing deals. We had a good car, but the changes we made didn't quite give us what we needed."
The third-place finish was Almirola best of the season.
"Very disappointed," he said. "Certainly not happy, because we had the best car. The guys let me down in the pits, then I let them down on that restart by spinning my tires. They say you win some and lose some. Well, we lost today and we'll be looking forward to winning."
Truex finished fourth with Chase Elliott, who won Stage 2, rounding out the top-five.
"We're still looking for that first win," said Elliott. "I thought we might get it today, but we still picked up 19 stage points."
Ryan Newman, Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, and Jimmie Johnson were the remaining top-10 drivers.
Top10 leaders after 20 of 36: 1. Kyle Busch-844, 2. Harvick-791, 3. Truex-740, 4. Logano-679, 5. Kurt Busch-646, 6. Clint Bowyer-638, 7. Keselowski-635, 8. Larson-606, 9. Blaney-584, 10. Hamlin-583.
Christopher Bell took the lead from Brad Keselowski on the last restart in Saturday's Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire and led the remaining 24 laps for his third series win of the season.
Keselowski was second, followed by Ryan Preece, John Nemechek, Matt Tifft, Brandon Jones, Justin Allgaier, Elliott Sadler, Cole Custer, and Austin Dillon.
Top-10 leaders after 18 of 33: 1. Hemric-650, 2. Bell-644, 3. Sadler-643, 4. Custer-637, 5. Allgaier-602, 6. Reddick-553, 7. B. Jones-543, 8. R. Truex-503, 9. Tifft-493, 10. Cindric-452.
Here are the results of the NASCAR Truck Series race held July 18 at Rossburg, Ohio: 1. Chase Briscoe, 2. Grant Enfinger, 3. Stewart Friesen, 4. Matt Crafton, 5. Brett Moffitt, 6. Noah Gragson, 7. John Nemechek, 8. Logan Seavey, 9. Justin Haley, 10. Nick Hoffman.
Top-10 leaders after 13 of 23: 1. Sauter-554, 2. Gragson-522, 3. Moffitt-474, 4. Enfinger-458, 5. Friesen-449, 6. Crafton-437, 7. Rhodes-425, 8. Haley-421, 9. Snider-338, 10. Coughlin-324.
Here are the odds Las Vegas bookies have placed on each driver's possibility of winning this year's Cup Series Championship: Kyle Busch-5/2, Kevin Harvick-13/4, Martin Truex Jr.-7/2, Denny Hamlin-15/2, Clint Bowyer and Kyle Larson-8/1, Brad Keselowski-10/1, Joey Logano-16/1, Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones-20/1, Kurt Busch and Chase Elliott-33/1, Aric Almirola-40/1, Daniel Suarez and Jimmie Johnson-66/1, Jamie McMurray-100/1, Paul Menard, William Byron, and Matt Kenseth-200/1, Austin Dillon-250/1, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.-300/1, Kasey Kahne-500/1, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, and AJ Allmendinger-750/1, All the other drivers are listed at 1,000/1.
This past week NASCAR held its annual truck series race at Tony Stewart's dirt track.
After the race Stewart said that pressure should be put on NASCAR to eventually run a Cup Series race at the Eldora Speedway dirt track.
The NASCAR Cup Series has not raced on a dirt track since 1970 in North Carolina, but Cup drivers such as Chip Ganassi Racing's Kyle Larson have calendars that include racing on dirt tracks in sprint cars.
The track has hosted the third-tier of NASCAR Racing, the Truck series, for the sixth consecutive year in 2018. Stewart believes its success in the NASCAR races means Eldora should now be considered for Xfinity, as a trial run for a Cup race down the line.
"Maybe one of these days we'll get an Xfinity of Cup race here, we have proven you can run the vehicles here," Stewart told NASCAR SiriusXM radio. "We have proven that the truck drivers who have never been on dirt before can get around the track really well.
"If a truck can get around here, then an Xfinity or a Cup car can too. Who knows? I never dreamed we would have a NASCAR Truck series race here, and maybe the dream will start that we can get an Xfinity or Cup race here in the future too."
One of the major drawbacks is the seating capacity. The current grandstand holds around 10,000 fans. Would it be practical to increase the seating for just one race per year?
Racing Joke: Jimmie's little boy comes home from school with his report card and lays it on the kitchen table. His mom comes in, gives him a hug and opens it. She is excited to learn that he has all A's, except for one B.
That night at dinner, she tells her husband how proud he should be of their son.
"I am very proud," said Jimmie." But you know he got his brain from me."
The wife replies, "I think you're right. I've still got mine with me."
Weekend Racing: The Cup and Truck teams are at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, while the Xfinity Series will be racing at the seven-eighths mile Iowa Speedway in Newton, IA.
Sat., July 28; Truck Series race 14 of 23; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.
Sat., July 28; Xfinity Series race 19 of 33; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Sun., July 29; Cup Series race 21 of 36; Starting time: 2:30 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Racing Trivia Question: How many races will there be before the 10-race Chase For the Championship begins?
Last Week's Question. What town did Bill France Sr. live in before moving to Daytona Beach, Fla.? Answer. He moved from Washington D.C. To Daytona Beach, Fla., where he operated a gas station before getting involved in racing.
Gerald Hodges is a syndicated NASCAR photojournalist and author. You may contact him by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.