Sports

The Elk Lake boys and Abington Heights girls emerged from the most important day of the Lackawanna League cross country season in first place in the standings.

Schools that travel together in three-team clusters are only scored against each other just once a season and that was Sept. 23.

Adding to the importance of the day was the strength of the six teams that gathered at Valley View. The meet included three unbeaten girls' teams at the beginning of the day and two of the top three boys' teams.

Elk Lake won all five of its boys' meets to end the day at 14-0, a half-meet ahead of Mid Valley, the only other unbeaten.

The Warriors did not just win, they dominated.

Kendel Jones, Cody Adams and Parker Upright finished 1-2-3 and Trevor Upright was fifth in the 70-runner field.

Once a team brings the first three runners across the finish line, it is assured of the victory.

Jones completed the 3.1-mile course in 15:30.6. Adams finished in 16:08.3 and Parker Upright posted a time of 16:19.2, all finishing more than 30 seconds ahead of the fourth-place runner.

Blue Ridge's Paxton Pingarelli was sixth.

Montrose's Nicolo Christian and Jamison Myers were ninth and 10th.

Elk Lake defeated third-place Abington Heights, 21-34. The Warriors also topped Valley View (17-38), Montrose (17-40), North Pocono (16-43) and Blue Ridge (17-44).

Abington Heights went 4-1 on the day and is 11-2.

Montrose went 2-3, including a 23-32 victory over Blue Ridge, which lost to all five opponents.

Abington Heights, coached by Susquehanna graduate Frank Passetti, has the last unbeaten girls' team after handing both Elk Lake and Valley View their first losses.

The Lady Comets defeated the Lady Warriors, 23-36.

Elk Lake went 4-1 on the day, defeating Valley View (25-30), Montrose (23-34), North Pocono (19-37) and Blue Ridge (15-43).

Montrose picked up its only win of the day over Blue Ridge, 25-30.

Anna Pucilowski from Abington Heights won in 18:21.5.

Elk Lake's Kendyl Weisgold was second at 18:54.5, beating everyone else in the 57-runner field by at least 40 seconds.

Five girls broke the 20-minute mark, including Montrose's Avery Kerr, who was fourth in 19:52.7.

Kylee Pond and Madison Kerr from Elk Lake finished eighth and ninth.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose and Susquehanna each lost home football games.

Carbondale defeated Montrose, 40-0, in a Friday night non-league game.

The Chargers, who also include Forest City players on their roster as part of a cooperative sponsorship, improved to 4-2 overall.

Francisco Roman ran for three touchdowns in the first quarter, then Carbondale added two defensive touchdowns in the second quarter for a 33-0 halftime lead.

Riverside handled Susquehanna, 55-7, Saturday afternoon in the Lackawanna Football Conference opener for each team.

Brayden Rose threw four first-half touchdown passes for a 28-0 lead, then returned the second-half kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown.

Ryder Hobart scored Susquehanna's touchdown on a 14-yard run midway through the fourth quarter.

In golf, Montrose was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Lackawanna League's Class 2A team playoffs when it was beaten by host Lakeland, 141-158, Thursday.

In girls' volleyball, Blue Ridge won four times to remain unbeaten.

The Lady Raiders swept Lakeland and Mid Valley in Lackawanna League matches, then won a non-league tri-match Saturday, beating Lake-Lehman in four sets and Mountain View in another three-set sweep.

Montrose had a six-match winning streak come to an end Thursday when it was swept by visiting Abington Heights.

In boys' soccer, Mountain View suffered its first Lackawanna League Division 2 loss, 4-2, to Dunmore Thursday.

The Eagles recovered from having their seven-game winning and nine-game unbeaten streaks broken by defeating Old Forge, 2-1, in overtime Saturday night.

Blake Norton and Joel Tigue scored the goals while Jordan Jagger had an assist.

In girls' tennis, Montrose defeated North Pocono and Dunmore by 5-0 scores to finish the regular season on a streak of five straight shutout victories. The Lady Meteors went 11-3 in the Lackawanna League and are 12-3 overall.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Susquehanna and Montrose football teams are both on the road this weekend.

The Sabers are at Old Forge Friday in a meeting of teams that are 0-1 in LFC Division 1 and 0-6 overall. The Meteors are at Holy Redeemer Saturday night in a non-league game between 1-5 teams at Wyoming Valley West's Spartan Stadium in Kingston.

Last week's football predictions were 9-2 (81.8 percent) to bring our season record to 63-19 (76.8 percent).

This week's predictions, with home teams in CAPS: OLD FORGE 23, Susquehanna 17 … HOLY REDEEMER 30, Montrose 27 … Lackawanna Trail 33, CARBONDALE 28 … RIVERSIDE 58, Holy Cross 6 … DUNMORE 43, Mid Valley 9 … WESTERN WAYNE 29, West Scranton 13 … Lakeland 50, HONESDALE 10 … North Pocono 27, VALLEY VIEW 13 … Scranton Prep 20, ABINGTON HEIGHTS 18 … SCRANTON 31, Wallenpaupack 12 … DELAWARE VALLEY 50, Lutheran 47.

In girls' tennis, Montrose has qualified for Friday's District 2 Class 2A team quarterfinals.

Final pairings were not to be determined until the completion of regular-season matches Monday and Tuesday.

The Lady Meteors are highly likely to face Dallas in the quarterfinals, which are played on the home court of the higher seed. The teams entered the week with Dallas holding a very slight edge over Montrose in the power ratings race for the fourth and fifth seeds.

Friday's winners advance to the Tuesday, Oct. 7 matches at Kirby Park. The semifinals and finals will be conducted that day.

In girls' volleyball, District 2's last two unbeatens are scheduled to meet Monday, Oct. 6 with first place in the Lackawanna League on the line.

Blue Ridge will host Abington Heights. Both teams entered this week with 11-0 overall records, but the Lady Raiders had a half-match edge in the league at 8-0 while Abington Heights was 7-0.

In boys' soccer, the top two teams in Lackawanna Division 2 meet Monday, Oct. 6 when Western Wayne plays at Mountain View.

Western Wayne entered this week at 6-1 in the division, a half-game behind first-place Mountain View, which was 7-1.

In girls' soccer, the last two teams with unbeaten Lackawanna Division 2 records meet Tuesday, Oct. 7 when Western Wayne plays at Montrose.

At the start of this week, Montrose was 7-0 to lead the division over Western Wayne at 6-0.

In boys' and girls' cross country, both Blue Ridge and Susquehanna will be hosting Lackawanna League cluster meets Tuesday, Oct. 7.

The meet at Blue Ridge will pit the last two boys' unbeatens, Mid Valley and Elk Lake, against each other.

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.