Sports

CARBONDALE – Carbondale racked up 524 yards of total offense Saturday night, easily producing enough to overcome Susquehanna scoring a touchdown in every quarter of their non-league game between Lackawanna Football Conference teams.

Vinny DePalma carried 16 times for 315 yards and three touchdowns while leading the host Chargers to a 52-26 victory.

The Chargers ran for 448 yards on 39 carries and picked up 76 more through the air even though they did not attempt a pass in the second half.

DePalma also threw an 18-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-down trick play and caught a pass for seven yards.

The Chargers got a special teams boost from Colin Bailer, a sophomore soccer player at Forest City who joined the team during the week as part of the cooperative sponsorship of the sport between the two schools.

Bailer opened the scoring on a 35-yard field goal, made seven straight extra points and impressed coach Jeff Arthur by making a tackle when the kickoff coverage team was having trouble containing the Sabers' returns.

One of those kickoff returns gave Susquehanna its only lead before the Sabers ever ran an offensive play.

After Bailer's field goal, Jesse DeLousia returned the ensuing kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown and 6-3 lead with 9:16 left in the first quarter.

Carbondale scored on its three first-quarter possessions for a 17-6 lead.

The Chargers snapped the ball through the legs of quarterback Guy Mushow directly to single setback DePalma, who then rolled right and threw back across the field to Mushow for the 18-yard touchdown.

Logan Wormuth ran 53 yards for the other first-quarter touchdown.

Susquehanna cut the deficit to five in the second quarter.

Spencer Beamer's 37-yard punt pinned the Chargers at the 5. On the first play, Auston Harvey tackled DePalma, forcing a fumble that Beamer recovered at the 1.

DeLousia scored his fifth touchdown in less than 27 minutes of football, dating back to the previous week's win at Holy Cross, with the 1-yard run to make it 17-12.

DePalma, Wormuth and Mushow each got involved in their second touchdown to make it 31-12 at halftime. DePalma ran 35 yards for a score and Mushow hit Wormuth for a 50-yard touchdown off play action.

Susquehanna drove into the Red Zone to begin the second half, but Devon Reams intercepted in the end zone.

The Chargers started at the 1, but this time they protected the ball until DePalma went up the middle for a 94-yard touchdown on third down.

Colton Stone and J.J. Rosa connected on two deep passes to keep Susquehanna's offense moving, but DePalma made the most of each of his second-half chances.

Stone threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Rosa to make it 38-18 late in the third quarter.

DePalma ran 47 yards on the next play to set up a Reams 2-yard touchdown.

Stone hit Rosa for 49 yards to set up a 6-yard pass from Stone to DeLousia for his third touchdown.

DePalma ran 63 yards for a touchdown on the next play, closing the scoring with 9:29 left. He averaged 68 yards on his three second-half carries.

Brad Cottrell carried 16 times for 91 yards for the Sabers. Stone was 8-for-16 for 118 yards passing. Rosa caught 5 passes for 101 yards.

WEEK IN REVIEW

EXETER – Elk Lake narrowly missed a fourth straight trip to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association girls team golf championships just two days after senior Chloe Sipe had secured her return trip as an individual.

Sipe, the 2020 champion, shot 10-over-par, 82 and finished fourth out of 12 players that had made it through league qualifying to get to the district tournament in Class 2A.

District 2 is sending three players to the state tournament, but Hanover Area's Kyleen McCance declined her spot to participate in a national youth event. McCance finished second, one stroke behind the 75 shot by Tunkhannock's Hallie Brown.

McCance's decision opened an additional spot, which went to Sipe.

Elk Lake teammate Reese Warriner finished ninth with 100, one stroke behind eighth-place finisher Lily Sedlak from Mountain View, who had a 99.

Levi Smith from Montrose was 18th in Class 2A boys with an 85. Teammate A.J. Dovin tied for 19th with an 86.

Alex Warriner from Elk Lake tied for 22nd with an 88.

Matt Miller from Elk Lake shot a 101.

Elk Lake then traveled to Eagles Mere Country Club Thursday for the District 2-4 Class 2A Subregional to decide a state berth.

Loyalsock Township defeated Elk Lake, 286-290.

Sipe shot 79 and Warriner 96 in the loss.

In girls' tennis, the Lackawanna League season concluded. Final standings: Abington Heights 14-0, Scranton Prep 13-1, Riverside 12-2, North Pocono 11-3, West Scranton 10-4, Wallenpaupack 9-5, Holy Cross 8-6, Valley View 7-7, Delaware Valley 6-8, Mid Valley 5-9, Scranton 3-11, Honesdale 3-11, Mid Valley 3-11, Montrose 1-13, Dunmore 0-14.

In football, Montrose scored its first points of the season during a 50-14 loss Friday night in Nanticoke.

Lance Rought scored on a 9-yard run with five seconds left in the half Hudson Aukema ran for the two-pointer.

Aukema, a freshman, spent part of the game at quarterback and had a 73-yard touchdown pass to Logan Ayotte.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Montrose is at Susquehanna Saturday at 1:00pm in the latest Battle for the Bluestone Trophy game.

It is also Homecoming for Susquehanna.

Both teams are in need of a win in the LFC Division 4 game.

Susquehanna is 1-1 in the division and 1-6 overall. Montrose is 0-1 and 0-6, including a pair of forfeit losses when it was short on players.

Our high school football predictions were 11-1 (91.7 percent) last week, bringing our season record to 65-15 (81.3 percent).

This week's predictions, with home teams in CAPS: SUSQUEHANNA 31, Montrose 12 … DELAWARE VALLEY 33, Scranton 0 … North Pocono 29, LAKE-LEHMAN 10 … Valley View 54, HONESDALE 23 … Western Wayne 33, WEST SCRANTON 0 … Scranton Prep 57, TUNKHANNOCK 13 … Lakeland 30, MID VALLEY 21 … Carbondale 28, RIVERSIDE 12 … LACKAWANNA TRAIL 23, Dunmore 12 … OLD FORGE 41, Holy Cross 13 … Wallenpaupack 17, ABINGTON HEIGHTS 2.

In girls' tennis, the first three rounds of the District 2 Class 2A singles tournament are scheduled for Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre, beginning at 8:30am.

In girls' golf, Sipe will play in the Class 2A state tournament Monday at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York.

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.

Whether she was winning weekly in a competitive six-team Lackawanna League cluster meet, running away from the field in a small invitational or finishing first among many of the best small school runners in the state, Krista Jones was unbeatable in September.

As a result, the Elk Lake senior cross country runner is the latest Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month.

Jones has been there before. This is the third straight September that the 2019 County Transcript Athlete of the Year has captured the monthly award.

"So far, it has been more normal than last year, so I'm really just excited to have the opportunity to race and achieve goals," said Jones, a two-time District 2 Class A champion and state medalist, who fell just short of those levels in an otherwise successful season a year ago.

Jones is leaning on her experience to try to remain ahead of the latest group of challengers.

"I think it definitely does give me an advantage to have experience that I have had," Jones said. "I am a senior and I've been racing since seventh grade, but I've also been watching my siblings ever since I can remember.

"I just feel like I have extra experience."

Jones finished first at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Foundation Meet in the Class A girls race. The meet is held on the Hershey Parkview Course, site of the state championships. She won the Lasagna Invitational at Wyalusing Valley by more than two minutes. Her Lackawanna League wins include a race that featured five returning state medalists.

Jones is also a multi-year all-star in basketball and state top-10 distance runner in track and field.

Krista is the daughter of Bill and Abby Jones from Friendsville. She followed older siblings Luke, Kenzie, Keri and Peyton as leaders of Elk Lake's powerful program and has a younger brother Kendall currently winning junior high meets as an eighth-grader.