Sports

The Montrose and Susquehanna football teams struggled offensively Friday night, leading to non-league losses.

With the offenses unable to produce, the Meteors and Sabers were unable to keep up with the passing of Brady McDermott or the running of Lucas Ciprich.

McDermott passed for three touchdowns and ran for another as Holy Redeemer won at Montrose, 42-9.

Ciprich ran for a pair of first-half touchdowns to send Tunkhannock on its way to a 26-0 victory over visiting Susquehanna.

Montrose has lost four straight since arriving at midseason with a 4-1 record.

Holy Redeemer, which remains on an independent schedule, has won four straight for the first time ever and improved to 5-4 in pursuit of the first winning record in school history.

Susquehanna remained winless.

Tunkhannock is 2-7 with its only wins coming against the Susquehanna County teams. The Tigers sent Montrose to the first loss of its current slide.

Holy Redeemer jumped on Montrose quickly.

The Royals took a 14-0 lead in the first 1:25.

Ryan Zelinka caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from McDermott on the game’s third play, then recovered a fumble in the end zone on Montrose’s first play.

McDermott’s 2-yard run following an errant Montrose shot-gun snap made it 21-0 at the quarter.

The Meteors answered early in the second with a 25-yard pass from Evan Strohl to Weston Nabywaniec. Strohl threw to Nabywaniec deep down the right sideline.

Holy Redeemer added a safety on another wild shot-gun snap, which resulted in the ball going out of the end zone.

McDermott found Michael Zbierski for a 17-yard touchdown with 15 seconds left in the second quarter for a 30-7 halftime lead.

The Royals stopped a Meteors third-quarter threat with an interception at the 1, but then Timmy David got two points for Montrose by tackling a Holy Redeemer runner in the end zone for a safety.

Holy Redeemer scored on a 49-yard Josh Kriedler fumble return when officials ruled that a dropped swing pass had been a lateral.

Josh Grochowski’s 5-yard touchdown reception from McDermott with 8:31 remaining closed the scoring.

Tunkhannock also scored early.

After forcing a Sabers punt, the Tigers scored on their first play when Ciprich went untouched off left tackle for a 56-yard touchdown.

Ciprich went up the middle and broke four tackles on the way to a 22-yard touchdown 13 seconds before halftime.

Cason Petrak added a 2-yard run early in the third quarter and Ty Cokely passed 10 yards to Jayden Newell later in the quarter.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose’s Victoria Kipar finished 31st among 36 Class 2A girls in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Golf Championships at Penn State Oct. 19-20.

Kipar shot 96 each day to finish at 192 for 36 holes.

Alyssa Zhang from Shady Side Academy broke par on the first day and finished at 3-under with a 69-72—141 to run away for a 10-stroke victory.

Scranton Prep’s Cole Powell repeated as Class 2A state champion by shooting 69-71—140 then winning on the second hole of a playoff.

Teammate Bobby Stott tied for seventh.

Sebastian Meyer was District 2’s other medalist, finishing tied for eighth in Class 3A with 69-73—142.

The top 10 finishers and ties received state medals.

Three District 2 teams finished in the top three out of eight in each division of the team tournament that followed on Wednesday.

The Scranton Prep boys were second in Class 2A.

Abington Heights, in Class 3A, and Tunkhannock, in Class 2A, took third in the girls’ tournament.

In cross country, Montrose and Susquehanna hosted Lackawanna League cluster meets on the last two days of the regular season.

The Elk Lake girls swept three opponents at Montrose Oct. 20 to finish 20-2.

Kendyl Weisgold finished first in the six-team race with a time of 19:36.90, almost 36 seconds ahead of second place, to lead the Lady Warriors past Old Forge (28-29), Dunmore (20-40) and Riverside (15-50).

Madison Kerr was fifth and Kylee Pond eighth.

Blue Ridge’s Trinity Lord was sixth and Montrose’s Ava Rebello was ninth.

Blue Ridge went 2-1 and Montrose was 1-2.

Scranton Prep and Holy Cross each defeated Mountain View, Forest City and host Susquehanna Wednesday.

Vella Byrne and Aileana Connor finished 1-2 to lead Scranton Prep.

Susquehanna’s Josey Kelly was third and Mountain View’s Audrey Anderson was fourth.

Final girls’ standings: Abington Heights 22-0, Scranton Prep 21-1, Elk Lake 20-2, Wallenpaupack 19-3, North Pocono 18-4, Valley View 17-5, Scranton 15-7, Honesdale 14-8, Blue Ridge 12-10, Holy Cross 12-10, Old Forge 12-10, Lackawanna Trail 11-11, Lakeland 11-11, Delaware Valley 9-13, Mountain View 8-14, Mid Valley 8-14, Western Wayne 6-16, Susquehanna 5-17, West Scranton 5-17, Dunmore 4-18, Montrose 2-20, Forest City 1-21, Riverside 0-22.

Blue Ridge, Elk Lake and host Montrose all went 2-1 in the boys’ meet, defeating Dunmore and Old Forge, but losing to Riverside.

Blue Ridge’s Paxton Pingarelli won the six-team race in 15:58.40.

Unbeaten league champion Riverside had three of the top five finishers.

Jamison Myers from Montrose was fourth in 16:28.60.

Trevor Upright was seventh to lead Elk Lake.

Susquehanna’s Evan Beamer finished first on his home course in 17:48.90 and teammate Jeffery Benson was fourth, behind two Scranton Prep runners, in 17:48.90.

Final boys’ standings: Riverside 22-0, Mid Valley 20-2, Abington Heights 20-2, Wallenpaupack 19-3, Holy Cross 18-4, North Pocono 17-5, West Scranton 15-7, Elk Lake 14-8, Scranton Prep 14-8, Montrose 13-9, Valley View 11-11, Lakeland 10-12, Blue Ridge 9-13, Mountain View 9-13, Lackawanna Trail 9-13, Delaware Valley 7-15, Old Forge 7-15, Susquehanna 5-17, Dunmore 4-18, Honesdale 4-18, Scranton 2-20, Forest City 1-21, Western Wayne 0-22.

In girls’ volleyball, the regular season came to an end.

Final Lackawanna League Division 1 standings: Abington Heights 14-0, North Pocono 11-3, Montrose 10-4, Blue Ridge 9-5, Dunmore 5-9, Mountain View 4-10, Western Wayne 3-11, Scranton 0-14.

Final Lackawanna Division 2 standings: Valley View 14-0, Lakeland 11-3, Mid Valley 11-3, West Scranton 7-7, Elk Lake 6-8, Susquehanna 4-10, Lackawanna Trail 3-11, Forest City 0-14.

In girls’ soccer, Lakeland clinched the Lackawanna League Division 3 title in a tight race with Blue Ridge.

The Lackawanna League Division 2 schedule concluded.

Final standings: Western Wayne 9-1-2, Honesdale 8-2-2, Wallenpaupack 6-3-3, Montrose 6-4-2, Mountain View 3-7-2, Old Forge 1-9-2, Dunmore 1-9-2.

In boys’ soccer, the Lackawanna League Division 2 schedule concluded.

Final division standings: Dunmore 14-0, Mid Valley 9-3-2, Western Wayne 7-6-1, Gregory the Great 5-6-3, Honesdale 5-7-2, Lakeland 5-8-1, West Scranton 2-7-5, Mountain View 2-12.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The District 2 Cross Country Championships are scheduled for Wednesday at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds in Meshoppen.

The Class A races, with Susquehanna County teams figuring prominently, are in the middle of the schedule.

The day starts with Class 2A boys at 10:00am, followed by Class 2A girls at 10:45am, Class A boys at 11:30am, Class A girls at 12:15pm; Class 3A boys at 1:00pm and Class 3A girls at 1:45pm.

The top 15 finishers in each race will earn medals.

Two teams each in the Class A races will advance to the state meet. The top 10 individuals from other than those two teams will also qualify for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships.

In girls’ volleyball, Blue Ridge will host a Wednesday semifinal doubleheader.

The Lady Raiders are 14-5 and the top seed in a six-team tournament where the other five teams came in with combined overall records of 26-58.

The first match of the doubleheader is set for 5:00pm with Dunmore playing the winner of a Monday quarterfinal between Elk Lake (7-11) and Lackawanna Trail.

Blue Ridge will host the winner from Monday’s quarterfinal that sent Susquehanna (5-13) to Mountain View (6-12).

The Class 3A semifinals will be Thursday at top-seeded Holy Redeemer (14-5).

Montrose (11-5) is the fourth seed and needed a win Tuesday at home against Lake-Lehman (10-8) to advance into a match against Holy Redeemer.

In girls’ soccer, District 2 playoff brackets were not to become official until Monday night after the conclusion of the final regular-season games.

The Class A quarterfinals will be Thursday with Blue Ridge likely the top seed.

The Lady Raiders (12-2-4) led the ratings going into Monday night.

Mountain View will be either the sixth or seventh seed.

Forest City, one of the teams that still had a game left Monday, was expected to land somewhere between the sixth and eighth seed.

Montrose (7-6-3) was expected to open Saturday in Class 2A with a game at second-seeded Wyoming Area (11-3-3).

In boys’ soccer, Elk Lake (14-0-3) is the second seed and hosts seventh-seeded Blue Ridge (5-8-3) in a District 2 Class A quarterfinal Friday.

The winner will play Tuesday, Nov. 3 against the winner of the game between Holy Redeemer (12-4-2) and Gregory the Great (6-8-3).

Montrose (9-6-2) is the seventh seed and playing at second-seeded Lake-Lehman (13-3-2) Friday. The winner plays Tuesday, Nov. 3 against either Mid Valley (12-3-3) or Western Wayne (10-7-1).

In football, Montrose and Susquehanna are both on the road for the regular-season finales.

Montrose (1-3 in the division, 4-5 overall) is at Lackawanna Trail (3-1, 3-6) Friday night. Susquehanna (0-4, 0-9) is at Holy Cross (1-3, 2-7) Saturday afternoon.

Susquehanna will be trying to repeat last year’s scenario when the Sabers avoided a winless season by winning on the final day at Holy Cross.

Our high school football predictions were 10-1 (90.9 percent) last week to bring our season record to 90-22 (80.4 percent).

This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: LACKAWANNA TRAIL 25, Montrose 20 … Susquehanna 23, HOLY CROSS 22 … CARBONDALE 27, Old Forge 20 … DUNMORE 44, Lakeland 18 … HONESDALE 49, Riverside 21 … MID VALLEY 43, Western Wayne 21 … Scranton Prep 49, SCRANTON 0 … NORTH POCONO 48, West Scranton 0 … ABINGTON HEIGHTS 23, Delaware Valley 12 … VALLEY VIEW 19, Wallenpaupack 15.

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.