Sports

Forest City freshman Katy Korty beat out Crestwood senior Molly DeMarzo, a two-time District 2 champion and two-time state medalist, to make her high school cross country debut by winning the title in the 46th annual Cliff Robbins Sr. Invitational Sept. 4 at Misericordia University's Letterkenny Field.

Korty finished the 2.51-mile course – shortened from the usual 3.1 miles for weather-related course alterations – in 15:33 to lead a 124-runner field from more than two dozen schools.

Both of the day's girls' races were won by Susquehanna County runners with Montrose eighth-grader Avery Kerr finishing first in the 110-runner junior high race.

The Robbins Invitational returned after a year off in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Montrose sophomore Nathaniel Sinkovich was the top county boys finishing, placing ninth.

Mountain View's Carissa Flynn was seventh while Kathryn Long was 14th and Genevieve Larkin 20th for the Lady Eagles.

The Montrose girls placed Paige Brewer 12th, Daegan Giannone 21st and Stephanie Summerville 23rd.

Rachel Korty, Katy's sister, was 17th for Forest City.

Montrose's Logan Birchard was 19th in the boys' race.

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Lackawanna League cross country season opened with a return to the league's cluster-meet scheduling format and a showdown between defending district girls' champions.

Abington Heights, the defending district Class 3A champion, needed the sixth-runner tiebreaker to pull out a win after finishing at 29-29 with defending Class A champion Montrose.

Montrose had the top two runners and three of the top four when scored directly against Abington Heights from the results of the six-team meet, but the Comets had a slight advantage in depth to pull out the victory.

The Lady Meteors finished the day 2-1, beating North Pocono (26-29) and Valley View (24-31).

Despite running in what was clearly the strongest of the opening day clusters, Elk Lake's Krista Jones began her senior season by finishing more than a minute ahead of the pack in 19:34.4 on the course at Valley View.

Montrose's Brewer and Giannone were second and third out of 58 runners from six schools. Teammate Stephanie Summerville was sixth.

Abington Heights, North Pocono and Valley View each swept Blue Ridge and Elk Lake in both boys and girls, sending all four of those teams to 0-3 starts.

The Montrose boys defeated Valley View, 19-38, but lost the other two meets.

Sinkovich finished second.

In football, the struggles of the two county teams continued.

Susquehanna fell to 0-3 and Montrose was able to return from a week off because of a shortage of players, but the Meteors remained scoreless while dropping to 0-2.

Unbeaten Lakeland defeated the visiting Sabers, 42-21, after opening a 42-point halftime lead.

Montrose made it through the first quarter scoreless, but host Mid Valley ran off 38 points in less than 14 minutes during the second and third quarters of a 44-0 victory.

In boys' soccer, Blue Ridge started out 3-0, including 2-0 in the Lackawanna League to share the Division 3 lead.

Between shutouts of Hanover Area, 6-0, and West Scranton, 4-0, the Raiders topped Elk Lake, 2-1.

Aiden Glasgow and Gavin Dissinger scored against Elk Lake.

Carson Gallagher had two goals against West Scranton while Glasgow had a goal and two assists.

In girls' soccer, Montrose started 2-0 and is tied for first in Lackawanna Division 2.

The Lady Meteors defeated Elk Lake, 8-1, and used a Tangi Smith goal in the closing seconds of the first half to get past Dunmore, 1-0.

In golf, Lackawanna Division 4 leader Montrose improved to 5-0 in the league and 6-0 overall.

None of the divisional opponents have come closer than 7-2 and the Meteors also hold a Sept. 2, 6-3 victory over Lackawanna Division 3 co-leader Lackawanna Trail.

In girls' volleyball, Susquehanna took the early Lackawanna Division 2 lead at 2-1 with the help of a five-set road victory in a crossover with Division 1 Abington Heights.

Mountain View handed Susquehanna its first loss.

LOOKING BACK

Hanover Area spoiled the Susquehanna home football opener Sept. 4 by rallying to score with 2:56 left in a 24-21 victory that ended a 10-game losing streak by the Hawkeyes.

Jeremy Vega ran 3 yards for the winning score, then helped Hanover Area keep Susquehanna pinned inside the 5 until it gave up the ball for the final time late.

The Sabers outrushed the Hawkeyes, 131-16, in the first half, but could not break away because Christian Torres was able to throw three touchdown passes for Hanover Area.

Jesse DeLousia got Susquehanna off to a fast start with a 30-yard run and an 11-yard touchdown in the first two minutes. He ran for 61 yards on six carries before leaving the game with an injury.

Kaleb Shimer ran 51 yards for a touchdown on fourth-and-one to make it 14-6 after one quarter.

Hanover Area took its first lead in the third quarter, but Colton Stone hit three passes on the next drive, including a 26-yarder to Spencer Beamer for a 21-18 lead.

The Hawkeyes stopped the Sabers inside the 35 twice in the fourth quarter with a chance to make it a two-touchdown game.

"We had a lot of missed opportunities – dropped ball inside the 30 and penalties killed us again," Sabers coach Kyle Cook said. "Too many mistakes, too many big penalties in key situations."

Shimer finished with 88 yards on 11 carries to lead the Sabers, who lost their first two games by a total of four points.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Lackawanna League qualifier for the District 2 boys' golf tournament is scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30am at Elmhurst Country Club.

In high school football, Susquehanna and Montrose each play Saturday.

Susquehanna hosts Lackawanna Trail (2-1) in a Lackawanna Football Conference Division 4 opener at 1:00pm.

Montrose plays Holy Redeemer (0-3) at Northwest, near Shickshinny, in a 7:00pm game.

Our high school football predictions were 10-1 (90.9 percent) last week after being just 6-4 (60.0) the week before. That leaves the season record at 27-8 (77.1).

This week's predictions, with home teams in CAPS: Lackawanna Trail 23, SUSQUEHANNA 13 … HOLY REDEEMER 24, Montrose 12 … Valley View 48, SCRANTON 9 … DELAWARE VALLEY 32, Wilkes-Barre Area 29 … WYOMING VALLEY WEST 24, Abington Heights 21 … NORTH POCONO 29, Tunkhannock 15 … LAKELAND 33, Wallenpaupack 25 … RIVERSIDE 29, Honesdale 24 … MID VALLEY 37, West Scranton 17 … Western Wayne 28, CRESTWOOD 14 … Scranton Prep 37, DUNMORE 14 … Carbondale 20, HANOVER AREA 18 … Old Forge 38, NORTHWEST 12 … HOLY CROSS 43, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 21.

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.