Sabers 3-peat at Bluestone

BY SHANE HENNIGAN
Times-Shamrock Writer

Austin Felter had 109 total yards and two touchdowns and quarterback Austin White had two scores, as Susquehanna retained the Bluestone Trophy with a 31-6 victory over Montrose in a Lackawanna Football Conference matchup.

Because of district football agreements, the annual Susquehanna-Montrose match-up puts players from four Susquehanna County school districts on one field. Players from Blue Ridge are members of the Sabers; while players from Elk Lake join the Meteor squad.

The Sabers’ defense allowed just 124 yards of offense — all rushing — and only eight first downs.

“It was a good team effort,” coach Kyle Cook said. “There were a couple mistakes with penalties but other than that, I’m very happy with our effort.”

On the first play from scrimmage, Susquehanna (3-2) recovered a fumble on the Montrose 11. Three plays later, Felter scored from six yards out to give the Sabers a quick 7-0 lead.

After forcing a Montrose punt, Susquehanna got the ball on its own 38 and drove into Meteor territory again. Steve Jesse capped the 10-play drive by booting a 32-yard field goal with just over a minute remaining in the quarter.

Susquehanna added another touchdown with 1:56 remaining in the half when White ran it in from 1 yard out to give his team a 17-0 lead.

The Sabers went three-and-out on their first possession on the second half but, after forcing Montrose (1-4) to punt, they finally got the passing game going.

On a second-and-14, White dropped back, eluded pressure up the middle, rolled out to his left and found a wide open Felter for a 37-yard score and a 24-0 lead.

“It was supposed to be a slant but the linebackers saw it coming

because we ran it several times,” White said. “The safety came up to play it, too, and left (Felter) wide open. I read it as I rolled out and just lofted it up there and my guy made a great catch.”

Nolan Hausser added the Sabers’ final score of the night on a 12-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

“We need to work on getting more balanced,” White said. “We have to pass the ball better but however you can move the ball down the field, we’ll take it. We got some big guys up front, we got good running backs and we felt like we could move it down on these guys.”

Montrose, though, found its way into the end zone on the following drive. After Bob Purdy picked up 24 yards and Austin Cook had a big gain of 20 yards to put the Meteors into Susquehanna territory, quarterback Patrick Parks capped the 12-play, 75-yard drive with a 7-yard score up the middle to end any hopes Susquehanna had of a shutout.