After years of rebuilding its program as an independent, Montrose is back in the Lackawanna Football Conference.<\/p>\n
Brett Stage is the new head coach. He comes with a successful pedigree and takes over a program that made strides with a 3-7 record, including its first win over rival Susquehanna for the Blue Stone Trophy since 2015.<\/p>\n
He will have plenty of experienced players returning to hit the ground running. The Meteors return eight starters on offense and nine on defense as they prepare to challenge in the LFC Division III.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is great,\u201d said two-way starting lineman Ethan Smith. \u201cWe have new coaches, and everybody looks like they know what they are doing. We need a few more kids, but we are really excited about the season and getting back into the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to Smith, who has started since his freshman year, Montrose has lineman Brayden Heaton and lineman Christian Baker back with starting experience. Sophomore Wyatt Smith will contribute up front.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need the line to come together,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThat is important on both sides of the ball. We have to know our assignments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montrose has a veteran backfield.<\/p>\n
Senior Weston Nabywaniec returns at quarterback. Running backs Sawyer Aukema and Tim David started last season.<\/p>\n
Last season, Aukema had his best game in the win over Susquehanna, rushing for 51 on 17 carries to earn most valuable player honors.<\/p>\n
Wide receivers Evan McComb and Liam MacNamee are big-play threats. Tight end Lincoln Hobbs is expected to have an impact.<\/p>\n
Many of Montrose\u2019s starters will double up on defense.<\/p>\n
Jacob Susz and Julian Repchick join Smith on the defensive line. Heaton started at defensive end last season.<\/p>\n
Aukema and David are at linebacker, and the Meteors return their entire secondary, including Nabywaniec, McComb and MacNamee. Gregory and Wyatt Smith will play at linebacker, and Hobbs will compete for time at defensive end.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur win over Susquehanna, which is a big rivalry for us and Elk Lake and Blue Ridge, proved to us that we can do this,\u201d McComb said. \u201cThat keeps kids wanting to come back. The athletes are there, and with hard work we can succeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coaches have brought a whole new vibe, a new offense and defense. Everything is broken down. We feel good about the season. We have a lot of returning players and a lot of returning starters.\u201d<\/p>\n
FAST FACTS<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Head coach: Brett Stage (1st season, 0-0).<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Division: LFC III<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Last season: 3-7 overall<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Male enrollment: 260; Class 3A (Co-op with Elk Lake)<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Home field: Memorial Stadium<\/p>\n
CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Overall record: 227-370-11<\/p>\n
\u25a0 LFC III: 1998<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Suburban Conference: 1992, 1994<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Eastern Conference: (Class 2A) 1994<\/p>\n
SCHEDULE<\/p>\n
Aug. 28: Nativity BVM (1A), 7<\/p>\n
Sept. 3: at Susquehanna\u00a0 (2A), 7<\/p>\n
Sept. 11: Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech (4A), 7<\/p>\n
Sept. 19: at Holy Cross (1A), 1<\/p>\n
Sept. 25: Renaissance Academy Charter (1A), 7<\/p>\n
Oct. 2: Tunkhannock (3A), 7<\/p>\n
Oct. 9: at Old Forge (1A), 7<\/p>\n
Oct. 16: at Carbondale Area (4A), 7<\/p>\n
Oct. 23: Holy Redeemer (2A), 7<\/p>\n
Oct. 30: at Lackawanna Trail (1A), 7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of rebuilding its program as an independent, Montrose is back in the Lackawanna Football Conference. Brett…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[4855,305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-272453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-gameface","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}