October 25, 2019 3:50 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Kirk Cousins was able to get a victory against the team that let him go in the summer of 2018. Cousins was 23 of 26 for 285 yards without a turnover as the Minnesota Vikings knocked off Washington, 19-9 to improve to 6-2. Cousins did some of his best work getting the ball to Dalvin Cook, who had 171 total yards and the game’s lone touchdown. Cook rushed 23 times for 98 yards and caught five passes for 73 yards in the Vikings’ fourth straight win. Quarterback Case Keenum had his return to Minnesota spoiled by a concussion that kept him out of the second half. Keenum also lost a fumble on a first-quarter sack. Rookie Dwayne Haskins threw an interception deep in Minnesota territory when Washington trailed by only seven points.
October 25, 2019 3:42 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Steelers are taking nothing for granted heading into a visit by the winless Miami Dolphins. Miami is off to a 0-6 start but has shown progress in recent weeks. The Dolphins led in the fourth quarter last week against Buffalo before falling late. The Steelers are 2-4 coming off their bye week and will have Mason Rudolph back under center. Rudolph hasn’t played since being knocked unconscious against Baltimore on Oct. 6.
October 24, 2019 8:00 am
Canon-McMillan boys, Bentworth and Peters Township girls have all advanced to the WPIAL soccer semifinals. Following are scores/schedules for area teams and WPIAL bracket links. The WPIAL Soccer Championships are scheduled for Highmark Stadium, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.
CLICK for Girls WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Girls Quarterfinals, Thursday, Oct. 24
1A Bentworth 3, Serra Catholic 1
4A Peters Township 5, Butler 0
CLICK for Boys WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Boys Semifinals, Saturday, Oct. 26
4A #4 Canon-McMillan vs. #1 Plum, 2 pm at Mars Area
Girls Semifinals, Monday, Oct. 28 (sites/times to be determined)
1A #2 Bentworth vs. #3 Shady Side Academy
4A #2 Peters Township vs. #3 North Allegheny
October 24, 2019 3:42 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Victor Hedman scored a power-play goal with 56.8 seconds remaining to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night. The defenseman scored from just inside the blue line off Steven Stamkos’ pass from the left circle. Alex Killorn and Cedric Paquette also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 37 saves, including a pair of in-close chances in the final seconds of regulation. One of them, taken by Kris Letang, required a lengthy video review before it was confirmed that the puck didn’t cross the goal line. Brandon Tanev and Jake Guentzel scored and Tristan Jarry stopped 45 shots for the Penguins. Sidney Crosby picked up an assist and moved past Norm Ullman into sole possession of 40th place on the NHL career points list with 1,230. The injury-depleted Penguins are without forwards Evgeni Malkin, Alex Galchenyuk, Nick Bjugstad and Bryan Rust, and defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Zach Trotman. Malkin has 23 goals and 51 points in 38 games against Tampa Bay. Paquette, who played for the first time this season after being sidelined by an upper-body injury, tied it at 2 on a deflection at 7:07 of the third. Tanev skated out from behind the net and scored on a backhander at 5:06 of the second before Guentzel scored off a pass through the slot from Crosby to put Pittsburgh up 2-1 with 58.8 seconds left in the period. Crosby has 34 assists and 53 points in 40 games against the Lightning. Pittsburgh has 19 second-period goals in 11 games this season. Killorn opened the scoring midway through the first by redirecting Nikita Kucherov’s shot.
October 24, 2019 3:31 am
PITTSBURGH – Frank Coonelly’s 12-year run as president of the Pittsburgh Pirates is over after another losing season. The club announced Wednesday that it is parting ways with Coonelly effective immediately. The team said Coonelly’s replacement will be introduced on Monday but published reports say the club will be hiring former Penguins chief operating officer Travis Williams. Williams spent eleven years with the Penguins, the past eight as COO. Williams left Pittsburgh almost a year ago to become president of business operations for the New York Islanders, where he is currently working.
Coonelly helped oversee a brief renaissance that resulted in three straight playoff berths from 2013-15. He said he understood that “change was necessary” following a stunning second-half collapse in which the Pirates went 25-48 and plummeted to last in the NL Central. The team dismissed manager Clint Hurdle on the final day of the regular season. “Frank and I both agreed that it was clear a change in the day-to-day leadership of the club is needed,” Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement. “This leadership transition gives us the opportunity to refresh our entire operations.” The Pirates have fallen off the pace in recent years, finishing below .500 in three of the last four seasons. The freefall included a number of off-the-field incidents this season, including the arrest of All-Star closer Felipe Vazquez on felony charges relating to an improper sexual relationship with an underage girl. Relievers Keone Kela and Kyle Crick were suspended after heated arguments with staff members.
October 23, 2019 7:59 am
WPIAL Soccer moves to quarterfinal round action–including three Washington County boys teams on Wednesday, both county girls teams Thursday. Following are scores/schedules for area teams and WPIAL bracket links. The WPIAL Soccer Championships are scheduled for Highmark Stadium, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.
CLICK for Boys WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Boys Quarterfinals, Wednesday, Oct. 23
2A #5 Charleroi vs. #4 Shady Side Academy, 6 pm at Plum
3A #8 Trinity vs. #1 Franklin Regional, 8 pm at Fox Chapel
4A #4 Canon-McMillan vs. #5 Fox Chapel, 8 pm at Canon-McMillan
CLICK for Girls WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Girls Quarterfinals, Thursday, Oct. 24
1A #2 Bentworth vs. #10 Serra Catholic, 6 pm at Peters Township
4A #2 Peters Township vs. #7 Butler, 8 pm at Peters Township
October 23, 2019 3:45 am
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) – Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and an assist to lift the Florida Panthers to a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night. Denis Malgin had a goal and an assist, and Noel Acciari, and Frank Vatrano also scored goals for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 shots. Aleksander Barkov had a pair of assists. Patric Hornqvist and Teddy Blueger scored for Pittsburgh. Matt Murray made 18 saves. The Panthers have won two of their past three games. After winning five in a row, the Penguins lost their second straight game. Leading 2-1, Huberdeau stretched the Panthers lead to 3-1 when he deflected a shot from Anton Stralman with 6:18 left in the third. The Penguins closed to 3-2 on Hornqvist’s goal.with 5:35 left, but Vatrano’s empty-net goal with 1:03 left made the score 4-2. Malgin put the Panthers ahead 2-1 when he took a pass from Huberdeau to the side of the crease and poked the puck into the near side with 2:00 left in the second. Acciari gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead on a flukey goal midway through the second period. Acciari shot from the high slot. Murray blocked the shot but the puck went straight up in the air and bounced off Murray’s back and into the net at 10:53. The Penguins answered about 63 seconds later on Blueger’s goal. Blueger took a drop pass from Jake Guentzel and tapped in the puck from in front at 11:57 to tie the score at 1.
October 23, 2019 3:43 am
HOUSTON (AP) – The Washington Nationals have opened the World Series by stealing home-field advantage from the Houston Astros. Juan Soto drove in three runs and Max Scherzer provided a gritty effort on the mound as the Nationals held off the Astros, 5-4. Soto delivered a solo homer and a two-run double while the Nats were turning a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 lead against Gerrit Cole.
Scherzer quickly fell behind when Yuli Gurriel lined a two-run double with two out in the bottom of the first. The three-time Cy Young Award winner needed 112 pitches to get through five innings, striking out seven and allowing five hits and three walks. Ryan Zimmerman sparked Washington’s comeback with a second-inning homer. Adam Eaton put the Nationals ahead to stay with a run-scoring single in the fifth, two batters before Soto widened their lead. George Springer made it a one-run game with a seventh-inning homer and an RBI double in the eighth. Sean Doolittle protected the lead by getting the final out in the eighth, stranding Spring at second before picking up the save. Cole suffered his first loss in 26 starts since May 22 against the Chicago White Sox. He entered the game 3-0 with a 0.40 ERA in the postseason before surrendering eight hits over seven innings. Game 2 is Wednesday night in Houston. The Astros look to Justin Verlander to help them tie up the series. Stephen Strasburg will pitch for the Nats.
October 22, 2019 3:49 am
UNDATED (AP) – Michigan State is No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball preseason poll for the first time in program history. The Spartans took the top spot on 60 of 65 ballots in results released Monday. Kentucky was No. 2 with two first-place votes, while third-ranked Kansas received the other three. Michigan State had been ranked No. 1 for 12 weeks all-time in the AP poll before Monday, but never to start a season. Tom Izzo’s Spartans return star Cassius Winston, along with starters Joshua Langford, Xavier Tillman and Aaron Henry from a 32-win team that reached the Final Four. Duke is ranked fourth, followed by Louisville, Florida, Maryland, Gonzaga, North Carolina and Villanova to round out the top 10. Reigning national champion Virginia starts at No. 11.
October 22, 2019 3:48 am
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – Tom Brady set the tone with a long slice-and-dice touchdown drive, New England’s blitz-happy defense forced Sam Darnold into five turnovers and the Patriots remained undefeated by cruising to a 33-0 victory over the New York Jets on Monday night. Brady threw a TD pass to Phillip Dorsett and Sony Michel ran for three scores to help the Patriots improve to 7-0 for the third time in franchise history, and first since 2015. They also swept the two-game season series against their AFC East rivals for the fourth straight year, outscoring the Jets (1-5) 63-14 in the two meetings this year. And, the top-ranked Patriots defense was a big reason in this one. Darnold was the AFC offensive player of the week after leading New York to a 24-22 win over Dallas last Sunday in his return from missing three games with mononucleosis. He was miserable against New England, finishing 11 of 32 for 86 yards and a 3.6 quarterback rating.
