October 18, 2019 3:46 am
DENVER (AP) – Reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes injured his right knee in a pileup near the goal line before his Kansas City teammates rallied around their fallen superstar for a 30-6 thrashing of Denver Thursday night. Backup Matt Moore (pictured) threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill and the Chiefs had nine sacks, gave up a season-low 71 yards rushing and snapped a two-game skid in beating the Broncos for the eighth straight time. His balky left ankle heavily taped, Mahomes completed 10 of 11 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown before he got hurt on a successful sneak on fourth-and-inches at the Denver 5 early in the second quarter. The Broncos had won two straight after a winless September and were hoping to turn the AFC West upside down by handling the Chiefs their third straight loss.
October 18, 2019 3:45 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Steelers are upbeat even in the midst of the team’s worst start since 2013. The Steelers are 2-4 through an eventful six games that have featured a number of season-ending injuries to high-profile players, including quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and defensive end Stephon Tuitt. Coach Mike Tomlin called his team’s current state “fragile” but believes the Steelers have the depth to get back into the AFC playoff picture.
October 17, 2019 3:00 am
The WPIAL released the girls and boys soccer playoff brackets Wednesday morning. Girls teams from Peters Township (4A) and Bentworth (1A) each received the #2 seeds in their brackets, the highest among the 16 schools from the Washington/Greene area. Canon-McMillan boys are the #4 seed in 4A boys. Boys opening-round games are Saturday. Girls first-round games are Monday. Here’s the opening-round schedules and bracket links. The WPIAL Soccer Championships are scheduled for Highmark Stadium, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.
Girls CLICK for Girls WPIAL Brackets
1A Ellis School 5, Beth-Center 1
3A Trinity 6, Laurel Highlands 0
1A #2 Bentworth vs. #15 Mohawk, Monday, Oct. 21, 6:15 pm at Upper St. Clair
1A #9 McGuffey vs. #8 Bishop Canevin, Monday, Oct. 21, 6 pm at Peters Township
1A #11 Chartiers-Houston vs. #6 OL/Sacred Heart, Monday, Oct. 21, 6 pm at Montour
2A #9 Waynesburg vs. #8 Freeport, Monday, Oct. 21, 6 pm at Plum
3A #11 Ringgold vs. #6 Kiski Area, Monday, Oct. 21, 8 pm at Kiski Area
3A #16 Trinity vs. #1 Mars Area, Monday, Oct. 21, 8 pm at Mars Area
4A #12 Canon-McMillan vs. #5 Seneca Valley, Monday, Oct. 21, 8 pm at Seneca Valley
4A #2 Peters Township, 1st round bye (will play Thursday, Oct. 24, vs. Butler/Connellsville winner)
Boys CLICK for Boys WPIAL Brackets
2A #5 Charleroi vs. #12 Burrell, Saturday, Oct. 19, 12 noon at Franklin Regional
2A #13 Waynesburg vs. #4 Shady Side Academy, Saturday, Oct. 19, 1 pm at Upper St. Clair
2A #16 Beth-Center vs. #1 Quaker Valley, Saturday, Oct. 19, 12 noon at South Fayette
1A #11 Chartiers-Houston vs. #6 Springdale, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2 pm at Fox Chapel
3A #8 Trinity vs. Kiski Area, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2 pm at Trinity
3A #11 Ringgold vs. #6 Hampton, Saturday, 2 pm at Hampton
4A #4 Canon-McMillan, 1st round bye (will play Wednesday, Oct. 23, vs. Fox Chapel/Woodland Hills winner)
October 16, 2019 3:45 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt’s season is over. The Steelers placed Tuitt on injured reserve after Tuitt tore a pectoral muscle in the first quarter of a 24-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. The six-year veteran was in the midst of his best season, racking up 3 1/2 sacks and six tackles for loss in just over five games. Tyson Alualu will get the first crack at filling in for Tuitt when Pittsburgh returns to play on Oct. 28 against Miami.
October 14, 2019 3:45 am
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Zach Aston-Reese, Sam Lafferty and Jake Guentzel each had two goals to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 7-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night. Dominik Simon also scored and Aston-Reese also had an assist for the Penguins. Tristan Jarry stopped 27 shots. Mathieu Perreault and Mark Scheifele had goals for the Jets, and Laurent Brossoit finished with 21 saves. Both teams were playing back-to-back games and lacked zip in the first period. Perreault scored the opener at 1:47 when a centering puck he flipped in front of the Pittsburgh net glanced off a defender’s stick and past Jarry. The celebration was short-lived as Aston-Reese tied it up a few minutes later when, as he was falling to the ice in front of the Winnipeg net, he slipped a loose rebound past Brossoit at 4:09 for his first goal of the season. Guentzel scored on a power play at 7:50 of the second to give the Penguins the lead and then, just 41 seconds later, a puck bounced behind the net and back out right in front of Lafferty, who slammed it in to make it 3-1 . Scheifele narrowed it by backhanding a rebound past Jarry on a power play at the 10-minute mark but Simon restored the two-goal lead with 3 1/2 minutes left as his shot pinballed through traffic before ending up in the Jets’ net. It was also his first of the season. The Jets seemed to find more steam at the start of the third after coach Paul Maurice made some line changes but couldn’t turn things around, striking out on their fourth power play. Instead, Lafferty scored again at 9:32 when his shot glanced off Winnipeg defenseman Anthony Bittetto’s skate. Then Guentzel beat Brossoit for his second of the game and fourth of the season at with 8:20 left to make it 6-2. Aston-Reese scored his second of the game short-handed on a breakaway just 7 seconds into a Winnipeg power play with 5:14 remaining.
October 13, 2019 7:46 am
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Freshman Breece Hall rushed for 132 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead Iowa State to a 38-14 victory over West Virginia on Saturday night. Brock Purdy threw for one TD and ran for another for the Cyclones (4-2, 2-1 Big 12), who held the Mountaineers (3-3, 1-2) scoreless in the second half. West Virginia quarterback Austin Kendall was hit hard while attempting a pass during the Mountaineers’ first series. He did not return and was replaced by backup Jack Allison. Hall scored on a pair of 1-yard runs and also had a 12-yard TD. He might have given the Cyclones the dependable option at running back they’d been looking for ever since star David Montgomery departed. Hall entered the game fifth on the team with 84 rushing yards on 18 carries. The 205-pound Hall is the third different running back to lead the Cyclones in rushing this season and the first to eclipse 100 yards. Purdy had 102 yards a week ago against TCU. Johnnie Lang started Saturday’s game and had four carries for 11 yards before giving way to Hall.
October 13, 2019 7:43 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Just four games into the season, injuries have decimated the top lines for the Pittsburgh Penguins as Evgeni Malkin, Nick Bjugstad, Alex Galchenyuk and Bryan Rust have all missed time. The Penguins still have Sidney Crosby, and a trio of callups helped pick up the load on Saturday. Crosby had a goal and assist, Adam Johnson and Sam Lafferty each scored his first career goal, and the short-handed Penguins held on to beat the winless Minnesota Wild 7-4 on Saturday night. Patric Hornqvist, Kris Letang, Joseph Blandisi and Jake Guentzel also scored in Pittsburgh’s first road game of the season. Matt Murray stopped 29 shots for the Penguins, who scored four times in the second period. Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk gave up five goals on 23 shots and was pulled midway through the second period. Alex Stalock made seven saves in relief. Jason Zucker, Jared Spurgeon, Brad Hunt and Luke Kunin scored for the Wild, who lost their home opener and fell to 0-4-0. Crosby continued his success against Minnesota – increasing his total to 23 points in 18 career games against the Wild – but Pittsburgh got support throughout the lineup while playing without four key forwards. Malkin and Bjugstad each missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury. Malkin was placed on long-term injured reserve. Rust hasn’t played this season with upper-body injury and Galchenyuk missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. The four combined for 72 goals and 102 assists last season. After breaking out for seven goals in the last game played by Malkin and Bjugstad, the Penguins had scored three goals in the previous two games. The injuries forced the callups of Johnson, Lafferty and Blandisi. The three combined for three goals on Saturday while skating on the fourth line. Johnson started a Penguins surge later in the period as they scored three times in 2:28. Guentzel scored on the power-play for a 6-2 lead midway through the third before Minnesota scored twice in 21 seconds on goals from Hunt and Kunin.
October 12, 2019 4:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The price of qualifying offers for Major League Baseball free agents has dropped for the first time, falling by $100,000 to $17.8 million. Determined by the average of the top 125 major league contracts this year, the figure reflects a flat market last offseason. In addition, large signing bonuses in the contracts of Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and Mike Trout impacted on the drop, because the signing bonuses are prorated over the length of the contract rather than the year they were received. A qualifying offer can be made through the fifth day after the World Series, and a player has a week after that to accept. If a team makes a qualifying offer to a player who signs a major league contract with another club before the June amateur draft, his former club would receive a draft pick as compensation at the end of the first round. A free agent can be made a qualifying offer only if he has been with the same team continuously since opening day and has never received a qualifying offer before.
October 11, 2019 3:41 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The Philadelphia Phillies have fired Gabe Kapler, nearly two weeks after a disappointing finish to a season of big expectations. Kapler went 161-163 in two years. The Phillies failed to live up to the hype following an offseason spending spree highlighted by Bryce Harper’s arrival. They were 81-81, the club’s first nonlosing season since 2012. Phillies managing partner John Middleton says “some changes are necessary to achieve our ultimate objective” of winning the World Series.
October 10, 2019 3:52 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – It’s officially “Duck” season for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers ruled quarterback Mason Rudolph out for Sunday’s visit to the Los Angeles Chargers while he continues to recover from a concussion, meaning undrafted rookie free agent Devlin “Duck” Hodges will get the start when Pittsburgh (1-4) faces the Chargers (2-3) in prime time. Rudolph was limited in practice all week after getting knocked unconscious by Baltimore’s Earl Thomas in the third quarter of an overtime loss to the Ravens. Hodges, a champion duck caller in his downtime, completed 7 of 9 passes for 68 yards and scrambled once for 21 yards after coming in for Rudolph. Paxton Lynch, signed to the practice squad after Ben Roethlisberger was lost for the season with an elbow injury last month, will serve as Hodges’ backup against Los Angeles. Hodges, who set a Football Championship Subdivision record for career passing yards at Samford before the Steelers signed him following a May tryout, drew praises from his more experienced teammates for his poise against the Ravens. They don’t expect that to change now that he’s had a full week to prepare. “One thing about Hodges is he’s going to throw it regardless,” wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster said. “He trusts it to us, he puts it out there … Either we catch it, nobody catches it, and that’s when he runs it. He’s very confident in the huddle.” Wide receiver James Washington (shoulder), linebacker Mark Barron (hamstring), running back Jaylen Samuels (knee) and fullback Rosie Nix (knee) are also out. Cornerback Steve Nelson (groin) is questionable. Pittsburgh added Lynch and running back Trey Edmunds to the 53-man roster on Friday. To make room for Lynch and Edmunds, the Steelers released linebacker Jayrone Elliott and offensive lineman Fred Johnson.
