High school football

Thursday, Aug. 21

Leetonia 47, Vanlue 0

East Palestine 40, Shadyside 7

Friday, Aug. 22

All games at 7 p.m.

Minerva at United

Poland at Salem

Western Reserve at Crestview

Lowellville at Columbiana

East Cleveland Shaw at Beaver Local

East Liverpool at Carrollton

Lisbon at Newton Falls

Southern at Toronto

Steubenville Central at Wellsville

West Branch at Canfield

Salem Early Bird Invitational

SALEM — The 23rd annual Salem Early Bird Cross Country Invitational will be held Saturday at Waterworth Memorial Park.

Fifteen high schools are entered, including host Salem, Alliance, Crestview, East Liverpool, Howland, Louisville, Lowellville, Minerva, Niles, Ravenna, Southern Local, South Range, United, Ursuline and West Branch.

The Salem boys and girls are the defending team champions. The Minerva girls have won two straight Ohio Division II state titles and three in the last fours.

Races start at 9 a.m. with the middle school boys, followed by the middle school girls at 9:45 p.m., high school boys at 10:30 a.m. and high school girls at 11:15 a.m.

Norton calls off sick

NORTON — The Norton football team will not be playing tonight due to illness on the team.

Norton’s season opener at Northwest has been canceled and will be ruled a no contest.

Both teams are scheduled to return to action next Friday as Northwest travels to Marlington and Norton hosts Lutheran East.

Beaver Local tops West Branch

CALCUTTA — Beaver Local’s girls tennis team topped West Branch 4-1 on Thursday.

West Branch is at Alliance on Wednesday.

Beaver Local 4, West Branch 1

FIRST SINGLES: Kara Wain (BL) def. Cailyn Brink 6-0, 6-0.

SECOND SINGLES: Emily Wain (BL) def. Audrey Miner 6-1, 6-1.

THIRD SINGLES: Abigail Carver (WB) def. Elayna Baumgarner 3-6, 6-3, 11-9.

FIRST DOUBLES: Bella Graleski-Jillian Clutter (BL) def. Leah Irey-Addison Bloor (WB) 7-5, 6-3.

SECOND DOUBLES: Isabella Lucas-Taryn Schwerha (BL) def. Landry Simon-Ava Cope 5-7, 6-4 (10-8).

Junior high volleyball

Beaver Local at East Liverpool

8th Grade: East Liverpool won 25-12, 24-26, 26-24 Thursday. East Liverpool, Cameron Conley 16 points, 4 aces, 7 assists, 2 kills, Melanie Watson 9 points, 3 aces, 6 assists, 5 kills, Hadleigh Byrne 7 points, 4 aces, 6 digs.

West Branch vs. United

7th Grade: United won 25-21, 25-19 Thursday.

8th Grade: West Branch won 25-15, 25-9.

Thompson leads Steelers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Skylar Thompson completed 11 of 13 passes for 152 yards including a 24-yard touchdown strike to Lance McCutcheon, rookie Ben Sauls kicked four field goals and the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Carolina Panthers 19-10 on Thursday night in the preseason finale.

The Steelers (2-1) played a handful of starters on both sides of the ball, while the Panthers (0-3) rested all of theirs and several top reserves.

Getting some players extra preseason reps may have backfired on Steelers coach Mike Tomlin as defensive end Derrick Harmon, the team’s first-round draft pick, was carted to the locker room because of a sprained knee in the first half. Harmon, the 21st pick in the draft, did not return and will continue to be evaluated.

Tomlin said Harmon has a “knee sprain of some description” and called the injury significant. He did not give a timetable on his return.

Tomlin said despite holding the Panthers to 10 points, there are areas to improve upon.

“I thought we were highly penalized, we turned the ball over there early and the tackling was shaky at best at times,” Tomlin said. “I think they had 100 yards rushing at the half and that’s just kind of indicative of how poor the tackling was at times.”

Thompson entered the game in the second quarter in relief of Mason Rudolph, who started with Aaron Rodgers sitting out. Thompson completed his first five passes for 72 yards, including a perfectly-placed over-the-shoulder pass to McCutcheon in the left corner of the end zone for the game’s first touchdown.

Thompson also connected on a 53-yard strike to Scotty Miller, who finished with 82 yards on three receptions.

“He’s not afraid to attack,” Tomlin said. “I mean, he comes in boom, boom, boom. He’s got playing experience. This guy started (three career) games in Miami and so, I think that experience shows.”

Rudolph finished 6 of 8 for 36 yards, including an interception on an overthrow.

“Hey, we’re not a finished product, but no one is,” Tomlin said.

Jack Plummer, playing in place of Bryce Young and the injured Andy Dalton, started slow for the Panthers with a red-zone interception on Carolina’s third possession after escaping pressure in the pocket. But he battled back to complete 7 of 14 passes for 48 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown toss to a wide-open James Mitchell in the corner of the end zone to tie it at 10 before halftime.

Carolina struggled in the second half under recently signed quarterback Bryce Perkins, who turned the ball over on a sack-fumble by Yahya Black and failed to lead a scoring drive.

Panthers rookie outside linebacker Princely Umanmielen said he’s not worried about the team going winless in the preseason and being outscored 69-23.

“I don’t really look at it too much and read into it too much because (teammates) DJ Wonnum and Pat Jones told me when they were at Minnesota they never won a preseason game — and Minnesota was usually always in the playoffs,” Umanmielen said.

Guardians part of ESPN package

(AP) — When ESPN opted out of its contract with Major League Baseball in February, the network was hoping to get a reworked package at a lower cost while Commissioner Rob Manfred thought the sport could optimize its rights in the short term for Home Run Derby and Wild Card round.

In the end, both parties may get what they want.

According to people familiar with negotiations, ESPN is nearing a deal to distribute out-of-market games while NBC/Peacock, Netflix, Apple TV are in talks for regular-season packages, the Wild Card round and Home Run Derby.

All sides hope to have everything finalized by the end of the regular season next month, three people told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the contracts have not been finalized or announced by either side.

The negotiations around the three-year deals is complicated due to the fact that MLB is also trying not to slight two of its other rights holders. MLB receives an average of $729 million from Fox and $470 million from Turner Sports per year under deals which expire after the 2028 season.

While ESPN would be losing the playoffs and Home Run Derby, it would be gaining something it considers more valuable — the MLB.TV streaming package of out-of-market games as part of the direct-to-consumer service that launched on Thursday. ESPN would also sell the in-market rights to the five teams whose games are produced by MLB — San Diego, Colorado, Arizona, Cleveland and Minnesota.

“We are engaged. We are having healthy conversations with them. Nothing to announce today, but we’re very interested in baseball in general,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said on Tuesday during a presentation about the network’s DTC service.

ESPN, which has carried MLB games since 1990, opted out of the final three years of a seven-year deal in February. The package averaged $550 million per season and also included the Home Run Derby and Wild Card games.

Baseball would be the second league that would have its out-of-market digital package available in the U.S. on ESPN’s platform. The NHL moved its package to ESPN in 2021.

It would also be a win-win situation for MLB and ESPN. Manfred wrote in a memo to owners after ESPN opted out of its contract: “While ESPN has stated they would like to continue to have MLB on their platform, particularly in light of the upcoming launch of their DTC product, we do not think its beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform. In order to best position MLB to optimize our rights going in to our next deal cycle, we believe it is not prudent to devalue our rights with an existing partner but rather to have our marquee regular season games, Home Run Derby and Wild Card playoff round on a new broadcast and/or streaming platform.”

The moves keep ESPN involved in baseball, but at a point where it can benefit while MLB could benefit from other partners in a short-term deal.

There is a possibility that ESPN would still air 30 regular-season games, but not Sunday nights. That package of games would go to NBC/Peacock, along with the Wild Card round.

NBC, which celebrates its 100th anniversary next year, has a long history with baseball, albeit not much recently. The network carried games from 1939 through 1989. It was part of the short-lived Baseball Network with ABC in 1994 and ’95 and then aired playoff games from 1996 through 2000.

Peacock had a Sunday streaming package of early-afternoon games in 2022 and ’23.

The addition of baseball games would give NBC a year-around night of sports on Sunday nights. It has had NFL games on Sunday night since 2006 and will debut an NBA Sunday night slate in February. NBC would likely do Sunday Night Baseball from May through Labor Day weekend.

Fox’s Saturday nights have been mainly sports the past couple years with a mix of baseball, college football, college basketball and motorsports.

Netflix is in discussions for the Home Run Derby, which would align with its strategy of going for a big event in a major sport. The streamer will have an NFL Christmas Day doubleheader this season for the second straight year.

Apple TV, which has had “Friday Night Baseball” since 2022, remains involved in negotiations.

The deals would also accomplish another of Manfred’s goals. He has said for three years that he would like to see MLB take a more national approach to its rights instead of a large percentage of its games being on regional sports networks.

“We’re blessed with a huge amount of content: 2,430 games. Because of the amount of content, I think there will be some local component but I think the strategy needs to be more national and our reach needs to be more national,” he said during a panel discussion last September at the CNBC x Boardroom’s Game Plan event.

Dayton man arrested after WNBA incident

NEW YORK (AP) — An Ohio man was arrested for the throwing of a sex toy at a WNBA game in New York, police said Thursday.

It’s the latest development in a string of disturbances where similar toys were tossed at WNBA games across the country, resulting in at least three arrests.

Charles Burgess, 32, from Dayton, Ohio, was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of assault for allegedly throwing an object at the Dallas Wings vs. New York Liberty game on Aug. 5, hitting a 12-year-old girl, according to New York City police.

Burgess pleaded not guilty after driving from Ohio and voluntarily surrendering himself to New York authorities, his lawyer, Paul D’Emilia, said in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday. He was released pending his next court date in December.

D’Emilia said Burgess, an auto body shop owner with six children and no criminal record, intends to “vigorously fight these embellished and exaggerated charges.”

Court documents provided by the prosecutors say surveillance video shows Burgess pulling the sex toy from his pants and hurling it toward the court. But his lawyer says the video doesn’t appear to show anyone actually being struck by the projectile.

Similar disturbances happened during games in Atlanta on July 29 and Aug. 1, Los Angeles and Phoenix on Aug. 5, and Chicago on Aug. 1 and Aug. 7.

Some of the sex toys reached the court and caused game delays, while others landed in the crowds, such as in Phoenix where an 18-year-old was arrested.

Kaden Lopez told police it was a prank that had been trending on social media and he bought the toy a day earlier to take to the game. He was tackled at the arena by a volunteer who had allegedly witnessed him throwing it and began following him as he tried to leave the arena.

Police had said Lopez was arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct and publicly displaying explicit sexual material.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office told the AP in an email Thursday that the county’s Superior Court Commissioner “found no probable cause” for felony charges against Lopez, and his case was turned down with a recommendation that remaining misdemeanor charges be submitted to the Phoenix city prosecutor.

A man was also arrested in Georgia for the two toy-throwings at Atlanta Dream games, according to a police report.

Delbert Carver, 23, was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing, public indecency and indecent exposure. All four charges are misdemeanors in the state of Georgia, meaning that if he is convicted, the punishment for each can be a fine of up to $1,000 or jail time of up to 12 months. A misdemeanor for public indecency and indecent exposure may also require registration on the state’s sex offender list.

Carver told police “this was supposed to be a joke and the joke (was) supposed to go viral,” according to the report.

The AP wasn’t immediately able to acquire attorney information for Lopez or Carver.

The sex toy that landed on the court in Los Angeles nearly hit Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.

League officials have said any person throwing objects onto the court will be ejected from the arena and face a minimum one-year ban from attending games.

Media reports on the disturbances have tied the toy-throwings to a group involved in a related Cryptocurrency meme coin.