Beaver Local playing at West Muskingum

ZANESVILLE — Beaver Local’s girls soccer team will take on Albany Alexander at noon Saturday at West Muskingum High School in a Div. IV regional final.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association changed the site from Logan High School on Wednesday morning since it will be a more equitable trip distance for both teams.

Beaver Local (18-2-0) beat Tuscarawas Valley 3-2 on Tuesday in the regional semifinal at Cambridge High School, while Alexander (16-3-1) was a 2-1 winner over McClain in its regional semifinal.

Beaver Local is 10-1 against Div. IV opponents this season with its only loss coming at Salem on Oct. 7.

The Spartans have scored 77 goals this season and have given up 13. Beaver Local has produced 115 goals and has given up 20.

Super sophomore Peyton Dunn leads the Beavers with 44 goals and eight assists, while freshman Leah Stewart had 24 goals and 29 assists.

Senior Karah Allison leads the Spartans with 26 goals and 14 assists.

Beaver Local is ranked 12th in Div. IV by Maxpreps while the Spartans are 15th. Beaver Local’s strength of schedule is ranked the worst out of the eight remaining teams, while Alexander’s is third worst behind Niles.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for students.

Oak Glen freshman headed to state

NEW MANCHESTER, W.Va. — Oak Glen’s cross country team will send freshman Amelia Kampmeyer to the Class AA state cross country meet on Saturday at Cabell Midland High School.

Kampmeyer finished ninth in 21:23 at the Region I meet on Saturday at St. Marys to qualify.

The girls state Class AA race will take place at 1 p.m.

Celtics snap Cavaliers’ win streak

BOSTON (AP) — Jaylen Brown scored 30 points, including 13 during a 20-3 run to end the first half that helped the Boston Celtics pull away from Cleveland to win 125-105 on Wednesday night and snap the Cavaliers’ three-game winning streak.

Sam Hauser scored 21 points off the bench for Boston, which has won two straight since opening the season with three losses in a row. Josh Minott had 14 rebounds, Neemias Queta had 13 and Payton Pritchard had 10 assists for the Celtics.

Evan Mobley scored 19 points with 11 rebounds and Jaylon Tyson also scored 19 for the Cavaliers. Donovan Mitchell made all four 3-point attempts for 12 points in the first quarter, when the Cavaliers led 42-40, but made just one of his last eight shots and finished with 15 points.

Boston led by 19 points midway through the third quarter and had a 98-80 advantage in the final two minutes of the third before Cleveland scored the next eight points. The Cavs never got closer than nine points from there, shooting 33% (8 for 24) in the fourth quarter as they failed to chip into Boston’s lead.

Boston’s only previous win this season was on Monday night, when they beat the winless New Orleans Pelicans.

The Cavaliers led by three points early in the second quarter and had a 57-55 lead with four minutes left in the half before Boston ran off 20 of the next 23 points to take a 15-point halftime lead.

Brown hit three 3-pointers down the stretch, making a 31-footer with 17 seconds left and then a step-back 26-footer at the buzzer to give the Celtics a 75-60 lead.

The teams combined for 18 3-pointers in the first quarter, one shy of the NBA record.

The Celtics had 20 assists in the first half.

Twins hire ex-Pirates skipper Shelton

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins have picked former bench coach Derek Shelton as their new manager, a person with knowledge of the decision confirmed Wednesday night.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the hire. Major League Baseball encourages clubs to avoid spotlighting big moves during the World Series.

Shelton served as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates for five-plus years with an overall record of 306-440 before he was fired on May 8, just 40 games into this season. The 55-year-old was the bench coach for the Twins in 2018 and 2019 under two different managers, Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli. With the under-funded Pirates, Shelton never finished higher than fourth place in the NL Central or better than 76-86.

Baldelli was fired the day after the regular season ended with a 527-505 record over seven years, plus 3-8 in the postseason. The Twins won three AL Central titles under Baldelli, including their 101-61 finish in 2019 when the rookie skipper won the AL Manager of the Year award, but they made the playoffs only once in his last five seasons and frequently struggled to shepherd their top prospects into becoming consistent contributors.

New York Yankees hitting coach James Rowson was also one of the finalists.