Safety threat cancels Columbiana game

COLUMBIANA — The Columbiana at Valley Christian football game scheduled for Saturday night was postponed after Valley players were involved in a confrontation involving a gun the day before.

“At the beginning of our football practice (Friday), three of our former students arrived at the practice field to continue a physical altercation that involved a group of our current football players,” Valley Christian president Michael A. Pecchia said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, one of the former students retrieved a gun from his car. Thankfully, our head coach recognized the former student and confronted him. The young man immediately fled the scene without further incident.”

The game was canceled soon after.

“The administration had a conference call,” Columbiana coach Bob Spaite said. “There were some genuine safety concerns.”

He was at the United-East Palestine game Friday night with a dozen of his players when he got the call right before halftime.

“They were concerned it wasn’t over,” Spaite said. ” The young man who had the gun still hadn’t been found. They made the right call.”

There has been talk about playing the game at the end of the regular season, but those kind of games are unlikely.

“We’ve never had any issues with Valley,” Spaite said. “There’s never been an incident with them.”

Valley Christian practices at the old Youngstown South High School stadium and plays its home games at Liberty High School.

“We met at 10 o’clock in the morning (Saturday) and had the weight room open.” Spaite said. “It was a voluntary thing. We’ll get back at it on Monday.”

The Clippers are 3-3 on the season and will host winless Wellsville on Friday.

“We had a weekend off in the middle of the season, which is unusual,” Spaite said. “My wife and I went down to Mountaineer (on Saturday). I don’t gamble. We watched the Ohio State game.”

Valley (3-3) will play at Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference leader United on Friday in a battle of Eagles.

“We have not nor are we considering canceling our entire season as has been rumored,” Pecchia said.

Beaver Local soccer ties Sandy Valley

CALCUTTA — Beaver Local and Sandy Valley played to a 1-1 tie in boys soccer action Saturday.

Beaver Local (9-4-2) will play at Salem on Tuesday.

Sandy Valley (8-3-2) will entertain Salem on Thursday.

Junior high volleyball

Buckeye 8 Playoffs

8th Grade: East Liverpool beat Beaver Local 25-21, 25-13 Saturday. East Liverpool, Katelyn Reeder 10 points and 4 kills, Hadleigh Byrne 6 points and 7 digs, Melanie Watson 10 assists and 3 kills, Addisyn Boyle 5 kills, Laney Edwards 5 kills.

Next: East Liverpool vs. Buckeye Local at Westgate, 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Jackrabbits rally past Penguins

YOUNGSTOWN (AP) — Julius Loughridge ran for 176 yards and four second-half touchdowns to help South Dakota State overcome a 14-point deficit and beat Youngstown State 35-30 on Saturday night in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for two of the top teams in the FCS.

South Dakota State (5-0), ranked No. 2 in the FCS coaches poll, has won seven straight against the Penguins.

Beau Brungard led Youngstown State by completing 29-of-44 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns to Max Tomczak and rushing for 164 yards and one touchdown on 22 carries.

Brungard threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Tomczak about three minutes into the game and ran for a 4-yard score that gave FCS No. 18 Youngstown State (3-2) a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.

After the Penguins went three-and-out on the opening drive of the second half, Loughridge scored on runs of 3, 14 and 2 yards in the third quarter to make it 28-17 and added a 25-yard TD in the fourth.

Brungard threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Tomczak.

Chase Mason threw a 4-yard TD pass to Greyton Gannon to get South Dakota State on the scoreboard with 5:01 left in the first half.

Alex Bullock had 162 yards on 10 receptions for the Jackrabbits.

Youngstown State will play at No. 14 North Dakota at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Mount Union runs over Otterbein

ALLIANCE – Leading only 20-7 at halftime, Mount Union’s running game shifted gears in the third quarter Saturday.

The Purple Raiders scored four touchdowns, three rushing, in the opening 10 minutes of the second half and pulled away from Otterbein, 62-7, in front of a homecoming crowd of 2,874 at Kehres Stadium.

Graduate student Darnell Williams ran for a career-high 163 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries and senior Shaun Thomas added 97 yards and two touchdowns on six carries.

All told, the Purple Raiders ran for 286 yards on 24 carries, an average of 11.6 yards per attempt, along with six rushing touchdowns.

Freshman quarterback Mikey Maloney scored the first touchdown on a 2-yard run and completed 7-of-13 passes for 107 yards and two touchdowns.

In the third quarter, Thomas had touchdown runs of 41 and 19 yards, Williams added a 25-yarder and Nick Turner hauled in a 19-yard scoring pass to give Mount Union a 48-7 lead with 5:04 left in the period.

A pair of freshmen shined in the fourth quarter as Lucas Weaver scored on a 15-yard run and defensive back Jaeson Anderson returned an interception 95 yards for the final touchdown.

The Purple Raiders were 6-for-6 in red-zone opportunities and finished with 449 total yards despite having possesion for only 16 minutes and 21 seconds.

Freshman linebacker Gavin Ehrhardt led the defense with a career-high 11 tackles.

Mount Union improves to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The Purple Raiders will travel to Wilmington (1-3) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Ex-NFL QB Sanchez stabbed

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez was pepper-sprayed and stabbed multiple times during a late-night altercation with a 69-year-old truck driver in a downtown Indianapolis alley, which resulted in criminal charges against the Fox Sports analyst, according to court records filed Sunday.

Sanchez was charged with battery resulting in injury, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication — all misdemeanors.