Briefs
Boys soccer
Cam Frolo scored all the goals as Monessen defeated Bentworth, 3-0, in a Section 4-A match.
Frolo’s hat trick gave the Greyhounds an offensive spark, while goalkeeper Nathan Lynch solidified the back end with his sixth shutout.
The win qualifies Monessen (6-3-1, 7-3-2) for the WPIAL playoffs.
Bentworth falls to 3-8 in section play and 4-11 overall.
- Gavin Benson and Jack Church each recorded a hat trick as Waynesburg defeated Beth-Center, 7-0, in a Section 3-AA match.
Jared Hogue also scored for the Raiders, who improve to 8-3 in the section and 11-5 overall.
Beth-Center is 5-5 in the section and 6-9 overall.
- Four players scored for Chartiers-Houston as the Bucs toppled California in a Section 4-A match, 5-1.
Chris Rethage led the scoring for C-H (3-7-1, 6-9-2) with a pair of goals. Matt Bucha, Nathan Boardley and Dom Hancq also scored for the Bucs, who won their third consecutive game.
Derek Keyes scored the lone goal for California (0-9, 0-13).
- Markello Apodiakos had a hat trick in Belle Vernon’s 4-2 victory over Greensburg Salem in Section 3-AAA.
Daniel Sassak had the other goal for BV (6-3-1, 9-5-1).
- Three players each scored a goal in Canon-McMillan’s 3-1 win over Mt. Lebanon in Section 2-AAAA.
Nino Tivitate, Steve Dowling and Tom Samosky each had a goal for C-M (9-2, 12-2). Mt. Lebanon fell to 6-5 and 6-8-1.
At The Meadows
Mission Accepted made it three straight victories when he demolished the field by 6-½ lengths in Tuesday’s feature at The Meadows, a $13,000 Conditioned Trot.
Mission Accepted got away fourth for Dave Palone and reached the top with an extended quarter-pole move. The 3-year-old son of Manofmanymissions-Witty Girl drew off as he pleased, scoring in a sharp 1:52.3. Classic Banker raced well first over for second while early leader Southwind Cobra completed the ticket.
Jeff Conger trains Mission Accepted, who lifted his lifetime bankroll to $328,524, and owns with Knox Services and David Wills.
Aaron Merriman collected three wins on the 13-race card.
Taliaferro dead at 91
George Taliaferro, the star Indiana running back who in 1949 became the first black player drafted in the NFL when George Halas and the Chicago Bears took him in the 13th round, has died. He was 91.
The university spoke with Taliaferro’s family about his death in Mason, Ohio, senior associate athletic director Jeremy Gray said Tuesday. Other details were not disclosed.
Taliaferro was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1981. In the NFL, he played seven positions and earned Pro Bowl honors in 1951-53.
He was the leading rusher on Indiana’s 1945 Big Ten championship team that went 9-0-1, the only undefeated team in school history. During his four years in Bloomington he led the Hoosiers in rushing twice and passing once.
It wasn’t an easy transition – the segregation in Bloomington was jarring – and Taliaferro told the Indianapolis Star he once called his father in Gary, Indiana, and suggested he might come home and work together in one of the U.S. Steel plants. His dad wouldn’t hear of it.
“I lay awake all night trying to figure … out … why … he wouldn’t help me,” Taliaferro told the Star. “And it came to me: That for the first 18 years of my life, every day I left my father and mother’s house to go to school, they told me two things: ‘We love you; you must be educated.’ It came to me that the other reason for my being at Indiana University … on the campus at Bloomington … Indiana – was to be educated.”