Sports briefs
WVU to have 6 home games next year
West Virginia will have six home football games next season, including a Sept. 14 matchup with North Carolina State.
The Big 12 announced the Mountaineers’ 2019 schedule Thursday. Four of their first six games are in Morgantown.
Other home games for the Mountaineers next fall include the Aug. 31 season opener against James Madison, Oct. 5 against Texas, Oct. 12 against Iowa State, Nov. 9 against Texas Tech and Nov. 23 against Oklahoma State.
Road games include at Missouri on Sept. 7; Kansas on Sept. 21; Oklahoma on Oct. 19; Baylor on Thursday, Oct. 31; Kansas State on Nov. 16; and TCU on Friday, Nov. 29.
West Virginia will have bye weeks Sept. 28 and Oct. 26.
Cross country
Belle Vernon’s Grace Henderson finished second in the girls AA meet Thursday at the TSTCA Cross Country Championship held at California University.
Brownsville’s Gionna Quarzo won the small school race in 19:26.34, with Henderson second in 20:19.30.
The Ringgold boys were third in the AA race with 78 points. Lucas Pajak (4th, 17:36.59) and Ethan Gamble (6th, 17:47.11) had top-10 finishes, while Eric Obringer (13th, 18:18.98) and Ben Daerr (20th, 18:38.91) finished in the top 20. Lorenzi Zeni (42nd, 19:32.22) was the fifth Ram to cross the finish line.
Belle Vernon’s Katelynn Keegan joined Henderson in the top 10, placing eighth in 21:50.35.
The Ringgold girls were 10th in the AA, led by Andrea Kassa (24th, 23:03.93) and Anjolina Hrycko (27th, 23:17.55).
Waynesburg’s girls were 14th in AA. Kaitlyn Pester (39th, 24:35.42) and Emma Mankey (60th, 26:08.11 had the top runs for the Raiders.
Noah Lehner was the first Belle Vernon boy to finish the AA race with a time of 19:27.15. The Leopards finished 11th in the team standings.
Waynesburg was 13th in the boys AA. Gabe McConville finished 40th in 19:25.41.
In the NBA
Dwight Howard sat out the Washington Wizards’ season opener Thursday night with what the team said is a sore buttocks.
Washington’s new starting center missed all of training camp and the entire exhibition schedule. He did not participate in any practices at all until Monday.
In the NHL
Cam Atkinson scored twice in the second period and Sergei Bobrovsky had 32 saves as the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 Thursday night.
Atkinson’s goals, both set up with on-target passes from Artemi Panarin, were part of a three-goal flurry in a seven-minute span of the second period that saw Columbus tie the score and take the lead for good.
Anthony Duclair, Nick Foligno, Josh Anderson and Sonny Milano also scored for the Blue Jackets.
- Gabriel Landeskog scored three goals, the last of which put Colorado ahead with 3:22 remaining, and the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils, 5-3.
Landeskog one-timed Mikko Rantanen’s pass from behind the net to complete his third career hat trick. He scored earlier in the third period on a deflection of a shot by Ian Cole.
Philipp Grubauer stopped 27 shots to pick up his first win of the season, including a glove save of Kyle Palmieri’s shot with 44 seconds left that preserved Colorado’s one-goal lead.
Rantanen scored on an empty-netter with 12 seconds left and added three assists, giving him a league-leading 11 this season.