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Vinopal selected

YOUNGSTOWN — Ray Vinopal, a Cardinal Mooney High School junior, was selected the Steel Valley Conference football player of the week.

In a 31-14 win over Cleveland Benedictine on Friday, Vinopal rushed 21 times for 206 yards and three touchdowns, one which covered 40 yards.

Mooney is 6-1.

Phantoms unbeaten

WYANDOTTE, Mich. — The Mahoning Valley Phantoms found some late offense and pulled away for a 5-3 win over Detroit’s Motor City Machine Saturday night.

Jordy Trottier scored two goals within 11‚Ñ2 minutes early in the third period.

Trottier is tied with Erik Higby for the team lead with four goals.

Garrett Bartus stopped 24 of 27 shots for his second win of the season.

Mahoning Valley’s league-leading penalty killing unit killed off all seven Motor City power plays, extending its streak to 36 straight successful penalty kills.

Brandon Saad opened the scoring just 59 seconds into the game. Alex Lippincott and Cole Schneider also scored for the Phantoms (5-0-1).

The Phantoms travel to Alpena, Mich., for games Oct. 17-18 against the Ice Diggers.

nation

Shock takes WNBA

YPSILANTI, Mich. — Katie Smith missed almost the entire second quarter because of foul trouble. Cheryl Ford has been out since the summer with a knee injury. And the Detroit Shock had to play in a college gym half the size of their regular home court.

In the end, none of it mattered.

The Shock overcame all of that in winning their third WNBA title in six seasons on Sunday, beating the San Antonio Silver Stars 76-60 in Game 3.

Detroit swept the league’s best regular-season team, winning the clincher at Eastern Michigan University’s Convocation Center, a venue forced upon them because of a scheduling conflict.

Rivers is content

NEWPORT, R.I. — Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers canceled training camp practice scheduled for today, saying he wants to give the defending NBA champions a day off before they prepare for their first preseason game.

Boston takes on the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday at the University of Massachusetts’ flagship campus in Amherst.

“I liked the way we were going so I figured go one more day, give them a day off and then we get a day before our (first) preseason game,” Rivers said Sunday after the Celtics held their final practice at Salve Regina University. “It works out pretty good.”

Golf Capsules

•Samsung World

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Paula Creamer calmly won her biggest LPGA Tour title yet, holding off a large pack in the 20-player Samsung World Championship.

Playing near her hometown of Pleasanton, the 22-year-old Creamer beat Song-Hee Kim by a stroke Sunday, closing with a bogey-free 3-under 69 for a 9-under 279 total. Creamer earned $250,000 for her fourth title of the year and eighth overall.

On No. 18, Creamer holed a 5-foot par putt that rolled around the right lip of the cup and in. She dropped her putter, and raised both arms with a huge smile across her face as Kim waited nearby for a possible playoff.

•Turning Stone Resort

VERONA, N.Y. — Long-hitting rookie Dustin Johnson won the Turning Stone Resort Championship for his first PGA Tour title, holing an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 3-under 69 and a one-stroke victory over Robert Allenby.

Johnson finished at 9-under 279 to take the $1.08 million first-place prize in the $6 million event, the richest of the Fall Series, catapulted him from 128th to 41st on the money list. The top 125 at the end of the year retain full exemption for 2009.

Allenby (70), seeking his fifth victory and first since 2001, had a chance to tie at 18, but the Australian’s 12-foot putt for birdie stopped inches short of the hole.

•Alfred Dunhill Links

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Sweden’s Robert Karlsson won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, birdieing the first hole of a playoff with England’s Ross Fisher and Germany’s Martin Kaymer at St. Andrews.

Karlsson earned $800,000 for his second win of the year and passed Padraig Harrington for the lead in the Order of Merit. Karlsson, the Mercedes-Benz Championship winner the week before the Ryder Cup, Karlsson closed with a 7-under 65 to match Fisher (65) and Kaymer (68) at 10-under 278.

•Korea Open

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon won the Korea Open, closing with a 2-under 69 for a one-stroke victory over England’s Ian Poulter.

The 22-year-old Bae had an 11-under 273 total on the Woo Jeong Country Club course.

Vindicator staff/wire reports