Phantoms release 2015-16 schedule

July 17, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

For the third straight year, the Phantoms will play a 60-game schedule featuring 30 home games and 30 road dates. This is the Phantoms’ seventh season as a United State Hockey League club.

The Phantoms open their season at home on Sept. 26 against Team USA’s Under-18 squad. The home opener will feature a banner-raising ceremony prior to puck drop celebrating the Phantoms’ Anderson Cup 2014-15 season.

Boardman’s Vivo wins PGAJR event

WOOSTER

Jenna Vivo, a sophomore at Boardman High School, took first place in the Northern Ohio PGAJR tournament on July 15 at Wooster Country Club. This win qualifies her to play in the Kenny Novak Championship Invitational at Club Walden in Aurora from July 29-30.

Vivo has also won NOPGAJR tournaments at Mill Creek Golf Course (June 6), Clearview Golf Course (June 12) and Silverlake Country Club (July 7). She qualified for The Vindicator’s Greatest Junior Golfer of the Valley tournament by taking top honors on July 1 at Mill Creek Golf Course. She has also been invited to play in the Buckeye State Junior Invitational at Chenoweth Golf Course on July 27-28.

Vivo plays for the Boardman golf team and is coached by Brian Terlesky.

Area golfers to compete in Optimist tourney

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLA.

Three local golfers will join more than 650 of golf’s top young players in the Optimist International Junior Golf Championships this month at PGA National Resort & Spa.

Girard’s Mark Standohar and Warren’s Donavan Ray will compete in the boys 16-18 age group, while Boardman’s Jacinta Pikunas will compete in the girls 15-18 division. Both tournaments run from July 26-31.

The Optimist draws players from 42 states, four Canadian provinces and 22 nations. For more details, visit www.optimist.org/golf.

Steelers sign Heyward to six-year contract

PITTSBURGH

The Pittsburgh Steelers signed defensive end Cameron Heyward to a new six-year contract on Thursday that will keep him with the team through 2020.

The 26-year-old Heyward was entering the final year of the rookie contract he signed after the Steelers took him with the 31st overall selection of the 2011 draft out of Ohio State.

He set a career high and tied for the team lead with 71/2 sacks in 2014 as Pittsburgh won the AFC North title.

Heyward is considered the cornerstone of a rebuilt line that includes nose tackle Steve McLendon and second-year player Stephon Tuitt.

Clippers sign forward Josh Smith

LOS ANGELES

The Clippers signed free-agent forward Josh Smith, who helped eliminate them in the playoffs when he was with the Houston Rockets.

He averaged 12.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.4 blocks while playing 55 regular-season games with Houston, which picked him up when he was waived by Detroit after 28 games last season.

Smith reportedly signed a one-year deal for the veteran minimum worth $1.5 million.

Boxer Taylor pleads innocent to charge

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

Boxer Jermain Taylor has pleaded innocent by reason of mental disease or defect to a charge that he assaulted a man at a rehabilitation center where Taylor was being treated.

Taylor, who lost his middleweight title to Kelly Pavlik in September of 2007, is accused of hitting another resident at the rehabilitation center where he was being held after being charged with shooting and wounding his cousin and threatening a child with a gun.

Taylor has entered the same plea to those charges.

Vindicator staff/wire reports