SPORTS digest

Former Struthers, KSU hoops star Beachy dies

STRUTHERS

Bonnie Beachy, who starred with the Struthers High School girls basketball team in the 1970s, has died after a long illness.

Beachy led the Wildcats to the 1978 state championship and was a trail blazer in the infancy of girls high school basketball in the Mahoning Valley. She was the star player on a Struthers team coached by Dick Prest and went on to play basketball at Kent State.

Phantoms lose in OT to Fargo Force

FARGO, N.D.

Grant Hebert’s goal at 2:59 of overtime combined with 29 saves from Ryan Bischel to give the Fargo Force a 3-2 win over the Youngstown Phantoms (0-2-1-0, 1 point) on Friday night at Scheels Arena.

Fargo got out to a 1-0 lead near the halfway mark of the first period. Spencer Meier redirected a point shot off the skate of a Phantoms’ defender and past Ivan Prosvetov (37 saves) to give the Force the early advantage.

Youngstown scored twice in the second period to jump in front. Matthew Barry fired home a sharp-angle shot at 6:25 for his first USHL goal, and Matthew Thomson blasted a one-timer into the top corner to give the Phantoms a 2-1 lead at 13:13. Thomson’s goal was scored on the power play and was also his first in the USHL.

Fargo tied the game 4:11 into the third period when Hebert stole a pass behind the net and found a crashing Logan Jenuwine who finished the play by beating Prosvetov upstairs to knot things up at 2.

Elliott’s attorney to seek appeals hearing

DALLAS

Attorneys for Ezekiel Elliott have indicated they intend to ask for another hearing before the federal appeals court that cleared the way for the NFL’s six-game suspension of the star Dallas Cowboys running back over domestic violence allegations.

Players’ union attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to a federal judge in New York on Friday that Elliott’s legal team would pursue a hearing before a larger panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to grant the NFL’s request to overrule a Texas court’s injunction that had blocked the suspension. The ruling also ordered the Texas court to dismiss Elliott’s lawsuit.

Barring another ruling in Elliott’s favor, the suspension will start Oct. 22 at San Francisco. The Cowboys are off this week.

Arena resigns as USA soccer coach

NEW YORK

Bruce Arena resigned as U.S. national team coach, three days after the Americans failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986.

The U.S. Soccer Federation made the announcement Friday and did not say who will take over the team for planned exhibition games next month.

A 66-member of the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame, Arena coach the U.S. to its greatest success in the modern era from 1998-2006, then was fired by USSF president Sunil Gulati.

Arena was brought back last November after a 0-2 start in the final round of qualifying in the North and Central American region under Jurgen Klinsmann. The Americans got themselves to qualify, but were knocked out with a 2-1 loss Tuesday at Trinidad and Tobago.

U.S. wants another winter Olympics

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.

The prospect of a U.S. bid for the Winter Olympics is less a matter of ‘’if” and more a matter of ‘’when.”

The U.S. Olympic Committee board is moving forward with discussions about bringing the Winter Games to America for either 2026 or 2030.

But the USOC needs more information about the International Olympic Committee’s process for awarding the next Olympics. The 2026 Games are set to be awarded in 2019, but the IOC could decide to award the 2030 Games at that time, as well, mirroring this year’s dual award of the 2024 Games to Paris and 2028 to LA.

Staff and wire reports