MEN’S GOLF
BRADFORD — Thiel sophomore Jason Thorp (Curwensville) and Pitt-Bradford sophomore Brett Gardner (Curwensville) posted two of the best scores in the Pitt-Bradford Invitational that had 67 linksmen touring the Pine Acres Country Club course Saturday.
Thorp’s 75 over the 6,717-yard layout was bettered only by co-medalists Jeff Jenkins of Thiel and Jared Wood of Penn State Altoona. They matched par 72.
Jenkins and Thorp led the Tomcats to the title in the 13-team tourney as their 307 left runner-up Penn State Altoona 16 strokes back.
Gardner placed seventh with a career-best 78 highlighted by an eagle when he rolled in a long putt on the par-5 No. 6 hole.
On Monday, Gardner was named Pitt-Bradford Male Athlete of the Week.
“”I am very pleased with Brett’s performance,” head coach Keith Stauffer said in an interview for the school’s golf website. “That should give him a tremendous amount of confidence moving forward.”
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FOOTBALL
WEST HAVEN, Conn. — After sitting out last season because of an injury, redshirt senior strong safety Derek Morgan (Clearfield) was busy in his return to the Slippery Rock defense with seven tackles and a pass break-up as The Rock rolled past New Haven 39-13 to disappoint the crowd of 2,019 in DellaCamera Stadium Saturday.
Four of his stops were solo and five were near the line of scrimmage.
The Rock upheld its No. 25 ranking in the American Football Coaches Association and Lindy’s Sports preseason polls with its seventh consecutive first-game victory and will be primed for its home opener against East Stroudsburg Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crossover battle is the NCAA Division II Showcase Game of the Week and will be televised nationally on www.ncaa.com as well as WPNT-22 in the Pittsburgh market.
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LOCK HAVEN — Former Clearfield Area High School teammates Beau Swales and Eric White, both seniors, were on opposite sidelines at Hubert Jack Stadium Thursday night when Clarion handed Lock Haven a 40-13 setback in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crossover game that attracted 3,150 rooters.
Swales, the Bald Eagles’ returning No. 1 running back , rushed five times for 47 yards and caught two passes for 13 yards, topping the 2,000 plateau for all-purpose yards in his career.
White began his fourth campaign as the Golden Eagles’ longsnapper with 10 plays with the punt, field goal and extra point units.
Clarion will host Millersville at Memorial Stadium Thursday in another PSAC crossover game that will be televised nationally on ESPN 3 and ESPN College Extra as well as regionally on WJAC (Johnstown) and WPGH-PGH (53.2).
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CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Sophomore free safety and special teamer Christian Lezzer (Clearfield) saw action as Boston College opened the season by dismantling Maine 24-3 in front of 29,262 fans at Alumni Stadium Saturday.
The Eagles held the Black Bears to seven yards rushing and 91 total yards for 49 plays.
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WOMEN’S SOCCER
CLARION — Sophomore Carlee Freeburg (Clearfield) made her first two starts at forward and was on the Memorial Field turf most of the time for Clarion, which stumbled out of the gate with Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference losses to Edinboro 1-0 Thursday night and 2-1 in overtime to Indiana University of Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon.
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ERIE — Sophomore midfielder/defender McKenna Aleksivich (Clearfield), sophomore defender Katie Powers (Clearfield) and freshman forward Tessa Munshower (Clearfield) each played in one of Penn State Behrend’s two games in the opening-weekend Herb Lauffer Memorial Tournament at Behrend Field.
The Lions were beaten 5-0 by Carnegie Mellon Friday night and 2-1 by Baldwin-Wallace (Ohio) Saturday afternoon.