Another OAC title for Mount Union

MARIETTA – The second-ranked Mount Union football team had to work for its its 31st Ohio Athletic Conference title in 32 years.

The Purple Raiders held Marietta scoreless in the final 17 minutes for 30-19 win Saturday.

Mount Union, 9-0 overall and 7-0 in the OAC, earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs, a record 36th playoff appearance.

Junior Davion Grant had a season-high nine catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns–the second straight game with multiple TDs.

Freshman quarterback Mikey Maloney finished 20-for-31 passing for 268 yards and three touchdowns along with a rushing score.

Marietta, which trailed 17-13 at halftime, drops to 4-5 and 3-5 in the OAC.

Mount Union wraps up the regular season by hosting Muskingum at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Four in a row for Mentor Lake Catholic

DAYTON — The Mentor Lake Catholic volleyball powered its way to a fourth straight state championship Sunday.

The Cougars put away state tournament newcomer New Lexington, 25-20, 25-10, 23-25, 25-14, in the Division V title game at Wright State University’s Nutter Center.

Mentor Lake Catholic totaled 44 kills and 14 blocks to finish the season with a 21-10 record. The Cougars entered the tournament as the eighth seed in the regional.

Six-foot-one junior Ahanna Bergant totaled 23 kills to lead the Cougar attack. Freshman Ryann Schneider and sophomore Kenzie Smith each had 11 kills. Senior Ava Starr had 48 assists.

In Saturday’s state semifinal, Mentor Lake Catholic sweep Cincinnati Summit Country Day, 25-14, 25-23, 25-18.

The Cougars beat Crestview in the regional semifinal, 25-19, 25-16, 25-22, on Oct. 30. It was the fourth straight year Mentor Lake Catholic beat the Rebels in the regional tournament.

Clase, Ortiz charged with taking bribes

NEW YORK (AP) — Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been indicted on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches, including tossing balls in the dirt instead of strikes, to ensure successful bets.

According to the indictment unsealed Sunday in federal court in Brooklyn, the highly paid hurlers took several thousand dollars in payoffs to help two unnamed gamblers from their native Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on in-game prop bets on the speed and outcome of certain pitches.

Clase, the Guardians’ former closer, and Ortiz, a starter, have been on non-disciplinary paid leave since July, when MLB started investigating what it said was unusually high in-game betting activity when they pitched. Some of the games in question were in April, May and June.

Ortiz, 26, was arrested Sunday by the FBI at Boston Logan International Airport. He is expected to appear in federal court in Boston on Monday. Clase, 27, was not in custody, officials said.

Numbers game

ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Southern California should have been assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during its game against Northwestern for having a reserve quarterback who executed a fake punt wear the same number as the Trojans’ regular punter, the Big Ten announced Sunday.

Early in the second quarter of Friday’s game in Los Angeles, third-string quarterback Sam Huard lined up in the punter’s spot wearing jersey No. 80 on a fourth-and-6 play. He took the long snap and completed a pass to Tanook Hines for a 10-yard gain. The Trojans scored a tie-breaking touchdown five plays later and won 38-17.

Sam Johnson, the Trojans’ regular punter who wears No. 80, punted for the first time on the next possession. At that point, the Big Ten said in a statement, USC should have been penalized under the NCAA’s “Unfair Tactics” rule (Rule 9, Section 2, Article 2).

Paragraph D states, “Two players playing the same position may not wear the same number during the game.”

The Big Ten said it would continue to review the situation with both schools.

Huard is listed as No. 7 on the Trojans’ official online roster. He was listed as No. 80 along with Johnson on the game-day roster.

It is common for college football rosters to have duplicate numbers, but typically one of the players is on offense and the other is on defense.

Northwestern coach David Braun did not complain about the play after the game.