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AP Top 25 Takeaways: On Statement Saturday, CU wilts, FSU soars, ‘Bama bows up; Ryan Day goes off

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

The bill came due for Coach Prime and Colorado in Oregon.Florida State stared down Clemson’s Death Valley.Alabama embraced winning ugly.And Ohio State coach Ryan Day had enough of critics questioning the Buckeyes’ toughness.A Statement Saturday in September that featured six games matching ranked teams was the first chance to make some sense of the season.Here’s what we learned.Day is no fan of Lou Holtz. The former Notre Dame coach called out the Buckeyes for a lack of toughness earlier this week while picking the Fighting Irish to win.“I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now,” Day said during a postgame interview with NBC. “What he said about our team, I cannot believe. This is a tough team right here. We’re proud to be from Ohio. It’s always been Ohio against the world, and it’ll continue to be Ohio against the world. But I’ll tell you what: I love those kids. We’ve got a tough team.”Buckeyes-Fighting Irish was a worthy main event on a loaded schedul...

Hoppe scores equalizer for Earthquakes in 1-1 draw with Nashville

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Matthew Hoppe scored in the 74th minute to rally the San Jose Earthquakes to a 1-1 draw with Nashville SC on Saturday night.Hoppe, who subbed in in the 61st minute, took a pass from Carlos Akapo and scored his second goal in his fourth appearance for San Jose (10-10-11) this season.Nashville (12-9-8), which needed a victory and some help to clinch a spot in the playoffs, took a 1-0 lead in the 50th minute when Teal Bunbury used an assist from Shaq Moore to net his third goal of the season.Elliot Panicco saved four shots in his second start this season for Nashville. Daniel de Sousa Britto had three saves for the Earthquakes.Hoppe scored in his first start for San Jose last time out. He is just the third Earthquakes player to score in his first start in the past six seasons, and the first since Cade Cowell did it in August of 2020.Both previous meetings between the clubs ended in draws.The Earthquakes improve to 8-2-6 at home this season.Nashville will host th...

Drake Maye throws 296 yards, completes left-handed TD pass as No. 17 UNC beats Pitt 41-24

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Drake Maye tucked the ball under his arm, ran to his left, and immediately regretted the decision.Momentarily, anyway.The North Carolina quarterback soon found Pittsburgh defensive end Nate Temple clutching at him, with Panther defensive back A.J. Woods closing in.No biggie. Maye fended off Temple with his right hand and jumped as Woods zeroed in, lobbing the ball with his left hand to a wide-open Kobe Paysour, the signature play of the 17th-ranked Tar Heels’ season and Maye’s career — so far — in a 41-24 victory over the Panthers on Saturday night.“Sometimes those things turn into ‘No, no, no, yes!’” the right-handed Maye said with a shrug. “Just figured I wasn’t getting anywhere, had to figure something (out). Threw a duck up there. it wasn’t spinning at all. Kind of like a pancake.”Kind of like perfect. “I think I (told him) that may be the coolest play I’ve seen in college football,” said UNC coach Mack Brown, who turned 72 last month. “And I’...

Giddens runs for 207 yards, leads Kansas State in 44-31 win over UCF in Knights’ Big 12 debut

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — DJ Giddens ran for a career-high 207 yards and four touchdowns and Kansas State beat UCF 44-31 on Saturday night in the Big 12 debut for the Knights. Giddens ran for three scores in the first half that included a 1-yard run on the opening drive for K-State (3-1, 1-0), which has found the end zone in its opening drives in all four games this season.“The easy name is DJ Giddens,” K-State coach Chris Klieman said. “We challenged him to step up and we were going to give him the football and keep giving it to him.”Will Howard went 27-for-42 passing for 255 yards and threw an interception. He added 64 yards on the ground and scored on a 31-yard run to give K-State a 44-24 lead with 2:01 remaining.Giddens added a score in the second half to put the Wildcats up 37-24 with 4:01 left. K-State amassed 536 total yards with 281 rushing.“I have to give a shout-out to the offensive line and Will Howard for making holes and getting me the ball,” Giddens said. “I just tried to...

Why Spain’s conservative leader is a long shot to become prime minister despite winning election

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The leader of Spain’s conservatives, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will have his opportunity to form a new government this week in what has been preordained as a lost cause given his lack of support in Parliament.Feijóo’s Popular Party won the most votes in inconclusive July 23 national elections that left all parties well shy of an absolute majority and with a difficult path to reaching power.If Feijóo flops in his attempt as expected, then acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez would get his shot to stay in the Moncloa Palace if he can round up the support of a motley crew of leftist, regionalist and even separatist parties.Here is what you need to know about Feijóo’s investiture bid that begins with his parliamentary speech on Tuesday.THE VOTESThe president of the Popular Party, Spain’s traditional center-right force, will have two chances to become the next prime minister of the European Union’s fourth-largest economy. But barring a surprise, he will fal...

Israeli military raid kills 2 Palestinians in West Bank. Israel says its troops came under fire

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

NOUR SHAMS REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Two Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military raid Sunday in the northern West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest bloodshed in a surge of violence during a sensitive Jewish holiday period.The Israeli military said it moved into the Nour Shams refugee camp, near the town of Tulkarem, to destroy what it described as a militant command center and bomb-storage facility in a building. It said that engineering units detonated a number of bombs planted under roads, and that militants opened fire and hurled explosives, as troops responded with live fire.The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men — Asid Abu Ali, 21, and Abdulrahman Abu Daghash, 32 — were killed by Israeli fire. The raid caused heavy damage to roads and the suspected building. Israel has been carrying out stepped-up military raids, primarily in the northern West Bank, for the past year and a half in what it says is a campaign to root out Palestinian milita...

Cal gives up 45 points in first half, routed 59-32 at Washington

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

If this was the last time Cal faces Washington on the football field, it will be remembered as one of the Bears’ worst experiences.Behind 14-0 before the No. 8 Huskies had even run an offensive play, Cal lost 59-32 in a game that was not that close at Husky Stadium on Saturday night.The Huskies (4-0) won their opener in their f givesinal Pac-12 season before moving to the Big Ten, and looked every bit a contender to not only win the conference title but challenge for a spot in the College Football Playoff.The Bears (2-2), who will move to the Atlantic Coast Conference next fall, looked entirely overmatched in their final Pac-12 opener. They trailed 45-12 at halftime, at which point they had surrendered as many points as they’d allowed in a full game since 2016.UW led 52-12 after the first series of the third quarter, threatening to make this the most one-sided defeat of the seven-year Justin Wilcox era. The Bears lost 35-0 at Utah in 2019 when they were forced by injury to use a thi...

Valley Christian topples Bellarmine in a WCAL football opener

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

SAN JOSE — Valley Christian’s defense has been very good so far this season.A micro example occurred on the first play Saturday of Valley’s game with Bellarmine. Middle linebacker Remy Hernandez sacked Bellarmine quarterback Parker Threatt for a 10-yard loss at the 5 and knocked the ball loose. A Bellarmine player managed to recover the fumble in the end zone for a safety, and so one play into the game Valley Christian had a 2-0 lead.Sort of an indication of what was to come as well as what has transpired thus far this season.After going 1-9 a year ago, the Warriors improved to 4-0 with a 23-7 victory over the Bells in a West Catholic Athletic League opener for both teams.“Last year 1-9, we’re hungry, we’re starving,” linebacker Lovante Metcalfe said.In those four games Valley Christian has allowed a combined total of 33 points, an average of just over 8 points per game.“I think people will see that we have really talented players,R...

Max Verstappen easily wins the F1 Japanese Grand Prix to edge closer to 2023 series title

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

SUZUKA, Japan (AP) — Runaway series leader Max Verstappen returned to dominant form on Sunday, winning the Japanese Grand Prix and moving a step closer to securing his third consecutive Formula One drivers’ championship.The Red Bull driver, who missed out on the podium a week ago in Singapore, started from pole and held on for his 13th win of the season.McLaren driver Lando Norris was second, 19.4 seconds back of Verstappen, while his teammate Australia rookie Oscar Piastri was third for his first F1 podium.With Verstappen’s win, Red Bull secured this year’s constructors’ title, their sixth overall and second in a row.Verstappen increased his lead over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to 177 points. He could wrap up his third consecutive title at the Oct. 6-9 Qatar Grand Prix.It was a disastrous day for Perez, who was given a penalty for hitting Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and retired from the race after serving the penalty.Verstappen saw his record 10-race winning streak come to end ...

No. 6 Ohio State squeezes past No. 9 Notre Dame on Trayanum’s last-second TD run

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:10 GMT

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Chip Trayanum plunged across the goal line from a yard out with 1 second left and No. 6 Ohio State beat No. 9 Notre Dame 17-14 on Saturday night.Trayanum’s score capped a gutty game-winning drive by Kyle McCord and the Buckeyes that included a fourth-down conversion and a third-and-19 completion that got Ohio State to the Notre Dame 1 with time for two plays.After an incomplete pass on second down, the Buckeyes went to a running play with 3 seconds left to take advantage of an overloaded defense to one side and what appeared to be only 10 defenders on the field for the Fighting Irish.Notre Dame (4-1) took the lead when Sam Hartman threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Rico Flores Jr. with 8:22 to go to make it 14-10. The Fighting Irish defense came up with a fourth-down stop on its 11-yard line on the next drive.But the defense couldn’t come up with a second stop. Notre Dame still hasn’t beaten Ohio State since 1936.NO. 1 GEORGIA 49, UAB 21ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Tight...