Long Beach Jordan boys soccer is going back to CIF Southe Section Division 2 semifinals for the second straight year after coming back on the road to beat Century, 2-1, in Friday’s quarterfinal round. After falling behind in the 10th minute to a wonder strike from outside the 18-yard box, the Panthe...

It wasn’t pretty or easy, but the Long Beach Poly boys basketball team came out on top in a CIF-SS Division 1AA semifinal against Rancho Verde on Friday night. The Jackrabbits won a low-scoring nailbiter, 47-44. Poly advanced to the 1AA championship game, which will be played next Friday or Saturday...

Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish is close to getting back on a full-size mound for the first time in nearly a year after elbow surgery. That could come in his next bullpen session after throwing off a half-mound Friday for the third time in five days. “Another really good day,” new pitching coach Doug B...

HAMPTON, Ga. >> Kyle Busch’s car failed a post-qualifying inspection on Friday, leaving him at the back of the pack instead of on the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race. The ruling leaves brother Kurt Busch as the pole wi er at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch ran strong through all three el...

The bond strengthened when Kobe Bryant and Matt Ba es talked trash to each other. The co ection deepened when Ba es then pretended to inbound the ball toward Bryant. But then something happened that personified Bryant’s toughness. “I didn’t realize how close the ball was to his face. But it’s crazy ...

Long Beach Jordan boys soccer is going back to CIF Southe Section Division 2 semifinals for the second straight year after coming back on the road to beat Century, 2-1, in Friday’s quarterfinal round. After falling behind in the 10th minute to a wonder strike from outside the 18-yard box, the Panthe...

Left wing Andrew Ladd is off the market, traded Thursday from the Wi ipeg Jets to the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. Left wing Mikkel Boedker of the Arizona Coyotes and right wing Loui Eriksson of the Boston Bruins could be available, though. Ducks general manager Bob Murray woul...

One high school. Three coaches. Ninety-eight years on the job. One win shy of 2,000. Nowadays, longevity isn’t synonymous with high school coaching. That’s not the case at Millikan High School, where girls basketball coach Lorene Morgan, boys soccer coach Rod Petkovic and wrestling coach Marshall Th...

INDIANAPOLIS — If Myles Jack ever wondered how thoroughly the NFL would evaluate the right knee he injured three games into his junior year at UCLA, the answer hit him harder than a pulling guard when he met with the league’s medical staff Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine. “They were pretty blunt,...

It took a little while to get things figured out — not to mention a late-season coaching change at offensive coordinator in 2015 — but Rams wide receiver Tavon Austin appears on track for a breakout season in 2016. In Austin’s third year with the Rams last season, the former eighth pick overall from...

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Yasiel Puig was cleared to practice with the Dodgers on Friday, three days after the outfielder had his two left wisdom teeth removed. Puig, 25, reported early to camp this year. Friday, he said the procedure wasn’t an emergency. Rather, his dentist merely advised him to get the pr...

Wasn’t it Sam Cooke who first admitted: Don’t know what a slide rule is for? Chase Utley might not know much about the history of breaking up a double play in baseball. Or know much about the geography of the “neighborhood play” at second base. But try explaining the science, algebra and trigonometr...

INDIANAPOLIS — The Rams arrived in Indianapolis with a litany of things to do this offseason. They won’t leave here with any tangible evidence they got anything done — short of closing a deal on one of the handful of unrestricted free agents they hope to retain — but by the end of Saturday they migh...

One high school. Three coaches. Ninety-eight years on the job. One win shy of 2,000. Nowadays, longevity isn’t synonymous with high school coaching. That’s not the case at Long Beach Millikan High School, where girls’ basketball coach Lorene Morgan, boys’ soccer coach Rod Petkovic and wrestling coac...

Kiko Martinez was stopped in the second round by super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg in July in Quigg’s native England. With that, one might have thought Martinez — a former super bantamweight champion from Spain — might be hard-pressed to get another shot at another major belt. At least not for...

The most high-profile rivalry in English soccer will be played out in European competition for the first time after Manchester United and Liverpool were drawn against each other in the Europa League on Friday. “You can ask my staff — when they asked me yesterday, ‘Who do you want?’ I said ‘Mancheste...

Kings 2, Edmonton 1, the mo ing after: • Co or McDavid did not leave a mark on the Staples Center scoreboard in his 17 minutes Thursday night, but the Edmonton rookie was in Jonathan Quick’s windshield all night. He was given credit for two shots on goal, and with five seconds left he whirled and th...

LONG BEACH >> The CIF Southe Section Division 7 girls soccer quarterfinal at Clark Field was very familiar for the St. Anthony Saints. However, it was also very foreign for Saints goalkeeper Cassandra Campbell. The senior was a defender for her whole playing career, but volunteered last month to ste...

JJ Fiddler is a sportswriter and videographer who has been covering the Long Beach-area sports world for multiple newspapers since 2004. After attending Long Beach State and creating the first full sports page at the Union Weekly Newspaper, he adopted Long Beach as his home town and is a member of t...

Game Report Key play: Dwight King scored the go-ahead goal after setting up Jeff Carter’s tying strike in the third period as the Kings rallied for a 2-1 victory Thursday over the Edmonton Oilers at Staples Center. King redirected Carter’s perimeter shot for the tiebreaking goal at 14:10 of the fina...