Sports : Thursday, 11/3/16

Winnebago Lutheran Boys Soccer begins play in the state tournament tonight. The Vikings will play Sheboygan Christian/Sheboygan Lutheran at 7pm tonight at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee. The winner faces either Phillips or Racine St. Catherine’s at 1:30 Saturday afternoon.

Women’s College Basketball: UW-Fond du Lac 88, UW-Rock County 51. Tiffani Anderson had 24 points for FDL, Taylor Dolske 17 points and 12 rebounds. Fond du Lac will host UW-Manitowoc next Wednesday.

The Packers returned to practice Wednesday to begin preparations for Sunday’s game against Indianapolis. After releasing Running Back Knile Davis on Monday, less than two weeks after trading for him, Head Coach Mike McCarthy was asked what that position looks like this week and said there are a lot of moving parts in that position. Ty Montgomery will get most of the work, despite suffering from an illness.  McCarthy added the Offensive Line’s play has allowed them to do what they’re doing.

Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner has resigned. He’s been replaced on an interim basis by Pat Shurmur. The Vikings announced the news on Wednesday, two days after their second consecutive defeat. They’ve scored only 10 points in each of those games. Coach Mike Zimmer told reporters he was caught off guard by the resignation and that he wasn’t looking to make any changes. The Vikings (5-2) host the Detroit Lions on Sunday

From Baseball: The drought is over in Chicago…  The Chicago Cubs have won their first World Series since 1908. They took game seven 8-7 in 10 innings in Cleveland last night. Chicago took 5-1 lead into the 5th, before Cleveland surged back, tying it in the 8th on Rajai Davis’ two-run home run. An RBI double by Ben Zobrist and an RBI single by Miguel Montero in the 10th gave the Cubs an 8-6 lead. The Indians scored one in the bottom of the 10th, but Cubs reliever Mike Montgomery closed the door on Cleveland. The Indians now hold the longest championship drought in baseball…going on 69 years without a title, dating back to 1948.

The Big Ten will play six Friday night football games a year starting in 2017 and continuing through at least 2022. Senior Associate Commissioner Mark Rudner says the games are being added as part of the conference’s new television agreements with ESPN/ABC and Fox. The six games will be spread over September and October and allow more Big Ten schools to get national exposure. The Big Ten already has had Friday night games on Labor Day weekend. Those games will continue and be counted among the six each year. Rudner said the conference expects to announce the 2017 Friday night schedule within the next week. Michigan and Penn State already have declined to host Friday night games on their campuses

Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez released a statement on the Friday night Big Ten games, saying “There has been a lot of dialogue within our conference about the feasibility of playing a very limited number of Friday night games. As a former high school and college coach, I have great respect for the tradition and importance of Friday night high school football in the state of Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest. “At Wisconsin, we are open to hosting games at Camp Randall on the Friday night prior to Labor Day weekend in selected years but have not committed to hosting Friday night games at any other time”.