Parting Shot: A Pitch for Sports - The Harvard Crimson

VICTORIA — Kerri Einarson called game. Trailing by two points coming home in the Co-op Invitational quarterfinals Saturday against Miyu Ueno, Einarson needed another one of her patented big shots to lift her team into the semis. Forget about the curveball, Kerri. Give 'em the heater. Einarson fired into the cluster and when the dust settled, it was a count of three points and a 6-5 victory for the crew from Gimli, Manitoba, as the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre erupted in applause. It was an impressive week for the two-time Japanese champion Ueno in her Karuizawa club's top-tier Grand Slam debut. Ueno, who upset Einarson 9-4 in the preliminary round, ousted Japan's Team Yuina Miura 9-7 in the tiebreakers earlier Saturday to advance to the playoffs. Einarson, who qualified for the No. 2 seed with a 3-1 record, opened with the hammer but couldn't convert, blanking the first and giving up a steal in the second. The teams alternated deuces in the third and fourth ends, and Einarson was forced to draw for a single in the fifth to tie it 3-3.

Not only are Brighton scoring more than everyone else in the Premier League, they are netting better goals too. Centre-half Lewis Dunk won the Premier League goal of the month for September with a 35-yard stunner against Coventry. Now, five weeks later, that has already been eclipsed. Step forward Seagulls team-mate Diego Gomez, who shot from the halfway line having seen Crystal Palace goalkeeper Walter Benitez off his line during Brighton's emphatic 5-0 win over their rivals on Sunday. Benitez made a rapid dash back to his goal and produced a desperate dive but could not stop the ball going in just under the crossbar. "As soon as he struck it, I knew it was in. He's taken the club goal of the season off me," joked Brighton skipper Dunk. "That's the goal of the season so far, what a hit," added former Premier League striker Efan Ekoku, part of the commentary team for BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra. "[It was] superbly struck and right over the head of the keeper from the centre-circle.