Canadian surfer finishes ninth in El Salvador after close round-of-16 battle

Canadian Erin Brooks finished ninth at the Surf City El Salvador Pro on Saturday after being edged out by American Bella Kenworthy in a tight round-of-16 battle.

It was a battle of teenage rookies on the World Surf League’s elite Championship Tour.

Brooks is 17 while Kenworthy, a former elite skateboarder whose father is well-known surf photographer Jason Kenworthy, is 18.

It was a back-and-forth heat, with both surfers looking to put together the highest-scoring pair of waves. A 7.00 moved Brooks ahead with a combined 11.77 score but Kenworthy answered with a 5.83 that, combined with an earlier score of 6.33, put her in the lead at 12.16.

Brooks then ran out of time to catch her. Kenworthy moved on to face American Gabriela Bryan in quarterfinal action.

The event is the fourth stop of the season on the Championship Tour.

Brooks came to El Salvador sixth in the standings after finishing third last time out at the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal in March, fifth at the Surf Abu Dhabi Pro and ninth in the season-opening Lexus Pipe Pro in Hawaii.

Brooks became the first Canadian to earn full-time status on the Championship Tour by finishing in the top five of the second-tier Challenger Series last year. She won in her only previous appearance on the Championship Tour as a wild card, defeating Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil last August in the final of the Fiji Pro.

After El Salvador, the tour shifts to Australia (for three straight events), the United States, Brazil, South Africa and Tahiti before closing with the WSL Finals in Fiji from Aug. 27 to Sept. 4.

The season opened with 18 competitors on the women’s side — the top 10 finishers from the 2024 Championship Tour, the top five from the 2024 Challenger Series, two WSL season wild cards and one event wild card. The field will be cut to 12 after seven events and then five for the season-ending WSL Finals.

The 36-competitor men’s field will be reduced to 24 at the midseason cut and then five ahead of Fiji.

The winning prize money ranges from $80,000 (all figures in U.S dollars) in the season opener to $100,000 after the midseason cut and $200,000 for the WSL Finals.

Brooks started surfing at nine when her family moved to Hawaii from Texas. She has Canadian ties through her American-born father Jeff, who is a dual American-Canadian citizen, and her grandfather who was born and raised in Montreal

Brooks gained her Canadian citizenship last year after a lengthy legal battle that limited her Olympic qualifying opportunities to the ISA World Surfing Games last March in Puerto Rico. Brooks, whose family also has a home in Tofino, B.C., fell short and had to watch the Olympic surfing competition in Tahiti from afar.

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Canadiens sign goalie Jacob Fowler to entry-level contract

Jacob Fowler is starting his professional career.

The Montreal Canadiens have signed the goaltender to a three-year, entry-level contract, which is set to begin next season, the team announced Friday morning.

The deal was first reported by Jimmy Murphy of The Sick Podcast on Thursday and was later confirmed by Sportsnet’s Eric Engels.

The 20-year-old will be joining the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket, for the remainder of this season on an amateur tryout.

Fowler, from Melbourne, Fla., was selected by the Canadiens in the third round (69th overall) of the 2023 NHL Draft.

He spent the past two seasons playing for Boston College in the NCAA. Across 35 games in 2023-24, Fowler recorded a 25-7-2 record, a 1.63 goals-against average, and a .940 save percentage.

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Whitecaps settle for draw with Pumas UNAM in Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal

The Vancouver Whitecaps conceded a late goal and had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Pumas UNAM on Wednesday in the opening game of their CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal.

Striker Brian White gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead in the 71st minute but Pumas midfielder Adalberto Carrasquilla tied the match in the 87th minute.

The Whitecaps had pressed the Mexican powerhouse Pumas all match, coming close on several occasions.

Midfielder Sebastian Berhalter set up the Vancouver goal off a corner kick. The ball sailed into the box setting off a scramble among several players before White finally directed it into the net.

It was White’s fifth goal across all competitions this season. He is tied for the Championships Cup scoring with four goals.

Pumas evened the score off a corner kick by midfield Leonardo Suarez. Carrasquilla gained control of the ball and blasted a shot past Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka.

Forward Emmanuel Sabbi came close to winning it for Vancouver in extra time. His header from in the box was stopped by the Pumas goalkeeper, then the ball hit the post and rolled out of danger.

A vocal contingent of Pumas fans was among the crowd of 12,356 at BC Place Stadium. They chanted and waved flags for the team which plays in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football.

The second half of the match saw a problem with the lighting at BC Place. Several times the lights flickered and dimmed. Twice the pitch was plunged into darkness. The power returned and the game continued.

The second game of the series will be played Wednesday at the 72,000-seat Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City.

The winner will move on to face MLS rivals Los Angeles FC or Inter Miami CF in the semifinals.

The Whitecaps, who lead the Western Conference of Major League Soccer with a 4-1-1 record, controlled much of the play in the scoreless first half.

Vancouver had a chance just four minutes into the match when Berhalter fired a shot from the box that just went wide of the post. In the 38th minute defender Tristan Blackmon blasted a shot from distance that a diving Pumas goalkeeper Alex Padilla deflected wide.

A miscue almost proved costly for Pumas early in the second half. Defender Alfonso Moroy attempted to head a ball back to Padilla. The goalkeeper mishandled the ball but regained control before a Whitecap could pounce.

In the 63rd minute, Vancouver midfielder Edier Ocampo got behind the Pumas defence but lifted a shot over top of the goal.

Pumas finally tested Takaoka in the 65th minute. Defender Jose Caicedo had a long shot that was stopped by a diving Takaoka.

Vancouver played the match with five players injured, including captain Ryan Gauld, who is out with a knee injury.

The Whitecaps advanced to the quarterfinals with a victory over CF Monterrey, winning the two-game aggregate series 3-3 on away goals. It was the first time the Whitecaps advanced past a Mexican club in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

This marks the first time since 2023 that Vancouver reached the quarterfinals stage of the tournament and the second time overall, having reached the semifinals back in 2017.

The CONCACAF Champions Cup features the best teams from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean to crown a regional champion, and to qualify for the next FIFA Club World Cup.

NOTES: The Whitecaps return to MLS play Saturday when they host Austin FC. … Pumas head coach Efrain Juarez played for the Whitecaps in 2018. … Pumas have won seven Liga MX titles, three CONCACACF Champions Cups and a Copa Interamericana. … In the 2024 Leagues Cup Round of 32 the Pumas defeated Vancouver 2-0 at BC Place in the first ever meeting between the two clubs. … Besides Gauld, the other injured Whitecaps are fullback Sam Adekugbe (quad strain), midfielder Andres Cubas (dislocated shoulder), defender Mathias Laborda (hamstring) and centre back Bjorn Inge Utvik (quad contusion).

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Red Sox sign 2B Kristian Campbell to eight-year, $60M extension

BALTIMORE — Kristian Campbell agreed to a $60 million, eight-year contract with the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday, less than a week after his major league debut.

Campbell agreed to the deal with just six days of major league service time. Boston struck a big-money deal with a rookie for the second straight year following a $50 million, eight-year contract last April with outfielder/infielder Ceddanne Rafaela, who started 2024 with 35 days of service.

“I know we have a really good team and a really good system,” Campbell said. “It’s a winning culture, a winning organization. … Winning people, in the city of Boston. That made the decision fairly easy.”

Campbell gets a $2 million signing bonus, half payable within 60 days of the contract’s approval by Major League Baseball and half next Jan. 15. He receives salaries of $1 million this year, $2 million in 2026, $3 million in 2027, $4 million in 2028, $6 million in 2029, $9 million in 2030, $13 million in 2031 and $16 million in 2032. The deal includes a $19 million team option for 2033 with a $4 million buyout and a $21 million team option for 2034 with no buyout.

Salaries for 2031-34 can escalate based on accomplishment in the immediately preceding season: $200,000 for making the All-Star team, $2 million for winning an MVP award, $1 million for finishing second or third in the voting, $500,000 for fourth or fifth, and $250,000 for sixth through 10th.

A 22-year-old infielder and outfielder, Campbell made his big league debut March 27 as Boston’s youngest opening day starter at second since Reggie Smith. He entered Wednesday hitting .375 (6 for 16) with two doubles, one homer, two RBIs and four walks.

“They developed me from day one, as soon as I got drafted. They’ve been working with me every day,” Campbell said. “I’ve learned something new every day. They’ve helped me become the player I am today. So it means a lot to me that I’m with the Red Sox for a long time.”

Campbell’s new deal supersedes a one-year contract paying the $760,000 minimum while in the major leagues.

“I’ve just got to worry about baseball now. Everything that’s happened is life-changing for sure,” he said. “I’m looking forward to just playing baseball now, winning games.”

Campbell’s contract comes the same week the Red Sox agreed to a $170 million, six-year contract with ace left-hander Garrett Crochet, whom Boston acquired in an offseason trade from the Chicago White Sox.

“We’re building something really good,” Campbell said. “We have a lot of great players. … Going in the right direction for sure.”

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Flames sign Aydar Suniev to three-year, entry-level contract

The Calgary Flames have locked down scoring forward Aydar Suniev.

Calgary announced Wednesday that it signed the left-shot winger to a three-year, entry-level deal with an $923,333 average annual value.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Suniev will report to the Flames, burning the first year of his deal this season.

Suniev, 20, was drafted by the Flames in the third round of the 2023 NHL Draft. He spent the last two seasons playing with the University of Massachusetts. In 2024-25, he scored 20 goals and totalled 38 points over 35 games.

UMass was eliminated from the NCAA Hockey Championship tournament in a 2-1 loss to Western Michigan University on Saturday.

Before heading to the college ranks, the Russian-born Suniev played two seasons with the British Columbia Hockey League’s Penticton Vees.

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LIV CEO says deal with PGA Tour not necessary, but can work

DORAL, Fla. — LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said Wednesday that he has not been directly involved with reunification talks between his tour and the PGA Tour since taking his job three months ago, adding that he doesn’t believe such a deal is absolutely necessary.

Those negotiations involving the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia have gone on for more than a year now, some of them even with President Donald Trump involved. At times, progress seems to be happening. Other times, not so much.

“If the deal can help grow the game of golf, I’ll jump in with two feet,” O’Neil said at Trump National Doral, the president’s course where LIV will play this weekend — and where Trump is expected to appear, possibly as early as Thursday. “Do we have to do a deal? No. Is it nice to do a deal? So long as we’re all focused on the same thing, to grow the game of golf.”

What that means remains unclear, and likely is one of the reasons why there is no deal yet.

The divide in golf has been there for nearly three years now since LIV got off the ground. LIV players such as Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka are banned from playing on the PGA Tour. That means the world’s top players are competing against one another only four times a year at the majors.

“I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret,” Koepka said. “No matter where you’re at, you always hope everything is further along. But they’re making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction.”

Earlier this year, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan made clear that he still thinks a deal is possible.

“We believe there’s room to integrate important aspects of LIV Golf into the PGA Tour platform,” Monahan said last month. “We’re doing everything that we can to bring the two sides together.”

Monahan has said that the priority of the meetings with PIF was about reuniting all the best players more often. “Our team is fully committed to reunification,” Monahan said.

O’Neil and Monahan know each other, and O’Neil has been invited to Augusta National for the Masters next week.

O’Neil said in an interview session with a handful of reporters that he’s encouraged by what he’s seen in his first three months at LIV. The players, he said, are much more competitive even off the course than he envisioned. He said more sponsor deals are done and waiting to be announced. He insisted that ratings will improve now that LIV is playing in North America and not during what was the middle of the night for much of the U.S. for the season’s first four stops — Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

“We don’t know everything that’s going on, but from what we’ve heard, there’s a lot of positive growth and positive momentum from a sponsorship side,” DeChambeau said.

O’Neil also pointed to what he says are ways LIV is growing the game, citing that 30 per cent of its fans have never been to a golf tournament before and 40 per cent of the crowd is female.

“We’re a global sport. We’re (Formula 1) of golf. F1, I imagine, has more people watching in (Asia-Pacific) when they’re in Singapore than they do when they’re in Miami,” O’Neil said. “I like where we are. I like it a lot.”

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