Sports Headlines-Venom Battle Revolution in CIF Playoff Showdown

The Amarillo Venom football team is just one win away from playing in their second straight CIF championship game. 

The Amarillo Venom and Texas Revolution have met three times this season and all have been very close. The Venom won the first meeting in Allen 70-63 before losing in Allen in a 96-95 thriller. The Revolution then came to Amarillo and beat the Venom 68-61 a few weeks ago.  Amarillo is 10-3 overall while Texas is 9-4 on the season.

The winner of tonight’s game will take on the Omaha Beef in the championship. Omaha defeated the Souix City Bandits on Saturday 55-45.

- The CIF has announced the All-Conference teams for the League.  Venom players making the first team South Division include Nate Davis at QB, Cameron Edwards at Center and Jacob Felton at placekicker. Second team members include Receiver Cedric Gilbert, Terry Banks Jr. at Center, and defensive back Donnie Duncan.

- There were a couple of big coaching moves over the weekend…

After his team won the D-II national title a few weeks ago, West Texas A&M track and field head coach Darren Flowers has landed a D-I job at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, according to a story in the Amarillo Globe News.

The Amarillo Bulls have announced that former Bulls Assistant head coach Rocky Russo has been named the team’s new head coach. Russo last coached with the team when they won the Robertson Cup in 2012-13.

- Both Houston and Texas ended weekend series with a loss yesterday. The Astros fell to the Red Sox 6-5 and end up losing two of three at home to Boston. The Astros go on the road tonight at Oakland.

The Texas Rangers failed in their attempt at a sweep over Seattle as the Mariners won yesterday 7-3.  After taking two of three in the series, the Rangers open a home series tonight against the Toronto Blue Jays.

- The higher-seeded teams went 4-0 to begin the College World Series. Oregon State and LSU each scored comeback wins on Saturday, while Louisville and Florida took down their opponents on Sunday.

The Cardinal took Sunday's first game 8-4 over Texas A&M.  Florida then won the nightcap 3-0 over TCU.

Today’s action starts with a 1 p.m. CT elimination game between Florida State and Cal State Fullerton. Then at 6 p.m. the teams with the two longest active win streaks meet with Oregon State taking on LSU in the winners' bracket.

An elimination game between Cal State Fullerton and Florida State starts things off this afternoon before Oregon State and LSU battle for a spot in the Bracket 1 finals tonight.

- 27-year-old American Brooks Koepka who had to leave his home country and join Europe's minor-league tour to get his career going, won the U.S. Open yesterday. The wind kicked up in the final round, but it didn't faze Koepka. He shot 5-under par and made only one bogey to finish at 16-under 272. That was four shots clear of Hideki Matsuyama and Brian Harman. The only drama at the end was whether he'd make birdie on the par-5 18th to break Rory McIlroy's scoring record in relation to par.

- Kyle Larson took control on a restart with five laps remaining and held off Chase Elliott on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway for his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season. The finish was similar to the race at Michigan last August, when Larson took the lead on a restart with nine laps left en route to his first Cup win.