HOCKEY

Michael McNicholas finished off a pass from Greg Chase just 3:16 into the game, and Marc-Olivier Crevier-Morin added a goal late in the first as the Maine Mariners took a two-goal lead and earned a 4-1 ECHL win over the Worcester Railers at Cross Insurance Arena Tuesday.

Ryan Culkin and Dillan Fox added third-period goals for the Mariners (25-19-1).

Drew Calvin had the only goal in the third for Worcester who fall to 17-28-2.

GOLF

USGA: Golfers at all levels keep hitting the ball farther, and the game’s governing bodies plan to do something about it by going after the one area they can control — equipment. The USGA and the R&A on Tuesday released their “Distance Insights Project,” which revealed a steady increase in distance for more than 100 years – with average gains of about 30 yards by PGA Tour players in the last 25 years – and golf courses that keep expanding.

“We believe this continuing cycle of courses increasing in length is a cycle we want to break,” said Mike Davis, chief executive of the USGA.

The report attributes the distance gains to modern clubs and golf balls, improved athleticism and training, swing techniques geared toward hitting it longer and course conditions with tightly mowed fairways that allow for extra roll.

FOOTBALL

NFL: The Los Angeles Chargers confirmed Tuesday that Coach Anthony Lynn has signed an extension.

Lynn has a 27-24 mark in three seasons, including 1-1 in the postseason. He led the Chargers to the playoffs in 2018 but they fell to 5-11 this season. He was going into the upcoming season on the final year of his original contract, but both sides had previously said they were confident something would be worked out.

Shane Steichen will remain the offensive coordinator after taking over midway through the season.

• The NFL suspended Jacksonville defensive tackle Carl Davis without pay for the first four games of the regular season for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.

Davis’ contract is set to expire when the new league calendar begins in March, and it’s unlikely the Jaguars will re-sign him. The 6-foot-5, 320-pound defender played in three games in 2019, including two for Jacksonville and one for Indianapolis.

• Jacksonville hired former San Francisco general manager Trent Baalke as its director of player personnel.

• Willie Wood, the Hall of Fame defensive back who won five NFL championships with the Green Bay Packers under Coach Vince Lombardi and made the first interception in Super Bowl history, died Monday. He was 83.

COLLEGE: Mark Dantonio leaves Michigan State fans with an abundance of fond memories after bringing the Spartans to heights they hadn’t reached in decades. Dantonio announced his retirement Tuesday, ending a 13-year run in which his teams won three Big Ten titles and he became the school’s winningest coach. The 63-year-old Dantonio called his decision a difficult one while noting the nonstop demands of the job.

Dantonio went 114-57 as Michigan State’s coach and won Big Ten titles in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

SOCCER

U.S. WOMEN: Christen Press and Samantha Mewis each scored a pair of goals and the United States beat Costa Rica 6-0 late Monday night to finish atop its group in the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament.

The World Cup-winning U.S. team extended its unbeaten streak to 26 games. The Americans wrapped up the group stage with three shutouts and 18 goals.

RONADLO: A legal fight by soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo against a Nevada woman who wants more than the $375,000 she received in a rape case hush-money settlement in 2010 should be decided by an arbitrator, not in a courtroom, a U.S. magistrate judge said Tuesday.

Kathryn Mayorga, a former teacher and model who lives in the Las Vegas area, claims in a lawsuit that Ronaldo or his associates violated the confidential settlement by allowing reports of it to appear in European publications in 2017.

Mayorga met Ronaldo at a nightclub in 2009 and went with him and other people to his hotel suite where she alleges he assaulted her in a bedroom, according to her lawsuit.

Ronaldo, through his lawyers, maintains the sex was consensual.

ENGLISH LEAGUE: Wayne Rooney is set for a reunion with Manchester United after the former England captain scored for his new team, Derby County, in its 4-2 win over Northampton in a replay.

Second-tier Derby advanced to a home game against Man United, where Rooney spent 13 years and became the club’s all-time top scorer while winning five Premier League titles, the Champions League in 2008 and the FA Cup in 2016.

OLYMPICS

RACEWALK: A group of female race walkers aiming for Olympic gender equality by having a 50-kilometer event added to the 2020 Tokyo Games have failed in their legal case.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Tuesday it has no jurisdiction to hear the athletes’ appeal. No reasons were given for the process being terminated. Eight race walkers, led by 2017 world champion Inês Henriques, had challenged World Athletics and the International Olympic Committee at the highest court in world sports.

The 50K walk is the only men’s medal event on the Olympic track and field program with no female equivalent.

RUSSIA DOPING: Seeking more scrutiny for a blockbuster case, the World Anti-Doping Agency wants a rare public hearing when sport’s highest court judges a four-year slate of punishments faced by Russia for persistent cheating.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport is preparing a hearing expected within weeks in Switzerland.

The court said on Tuesday it would ask Russian officials from the anti-doping agency known as RUSADA for their consent. Both parties in a case must agree before media can be invited in and proceedings are streamed online.

“If a consensus exists in favor of a public hearing, CAS will almost certainly validate that choice,” the court’s secretary general, Matthieu Reeb, said in a statement.

– Staff and news services