Ex-NHL Defenseman Degray Signs with Gulls

The Gulls signed former NHL defenseman Dale Degray to a two-year contract Thursday, making their second move for an experienced defender in less than a week and boosting their list of signed players to 12.

Degray, the fourth defenseman the Gulls have signed, first played in the NHL in 1986-87 with the Calgary Flames. The succeeding three years saw him with three clubs: the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Kings and the Buffalo Sabres. He played in Italy last season, after playing 152 NHL games in which he scored 18 goals and had 47 assists.

FOOTBALL

Three San Diego County high school football teams play their season openers tonight and a fourth Saturday night in Hawaii’s Shawn Akina Memorial Classic at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

Monte Vista (5-6 last year) plays Kaneohe Castle tonight at 6:30 PDT; Orange Glen (6-5-1) faces Honolulu Punahou at 9; and Morse (7-5) takes on Honolulu Kamehameha at 11:30. On Saturday, Lincoln (8-4) plays Kahuku at 8:30.

Last year in this tournament, Morse defeated Hawaii Farrington, 41-15, and Monte Vista lost to Punahou, 28-9.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

San Diego State guard Falisha Wright had five points and two rebounds in the USA Junior National Team’s 106-54 victory over Puerto Rico in the COPABA qualifying tournament. The USA is 3-0 and will face Cuba in the semifinals Saturday. Wright averaged 15.8 points and had 71 steals for the Aztecs as a freshman last season.

TENNIS

Angelica Gavaldon of Mexico, a former San Diego Section champion at Our Lady of Peace, upset 11th-seeded Francesca Romano of Italy, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, in the first round of the U.S. Open qualifying tournament at Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Todd Nelson of San Diego advanced in the men’s tournament, defeating Michael Daniel of Israel, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8).

GOLF

Three local players advanced to the rain-shortened match play round, and five others failed to make the cut after the second round of the 92nd U.S. Amateur Championship in Dublin, Ohio.

Manny Zerman, a two-time runner-up from San Diego, had a two-day total of 141 and trailed leader David Duval of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., by five strokes. Neither player could complete his match-play round at Muirfield Village Golf Club on Thursday because of lightning and heavy rain in the Ohio Valley.

The other qualifiers were Craig Anderson of Fallbrook (147), who was able to complete his match-play round and defeated Jay Davis of Jacksonville, Ill., 3 and 2, and Todd Andrews of Solana Beach (148). Zerman was 1-up through eight holes against Matt Robbins of Alpharetta, Ga., in match play.

Those who failed to advance were Marcus Meloan of San Diego (149), Todd Demsey of Rancho Santa Fe (151), Tom Kroll of Carlsbad (152), Robert Knee of La Jolla (156) and Chris Riley of San Diego (159).

Ray Knowles of La Jolla lost to eventual runner-up Kai Thomsen of Reno, Nev., in the quarterfinals of the 33rd World Seniors in Colorado Springs, Colo. Knowles lost in 19 holes against Thomsen in the match-play event at the Broadmoor Golf Club.

AMINISTRATION

Richard A. Hill, 57, a former cross country and track and field coach at SDSU for nine years, was named director of athletics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He left his post as senior associate director of athletics at Louisville.

BOXING

Juan Cruz of San Diego captured the over-201-pounds division with a 5-0 decision over Murray Mustin of Tacoma, Wash., in the U.S. Junior Olympic Box-off championships at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.