Jerry Sandusky says he never spoke with Joe Paterno about suspected misconduct

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky said he never spoke with Joe Paterno about any suspected misconduct with minors, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years and is free on bail while awaiting a preliminary hearing Dec. 13. A grand jury investigating Sandusky said in a report that some of the allegations occurred in the team showers, including a 2002 allegation in which a graduate assistant coach testified he saw Sandusky assaulting a young boy.

University trustees fired Paterno on Nov. 9, four days after charges were filed against Sandusky, amid mounting pressure that school leaders should have done more to prevent alleged abuse.

During a lengthy interview with the New York Times at his lawyer’s home, Sandusky painted a picture of chaotic but friendly scenes involving children he described as extended family at his State College, Pa., home. The descriptions sharply contrast with the allegations involving children outlined in a grand jury report.

Sandusky told the newspaper that he and Paterno never spoke about the alleged 2002 incident or a 1998 child molestation complaint investigated by Penn State campus police.

“I never talked to him about either one,” Sandusky said. “That’s all I can say. I mean, I don’t know.” He worked for Paterno for nearly 30 years.

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Two weeks after vilifying two former ball boys who accused his longtime assistant of child molestation, Syracuse men’s basketball Coach Jim Boeheim said he will campaign against child abuse even though he knows his motives will be questioned.

“We believed in helping kids long before this. I’m sure people are always going to question why you do something, but we’re going to do this and continue to do it,” Boeheim said Saturday in a phone interview with the Associated Press. “We don’t do it for what people might say.”

The comments came a day after a postgame news conference in which Boeheim apologized for initially disparaging the men who accused Bernie Fine of molesting them as minors. Fine has denied the allegations.

A few people had called on Boeheim to resign or be fired when the accusations first surfaced, and he was criticized as callous for saying the accusations were lies motivated by money.

ETC.

Beckham leads Galaxy to exhibition win

David Beckham scored the opening goal in the Galaxy’s 6-1 win over the Philippine national team in an exhibition at Manila, Philippines, that was part of the MLS champions’ Asian tour.

Beckham gave the Galaxy the lead with a curling shot in the 20th minute, and Mike Magee scored off an assist from Landon Donovan to make it 2-0. Adam Cristman scored two goals in the second half, and Robby Keane and Greg Belhalter had one apiece.

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Argentina’s David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank, partnering for the first time, eased to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 doubles victory over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez, cutting Spain’s lead in the Davis Cup final at Seville, Spain, to 2-1.

Rafael Nadal, unbeaten on clay in 16 Davis Cup matches, faces Juan Martin del Potro in a singles match Sunday that could decide the title.

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Defending champion Lee Westwood shot 10-under-par 62 and took a seven-shot lead in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City, South Africa. Westwood made 10 birdies and was at 16-under 200.

The Englishman picked up eight shots on overnight leader Graeme McDowell (70), who shared second at nine under with Robert Karlsson (69).

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Lindsey Vonn won a World Cup downhill for the second day in a row at Lake Louise, Canada. The American superstar also won the downhill Friday. On Saturday, Vonn finished in 1 minute 51.35 seconds, beating Marie Marchand-Arvier of France and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria.

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Sandro Viletta of Switzerland earned his first World Cup win by charging down a challenging super-G course at Beaver Creek, Colo. Viletta, who started 30th, finished in 1:18.71, beating Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway by 0.20 seconds. Bode Miller’s hard-charging style led to an early mistake and he needed an acrobatic recovery just to stay on course. He finished 21st.

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American teenager Sarah Hendrickson won the first women’s World Cup ski jump on the same hill used by the men in the 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway.

Hendrickson, a 17-year-old from Park City, Utah, jumped 951/2 meters and finished with 277 points. Coline Mattel of France had 247.7 and Melanie Faisst of Germany was third in a field of nearly 50 women from 15 countries.

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Kikkan Randall of the United States and Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway won cross-country skiing World Cup sprint races at Duesseldorf, Germany. Randall took the women’s event in 1 minute 44.6 seconds, and Hattestad won the men’s event in 2:57.

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World No. 1 Anna Tunnicliffe of the United States and her crew won all three of their first-day races in women’s match-racing at the world sailing championships in Fremantle, Australia.

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Wladimir Klitschko’s promoter Bernd Boente said the WBA and IBF heavyweight champion is recovering well after undergoing an operation Saturday in Germany to remove a kidney stone.

Klitschko is scheduled to fight French challenger Jean-Marc Mormeck in Duesseldorf next Saturday. Boente said the match will take place as long as there are no complications.

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Reed Williams scored in the 102nd minute, giving the UCLA men’s soccer team a 1-0 win over host Louisville in an NCAA tournament quarterfinal game. The 13th-seeded Bruins (18-4-1) will face No. 1-seeded North Carolina in a national semifinal Friday at Hoover, Ala.

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The top-seeded USC men’s water polo team put itself in position to make history with a 17-4 semifinal win against Princeton at the NCAA championships in Berkeley. The Trojans can become the first team to win four consecutive NCAA men’s water polo titles Sunday when they face UCLA. The No. 2-seeded Bruins advanced to the final with a 10-1 victory against UC San Diego in the other semifinal.