Orange County scores and player stats for Tuesday, Oct. 10

• October 11, 2023

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Scores and stats from Orange County games on Tuesday, Oct. 10

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TUESDAY’S SCORES

BOYS WATER POLO

GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE

Rancho Alamitos 20, Bolsa Grande 5

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Irvine 15, Woodbridge 6

Beckman 11, Laguna Hills 6

NONLEAGUE

Fullerton 11, Valencia 8

GIRLS GOLF

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Westminster 265, Orange 309

GIRLS TENNIS

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Portola 14, Northwood 4

WAVE LEAGUE

Laguna Beach 17, Marina 1

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Valencia 16, Kennedy 2

605 LEAGUE

Oxford Academy 18, Pioneer 0

​ Orange County Register 

WNBA Finals: Jackie Young’s all-around game is key for Aces

• October 11, 2023

By W.G. RAMIREZ The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young has made tremendous strides in her five years as a pro since going No. 1 in the 2019 draft.

As a rookie out of Notre Dame, she was a dynamic and predictable drive-to-her-right, mid-range specialist. She averaged 9.7 points per game over her first three seasons and improved progressively each year under then-Coach Bill Laimbeer.

But when Becky Hammon arrived, and assistant Tyler Marsh was added to the coaching staff, little did Young know her game was about to take a long-range turn.

She went from being a 28.6% shooter from 3-point range to 44.3% the past two seasons.

“A lot of hard work, just trying to get better each offseason,” Young said after scoring 26 points in a Game 1 victory over the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals on Sunday. “Spent a lot of time in the gym working on my game, but I have to give a lot of credit to Tyler. I mean, whenever he came here that really changed my game – my career really.

“The most obvious one was shooting 3s. I was able to tweak my shot a little bit last year and it’s made the biggest difference.”

In Las Vegas’ 99-82 series-opening win, Young shot 9 for 15 (60%) from the field, including 5 for 8 (62.5%) from behind the arc. It marked the 15th time she’s shot 60% or better from the floor in a game, and the 11th time from 3-point range.

After Hammon told Marsh what she envisioned, Young became his first project.

With physical attributes, athleticism and a strong work ethic already in place, he immediately went to work on her shooting.

“From a skills standpoint, that’s more of the realm we paid attention to,” Marsh said. “With her mentality and mindset in place, we wanted to make her as efficient as possible. We spent countless hours in the gym, created a plan, worked on her form shooting, getting her shot off quicker and doing it so she didn’t feel uncomfortable.

“She just trusted me, Becky’s vision, and the work we put in, all of which helped establish a relationship moving forward.”

It goes beyond her offense, though, as Hammon and star A’ja Wilson pointed out. Young held New York sharpshooter and reigning 3-point champion Sabrina Ionescu to just seven points on 2-of-7 shooting, including 1 for 5 from behind the arc in Game 1.

“Jackie is just scratching the surface of how great she can be,” Hammon said. “She does so many things that help you win the game. She’s just one of those people that just keeps her nose to the ground. She’s a great decision-maker. She’s a big strong guard that has defense first … if you go back and you look at our games, go see what cuffs she put on, I can only remember maybe four or five times where a perimeter player got off on her. Out of 40 games, I’ll take that.”

Young’s growth in her five years as a professional has garnered a reputation of being a relentless two-way player, while also earning her a pair of All-Star nominations and the WNBA 2022 Most Improved Player award.

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Her opponents know what she’s capable of.

“Obviously she’s scoring on different levels, being able to shoot (from 3-point range), being able to get downhill … a player that can affect the game in different ways and she plays aggressively and is able to score on multiple levels,” Liberty forward and former league MVP Jonquel Jones said.

As for the shy demeanor that is generally exemplified by a quick smirk when her teammates are fired up in her face after she’s electrified 10,000-plus frenzied Aces fans, Wilson said she’s working on it.

“I’m going to make sure that I am pulling that confidence out of her,” Wilson said. “Because Jackie is a little shy. She likes to beat around bushes, but I’m like, ‘Absolutely not. That’s not you. I know you have it in you.’

“And I love pulling it out of her because when you see that, you get the best Jackie.”

WNBA FINALS, Game 2

Who: New York Liberty at Las Vegas Aces

Where: Michelob ULTRA Arena, Las Vegas

When: Wednesday, 6 p.m.

TV: ESPN

​ Orange County Register 

Season preview: Kings look to take bigger strides

• October 11, 2023

EL SEGUNDO –– The glistening silver in the Kings’ uniform may be a perfect match for the gleaming chalice that every hockey player covets, but if they want to quaff the bubbly from Lord Stanley’s Cup, they’ll have to do more than just look the part this season.

Todd McLellan returns to his position behind the bench along with lead assistants Trent Yawney and Jim Hiller. Together they led the Kings to a 104-point campaign in 2022-23, the second-highest total in franchise history, but also a second consecutive first-round exit in the playoffs. In the front office, former Kings defenseman Rob Blake remains at the helm as general manager, with each of his past three offseasons growing more ambitious and more audacious.

Here are four keys to the Kings’ season, which gets underway against the Colorado Avalanche at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena:

Age remaining a number

Anze Kopitar is in the final year of his current contract but signed a two-year extension that’ll keep him with the only organization he’s ever known through 2026. Doughty’s contract, which will carry the seventh-highest cap hit in the NHL this season, runs a year longer.

The two players, ages 36 and 33, respectively, have remained the Kings’ leaders not only in name but in on time on ice, with captain Kopitar centering their top line and alternate captain Doughty persisting as the club’s No. 1 defenseman. Last season, a late-season injury to newcomer Kevin Fiala gave Kopitar the team scoring lead for the 15th time in 17 opportunities and Doughty’s 52 points represented his strongest production since 2017-18, the last time the Kings had anything resembling a shot at a championship. Though both players might see a slight reduction in average ice time, their contributions should remain paramount to the Kings’ success.

Previously, both men were integral pieces of both titles, the franchise’s first in 2012 and its follow-up in 2014, and now are rejoined by two-time champion Trevor Lewis, who returned to the Kings over the summer. When McLellan took control of the team, most of the rest of the cast might have been aptly summarized as “with special guests,” but now there are many more names rolling in the Kings’ credits.

“When I look at Kopi, Drew and Trevor Lewis – those are the three players that are left from that era – they all have to take on a mentorship role,” McLellan said. “But we now have the ability to hand some of that off to others.”

All about shot suppression

Under McLellan, the Kings have made the playoffs in each of the past two seasons after missing them by wide margins in his first two seasons at the helm, yet shot suppression has been a consistent current beneath both high and low seas.

McLellan’s Kings have finished in the top five in terms of fewest shots allowed in three of his four seasons, and, even including their brutal 2020-2021 campaign, the Kings have allowed the fourth-fewest shots of any team cumulatively across the past four seasons.

That’ll remain vital as the Kings went from having a painfully overpriced and woefully underperforming goaltending tandem a year ago to relying on a closeout-bin trio of reclamation projects this season. Pheonix Copley and David Rittich (who was waived to be reassigned Tuesday) will compete behind Cam Talbot, 36, who hopes to assert himself after a season derailed by injuries for a team in transition, the Ottawa Senators, last season.

“In practice, when you come down on him there’s not much net to shoot at,” said another newcomer, center Pierre-Luc Dubois. “He’s going to be a great goalie for us this year. As long as we play well in front of him and limit the chances, we’re going to be all set back there.”

Higher dividends from big investments

Often when a franchise accelerates its turnaround, a can’t-miss draft pick (or two) has his foot slamming on its gas pedal. But there is no Mario Lemieux or Connor McDavid-like figure for the Kings, who have reconstructed their roster using a pair of trusty old building blocks and a multitude of resourceful strategies.

It isn’t that the Kings haven’t had premium draft capital as a result of their struggles between 2018 and 2021. In 2019, they owned three of the first 33 selections, taking Turcotte and Tobias Bjornfot in the first round before snagging Arthur Kaliyev early in the second. To varying degrees, they’re all at an impasse this season, and 2020’s No. 2 overall pick, Quinton Byfield, will be counted on to produce more consistently as he begins the year on the top line. Since 2018, the Kings have made five picks in the first round, and those prospects have compiled just 79 points in 366 total NHL appearances.

“We’re not missing much to go further in the playoffs, and those guys could have a really big impact,” said center Phillip Danault, acknowledging that each fledgling player improved conditioning and gained experience. “I can’t wait to see the year they have.”

Roster crunching

While the Kings’ strategy of carrying 21 players instead of the typical 23 to accommodate some salary-cap exigencies posed a threat to disrupt long midseason road trips when the injuries had piled up and frequent flier miles had accumulated, the Kings are already facing an unwieldy situation before Game 1 at home.

Poised to carry one extra player, the suspension of winger Arthur Kaliyev and a lower-body injury sustained in practice Monday by Viktor Arvidsson may leave the Kings short one player right out of the gate. Additionally, waiver eligibility concerns dictated that Brandt Clarke and Jordan Spence both began the season in the minors, with an unbalanced group of four left shots and two right shots on the blue line.

“I don’t even think we’ll be able to start with 21 players, so, the answer’s no, it’s not sustainable for 82 games,” said Blake Tuesday, perhaps generously describing Arvidsson, who did not practice, as “questionable.”

“We chose to put the money on the players that would have been the 12 and six playing and not so much in the three extra players you’re able to carry,” he added. “If you look at rosters, I think there’s a lot in similar situations. We’ll see how it goes.”

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PROJECTED LINEUP

Quinton Byfield — Anze Kopitar — Adrian Kempe

Kevin Fiala — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Alex Laferriere

Trevor Moore — Phillip Danault — Viktor Arvidsson*

Carl Grundstrom — Blake Lizotte —- Trevor Lewis

Mikey Anderson — Drew Doughty

Vladislav Gavrikov — Matt Roy

Andreas Englund — Tobias Bjornfot

Cam Talbot/Pheonix Copley

*=questionable

SEASON OPENER: COLORADO AT KINGS

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Crypto.com Arena

How to watch: TNT, Max

​ Orange County Register 

CIF-SS girls tennis polls, Oct. 10

• October 11, 2023

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The CIF-SS girls tennis polls, released Tuesday, Oct. 10

Selected by the CIF-SS Girls Tennis Committee.

DIVISION 1

1. Mater Dei

2. Westlake

3. San Marino

4. Palos Verdes

5. Peninsula

6. Mira Costa

7. Portola

8. Harvard-Westlake

9. Corona del Mar

10. Los Osos

Others: ML King, Huntington Beach, University, Woodbridge, Beckman, Santa Margarita, Foothill/SA, Yorba Linda

DIVISION 2

1 Calabasas

2. Santa Barbara

3. Great Oak

4. Agoura

5. Orange Lutheran

6. Temecula Valley

7. Crescenta Valley

8. Vista Murrieta

9. Cypress

10. Dos Pueblos

Others: The Archer School for Girls, Crossroads, Laguna Beach, San Clemente

DIVISION 3

1 Oaks Christian

2. Cerritos

3. Mark Keppel

4. Pasadena Poly

5. Cate

6. Dana Hills

7. St. Margaret’s Episcopal

8. Notre Dame/SO

9. Marymount

10. Canyon/Anaheim

Others: Ayala, Culver City, Riverside Poly, Redlands, Roosevelt, South Pasadena

DIVISION 4

1. Oxford Academy

2. Crean Lutheran

3. San Dimas

4. Laguna Blanca

5. Arlington

6. Chaminade

7. Buckley

8. Carpinteria

9. La Quinta/Westminster

10. Webb

Others: Mayfair, Garden Grove, Louisville, Malibu, Hillcrest, Warren, Serrano, Thacher

DIVISION 5

1. Mission Viejo

2. Valley View

3. Citrus Hill

4. Western

5. Patriot

6. Rim of the World

7. Century

8. Indian Springs

9. Indio

T10. CAMS

T10. Quartz Hill

Others: Bolsa Grande, Brea Olinda, Diamond Bar, Lancaster

DIVISION 6

1. Liberty/Winchester

2. Western Christian

3. Estancia

4. Woodcrest Christian

5. Los Amigos

6. Linfield Christian

7. Summit

8. Silverado

9. Garey

10. Twentynine Palms

Others: Workman, Hueneme, Paramount

​ Orange County Register 

ALDS: Astros crush 4 homers to rout Twins for a 2-1 series lead

• October 11, 2023

By DAVE CAMPBELL AP Sports Writer

MINNEAPOLIS — Late afternoon shadows made the ball difficult to pick up, and Minnesota’s Sonny Gray presented a tough opponent on the mound.

The Houston Astros just powered their way through and produced yet another October masterpiece.

José Abreu hit a three-run homer for Houston in a four-run first inning against Gray and piled on with a two-run shot in the ninth, carrying the Astros past the Twins, 9-1, on Tuesday for a 2-1 lead in their American League Division Series.

Yordan Alvarez hit his fourth home run in three games and Alex Bregman had a homer and an RBI single for the defending World Series champions, who took charge from their first at-bat and moved within one win of a seventh consecutive AL Championship Series appearance. Astros starter Cristian Javier took it from there with nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings.

“It was kind of just pass the torch to the next guy,” said Bregman, who has 16 postseason homers. “Put together a good at-bat and grind it out.”

Game 4 is at Target Field on Wednesday. If the Twins force Game 5, it would be in Houston on Friday.

“This was one of the reasons why I signed with this organization, to be in the best situation and compete,” said Abreu, who set his low with a .237 average this season, nearly 50 points below his career mark.

Splitting the first two games in Houston gave the Twins home-field advantage, and they sold out both games three days in advance. Johan Santana threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Joe Mauer, and the crowd the Twins credited for carrying them to a two-game sweep of Toronto in the AL Wild Card Series was roaring from the start.

The Astros were hardly going to be fazed by the environment. They went 51-30 on the road, the third-best record in the major leagues, and have made October games quite a habit since their run started in 2017.

“It’s a very confident club, not a cocky club. We don’t showboat too much. We just play,” Manager Dusty Baker said. “The guys have a knack of picking each other up.”

Javier had a 4.56 ERA that was by far his worst in four big league seasons and failed to finish five innings in five of his prior 11 starts, but the Astros weren’t concerned.

“He has a slow heartbeat. He wants the baseball,” Bregman said. “He’s a competitor and we have all the confidence in the world in him every single time he takes the mound.”

The right-hander, who threw six hitless innings in World Series Game 4 last year to beat Philadelphia, lowered his career postseason ERA to 1.91 over 37⅔ innings.

“Their guy did what I didn’t do. He executed pitches in spots with runners on,” Gray said.

With 13 misses in 16 swings at Javier’s slider, the Twins flailed through the shadows in a feeble response to the early Astros explosion. Javier allowed one hit, a one-out double by Max Kepler in the first, but he stranded two runners in scoring position with consecutive strikeouts of Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa.

With five walks and one hit batter, the Twins had plenty of opportunities to catch up. They loaded the bases on walks in the fifth inning, but Kepler and Lewis ended the inning with strikeouts.

The Twins left nine men on base and went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Correa, who has a hit in all five postseason games and is 9 for 19 with four RBIs, scored on Willi Castro’s one-out single in the sixth. But Jeremy Peña made a diving stop at shortstop of a grounder rocketed by Ryan Jeffers and leaped to his feet to start a double play.

“It was a difficult day to hit, so them jumping out early was very, very important,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Whichever team did that was going to definitely be in the driver’s seat.”

FAST START

Jose Altuve greeted Gray with a single, and a one-out bouncer down the first-base line eluded Alex Kirilloff’s glove for a two-base error. Kyle Tucker put the Astros on the board with a single. Then Abreu hit a 2-and-1 sweeper into the second deck for a 4-0 lead that took some buzz out of the ballpark.

“We were fighting an uphill battle as a team. I was fighting an uphill battle every inning,” Gray said.

GOING DEEP

Gray gave up two home runs in a game for the first time in two seasons with the Twins. The previous multi-homer game against him was on Sept. 24, 2021, with Cincinnati.

The eighth major league pitcher since 2000 to throw at least 180 innings with eight or fewer homers allowed, Gray was the runaway leader in fewest home runs allowed per nine innings this year (0.391). He gave up eight hits and one walk in four-plus innings, with five runs – one unearned – and six strikeouts.

“Thankfully we were able to get the right swings across,” Abreu said.

AWESOME ALVAREZ

Alvarez is 6 for 12 with six RBIs in the series, and his four homers are tied for the most in the first three games of a single postseason with Juan Gonzalez (1996) and Bob Robertson (1971).

“He’s the best hitter in baseball,” Altuve said, “and hopefully he continues to hit like that.”

UP NEXT

Astros right-hander José Urquidy will start Game 4. He beat the Twins in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series in 2020. Twins right-hander Joe Ryan will make his first career postseason start on Wednesday. He has allowed 13 earned runs, nine walks and three homers in 14 innings over three career starts against the Astros.

​ Orange County Register 

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried hoped to be US president someday, says ex-girlfriend/hedge-fund CEO

• October 11, 2023

By KEN SWEET and LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK — Caroline Ellison, the tech executive who ran Sam Bankman-Fried ‘s hedge fund while sometimes dating him, testified Tuesday that he directed her to commit crimes before his cryptocurrency empire collapsed last November. She also revealed that her former boss thought he might be U.S. president someday.

With Bankman-Fried watching from his courtroom seat, Ellison, 28, said at the New York City trial that she committed fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering with Bankman-Fried and others as they stole from customers and investors in FTX, a company Bankman-Fried started, and lenders to his hedge fund, Alameda Research.

“He directed me to commit these crimes,” she said of Bankman-Fried.

Repeatedly, Ellison made clear that Bankman-Fried was behind the biggest financial moves in his companies, to the point that bitcoins he created were sometimes called “Sam’s coins.”

She described him as “very ambitious” and envisioning eventually leading huge companies and using his money influentially, especially in politics.

He even thought there was a 5% chance he’d become president someday, Ellison said.

“When you say president, what are you referring to?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon.

“Of the United States,” Ellison answered.

Shortly after Ellison’s highly anticipated turn on the witness stand began, she was asked to identify Bankman-Fried in the courtroom. The bespectacled Ellison stood and scanned the courtroom for a long minute, at first unable to spot him, before gesturing his way with a flip of her hand and saying he was “over there wearing a suit.”

The appearance of Bankman-Fried, who sat with his lawyers, has changed dramatically recently as he has lost weight and trimmed his well-known wild coif into a tightly cropped look more traditional among financial professionals.

Bankman-Fried, 31, could face decades in prison if he is convicted of charges lodged against him when he was brought to the United States from the Bahamas last December. He has pleaded not guilty.

Bankman-Fried was one of the world’s wealthiest people on paper, with an estimated net worth of $32 billion, when his cryptocurrency businesses collapsed as investors and customers sought to empty their accounts last November. Bankruptcy proceedings followed as prosecutors alleged that stolen funds were used to fund his businesses, make donations and contribute to political campaigns in the hopes of influencing cryptocurrency regulation in Washington.

Ellison testified under a cooperation deal that could win her leniency at sentencing. It could also be pivotal when the jury decides Bankman-Fried’s fate on the seven counts he faces.

Bankman-Fried has been jailed since August, when Judge Lewis A. Kaplan concluded he’d tried to influence Ellison and other potential trial witnesses and could no longer be trusted to await trial under a $250 million bond and confinement to his parent’s Palo Alto, California, home.

As Ellison testified, several of her friends or online fans were in attendance. In an overflow courtroom where spectators could watch on a television monitor, some of them, smiles on their faces, rushed toward a screen to see her up close.

Ellison, a Stanford University graduate who majored in math, met Bankman-Fried while working as an intern at the investment firm Jane Street before joining his company soon after he formed Alameda Research in 2017.

She said she discovered that the company was “in much worse shape than I realized,” a place suffering large losses with lenders pulling out a lot of their money and over half the staff quitting.

Ellison said she asked Bankman-Fried why he had not warned her and he “apologized and he said that he hadn’t known how to tell me.”

Ellison seemed composed throughout the testimony, even when it touched on her romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried. By fall 2018, soon after she joined Alameda, “we started sleeping together on and off,” she said. By summer 2020, they were in a romantic relationship that they kept secret, she added.

By summer 2021, they had broken up, but they resumed the relationship in fall 2021, letting people know this time, before splitting for good in spring 2022, she said.

Eventually, Bankman-Fried installed Ellison as chief executive at Alameda, where she was paid $200,000 in salary. Her biggest bonus of $20 million came in 2021.

Ellison said Bankman-Fried set up systems that enabled Alameda to withdrawal unlimited sums of money from FTX accounts and he “directed us to take FTX money to repay our loans.”

She said Alameda eventually withdrew up to $14 billion from FTX, although some was paid back.

Some money, she said, went to political donations, including $35 million funneled through one political operative to Republican candidates and another $10 million that Bankman-Fried steered to President Joe Biden, money that she said Bankman-Fried thought bought him a measure of influence and recognition.

Ellison’s testimony immediately followed testimony over three days from Gary Wang, an FTX cofounder and another key figure in Bankman-Fried’s inner circle. He also testified under a plea agreement with prosecutors that he was directed by the defendant to set up software loopholes that allowed Alameda to drain FTX accounts of unlimited funds.

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​ Orange County Register 

Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton ‘fighting for her life’ with rare form of pneumonia

• October 11, 2023

Brian Niemietz | New York Daily News

Gold medal-winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton is in the ICU, where she’s fighting for her life, her daughter McKenna Kelley said on Tuesday.

On a fundraising page asking for prayers and donations, Kelley revealed that the 55-year-old tumbler has been in the hospital for over a week with a “very rare form of pneumonia.”

“She is not able to breathe on her own,” Kelley shared on Spotfund. “Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details. However, I will disclose that she not insured. … ANYTHING, absolutely anything, would be so helpful for my family and my mom. Thank y’all so very much!”

Retton earned five medals and superstar status in 1984 with an unforgettable performance at the Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles. Her fame resulted in multiple endorsement deals including one from Wheaties, which made her the first female athlete to appear on the cover of the cereal’s famous orange box. She can currently be seen in commercials for Colonial Penn Life Insurance.

The West Virginia native also used her celebrity status to support the candidacy of former President Ronald Reagan and later appeared at the Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden in 2004.

Retton also appeared on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2018. She was the fifth person to be eliminated in the reality TV competition, but said participating on the show had “been the best time of [her] life.”

By the start of Tuesday evening, the fundraising page promoted by Retton’s daughter, who’s also a former gymnast, had raised more than $12,000.

©2023 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Austin Ekeler’s return from injury could boost Chargers’ ground game

• October 10, 2023

COSTA MESA — Running back Austin Ekeler said Tuesday he could have played in the Chargers’ victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 1 if it was the last game of the season and he could push his badly sprained ankle beyond what he considered tolerable pain. But it wasn’t, so he didn’t.

He also said he could have played if the Chargers had a game this past Sunday. But they didn’t, so he didn’t.

So, does he expect to play Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys?

Definitely.

“It’s a prime-time game,” he said. “We’ve got the world watching us.”

The Chargers went back to work on Bonus Tuesday, after a much-needed bye week. Their break came earlier than usual, but it also came at the right time for Ekeler, who injured his ankle in their season-opening loss to the Miami Dolphins and sat out their next three games.

Now, he’s sound and ready to rejoin a backfield that could use all his many talents when the Chargers take the field to face the Cowboys for Monday Night Football at SoFi Stadium. Ekeler ran for 117 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries as the Chargers rushed for 234 yards as a team against Miami.

The Chargers’ ground game hasn’t been the same without Ekeler. The Chargers rushed for 61 yards in their loss to the Tennessee Titans in Week 2. They rushed for 30 yards in their victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3. They rushed for 155 yards in their victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 4.

Joshua Kelley has had games of 39, 12 and 65 yards in Ekeler’s absence after opening the season with 91 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries against a Miami defense that seemed perfectly content to allow the Chargers to run and run and run some more.

No question, the Chargers need a balanced running and passing game Monday.

“I feel good, man, feel really good,” Ekeler said after practicing fully with his teammates for the first time since he was injured in the second half of their 36-34 loss to the Dolphins. “The bye week, some people don’t want an early bye week, but for me, it worked out as far as the timing.”

Ekeler, the NFL’s leader with 18 touchdowns in the 2022 season and 20 during 2021, worked out on his own during the bye week and suffered no setbacks. He said he pushed it and his ankle held up just fine, as it did on Tuesday. After a day off on Wednesday, the Chargers will practice again Thursday.

“The bye was probably a blessing for me,” he said.

Ekeler said he felt “disconnected” from his teammates and “something was lost” while he was sidelined, unable to aid them during a loss to the Titans and victories over the Vikings and Raiders. He missed the competition, the battles won and lost during games decided by narrow margins.

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The Chargers lost to the Titans, 27-24 in overtime, before logging a 28-24 victory over the Vikings and a 24-17 win against the Raiders to even their record at 2-2 going into the bye week.

“That’s why I was pushing to get back as soon as I could,” Ekeler said. “It’s tough (sitting out with an injury). It’s tough. Yeah, you can see it on the tape, but going out there and physically doing it, it’s such a different skill. To see what you see in the film room and actually go out there and apply it and do it full speed and do it full-time is what separates people, right?

“We can all look at it and see it on the board and say, ‘OK, this is the read. This is what you need to do.’ But when it’s full speed (on the field), can you make the right adjustments, use the right technique, and what do you have afterwards to continue to, you know, separate yourself?”

ROSTER MOVES

The Chargers signed defensive lineman Christopher Hinton and added center Cameron Tom and defensive back Mark Webb to the practice squad. Hinton was with the Chargers to start the season and he played five games with them last season. Tom was most recently with the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad. Webb was a seventh-round pick of the Chargers in 2021.

​ Orange County Register