KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Alex Smith threw for 225 yards and two touchdowns, and the Kansas City Chiefs held off the scrappy Cleveland Browns late in the fourth quarter to preserve a 23-17 victory Sunday and remain the NFL’s lone undefeated team. The Chiefs (8-0), off to their best start since 2003, built a 20-7 lead late in the first half before the Browns (3-4) made it a game.

Jason Campbell, starting in place of the ineffective Brandon Weeden, threw for 293 yards and two touchdowns for the Browns.The second scoring pass, a 17-yarder to Fozzy Whittaker out of the backfield, got Cleveland within a field goal early in the third quarter. The Chiefs kept stopping the Browns down the stretch, though. They forced a turnover on downs with just over 2 minutes left, and Ryan Succop kicked his third field goal in the closing seconds to help seal the victory.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Game 3 of the World Series ended on a bizarre play that allowed to St. Louis Cardinals to take a two-games-to-one lead over the Boston Red Sox. Third baseman Will Middlebrooks was called for obstruction in the bottom of the ninth, allowing Allen Craig to score the winning run in the Cardinals’ 5-4 victory against the Red Sox. Yadier Molina started the winning rally with a single and moved to third on Craig’s double off Koji Uehara before craziness ensued.

Jon Jay hit a grounder right at second baseman Dustin Pedroia with the Red Sox playing the infield in. Pedroia threw a strike to the plate to get Molina, and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia fired to third in an attempt to nail Craig and end the inning. Saltalamacchia’s throw sailed over the head of Middlebrooks and down the left-field line, prompting Craig to make a dash for home. But Middlebrooks got tangled up with Craig, who tripped before he was tagged out by Saltalamacchia. Third base umpire Jim Joyce made the obstruction call and allowed the run to count.

The Cardinals blew a pair of two-run leads before winning. Matt Holliday hit an RBI single in a two-run first and doubled home a pair to make it 4-2 in the seventh. The Red Sox tied it in the eighth as Daniel Nava hit an RBI grounder and Xander Bogaerts singled home the tying run. Trevor Rosenthal blew the save in the eighth but picked up the victory. Uehara was tagged with the loss.

Game 4 is this (Sunday) evening in St. Louis, where Lance Lynn will start for St. Louis against Clay Buchholz. Pre-game coverage begins at 6-p.m. on KJAN.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Cardinals outfielder Carlos Beltran has received the Roberto Clemente Award, given to the player whose contributions on and off the field best represent the game. Beltran has contributed more than $4 million to his Carlos Beltran Academy in Puerto Rico and has hosted fundraising efforts throughout the year.

BROOKINGS, S.D. (AP) – Austin Sumner threw three touchdowns to help South Dakota State defeat Northern Iowa 37-34 in overtime in a Missouri Valley Conference game on Saturday.  Sumner was 22-of-34 and 239 yards, hitting wide receiver Brandon Hubert for two touchdowns including one with a minute left in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime and another in overtime to clinch the win for the Jackrabbits (5-4, 2-3 MVC). Running back Zach Zenner rushed for 106 yards and one touchdown.

South Dakota State scored first in OT on a 26-yard field goal by Justin Syrovatka. The Panthers (4-4, 0-4) answered with a pair of field goals to take the game to 34-31.  Sumner’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Hubert capping a 4-play drive sealed the victory for the Jackrabbits.

The loss is the fourth straight for the Panthers, who are now tied with Indiana State for last in the MVC.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Drake capitalized on three miscues to score 16 points late in the fourth quarter and continue its dominance over Valparaiso with a 23-10 win in a Pioneer League game on Saturday. A shanked punt from the end zone gave Drake (4-4, 3-2) the ball on the 19 to set up the go-ahead touchdown — a 3-yard run by Conley Wilkins — and a fumble recovery led to the clinching field goal. Another lost fumble at the 21 led to a 4-yard TD run for Wilkins, keeping Valparaiso winless in 10 trips to Des Moines.

The Bulldog defense kept the Crusaders (1-7, 1-4) bottled up except for a 73-yard touchdown pass from Eric Hoffman to Tony Taibi for a 10-7 lead early in the second half. Valparaiso was limited to 183 yards of total offense, just four on the ground.

Drakes’s Andy Rice threw for 297 yards, 104 to Eric Saubert.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — C.J. Fiedorowicz caught an 8-yard touchdown pass from Jake Rudock in overtime to give Iowa a 17-10 win over Northwestern Saturday. The Hawkeyes (5-3, 2-2 Big 10) nearly blew another lead in the second half. Northwestern (4-4, 0-4) dropped its fourth straight game. Rudock completed 19-of-27 passes for 169 yards — none bigger than the third-down pass to Fiedorowicz in overtime. Rudock rolled to his right and lofted a pass to his big tight end in the left corner of the end zone.

Northwestern’s Kain Colter was sacked on the final play of the game to seal the win for Iowa. The Hawkeyes snapped a two-game losing skid. Both teams made mistakes on key opportunities late in the fourth quarter. Rudock threw an interception in the final minute. Northwestern running back Mike Trumpy mishandled an option pitch from Colter with three minutes left.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Desmond Roland ran for a career-high 219 yards and four touchdowns and 19th-ranked Oklahoma State routed Iowa State 58-27 on Saturday for its third straight win. Quarterback Clint Chelf had 163 total yards in his second start of the season for the Cowboys (6-1, 3-1 Big 12), who ran for a season-high 342 yards.

Oklahoma State scored 14 points in a 2-½ minute stretch late in the third quarter to extend its lead to 45-20. Roland ran 58 yards for his third touchdown of the day, and Tyler Johnson took a fumble 54 yards for a TD with 4:17 left in the third.

Sam Richardson had 95 yards passing and a touchdown for Iowa State (1-6, 0-4) before leaving the game late in the first half after an apparent blow to the head.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson…..

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Pheasant hunting season opens today (Saturday) in Iowa, but hunters may not see many birds. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports pheasant numbers could be down 18-percent compared to last year. Todd Bogenschutz, a wildlife biologist with the DNR, says the population decline isn’t surprising. “We had the wettest April and May in state history and hens don’t do very well when it’s wet in the spring, certainly not when it’s record setting,” Bogenschutz says. Five consecutive harsh winters followed by wet springs previously led to a drop in pheasant numbers between 2007-2011. Bogenschutz expects the forecast for another decline this year could lead to fewer pheasant hunting licenses being purchased.

“We finally had an increase in the pheasant population last year for the first time in about five years and we saw a little bump up in hunter numbers. Now, things drop down a bit…so, I expect we’ll see fewer hunters,” Bogenschutz says. “I still think we’ll be similar, we’ll probably have around 40,000 to 50,000 pheasant hunters this year.” The pheasant hunting season runs from October 26 through January 10. Bogenschutz predicts hunters will harvest between 100,000 to 150,000 pheasants this season. He notes hunters will likely have better luck later in the season as nearly half of the state’s corn crop has yet to be harvested. “Standing corn on opening weekend…there’s going to be quite a bit of it and that’s going to make hunting challenging because the birds figure out pretty quick that they’re safe in that standing corn,” Bogenschutz says.

The best pheasant numbers, according to Bogenschutz, can be found in areas of northwest, north-central, and central Iowa. Hunters shot roughly 158,000 pheasants last year. That compares to 109,000 pheasants harvested in 2011 – which was the lowest number since the state began keeping track in 1962.

(Radio Iowa)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The World Series has shifted to St. Louis. So has momentum following the Cardinals 4-2 victory over Boston that evened the Fall Classic at a game apiece Thursday night.

The Cardinals did little right in losing the opener 8-1 and found themselves trailing 2-1 in Game 2 following a two-run homer by David Ortiz in the sixth inning. But the Redbirds took advantage of two Red Sox errors on the same sacrifice fly in the seventh. The miscues by catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and reliever Craig Breslow led to the tying and go-ahead runs. Carlos Beltran followed with an RBI single and finished with two hits after being questionable for the game because of a rib injury.

The pitching matchup for Game 3 tonight (Saturday) has Jake Peavy going for Boston against Joe Kelly. You can hear the game on KJAN, with the pregame beginning at 6-p.m., and the first pitch at 7:07.