The University of Richmond continued a couple of encouraging trends during yesterday’s 44-17 mauling of Maine. Three, if winning counts. In the Colonial Athletic Association game played before a Family Weekend crowd of 8,012 at UR Stadium, the Spiders outscored the Bears 31-7 in the second half. Richmond outscored its two previous Football Championship Subdivision opponents (Elon and Towson) by a combined 38-7 after halftime (14-0 and 24-7). Maine scored its second-half points with 3:42 left, against UR reserves.

WASHINGTON - The Washington Nationals have a new Triple-A affiliate, and it’s not Richmond, which lost its team when the Braves moved to Georgia. The Nationals and the Syracuse (N.Y.) Chiefs of the International League announced an agreement yesterday, signing a two-year deal. It’s the third Triple-A affiliate in five seasons for the Nationals. In 2005 and 2006, Washington’s Triple-A affiliate was in New Orleans, and for the past two seasons, it’s been in Columbus, but the Clippers opted to align with Cleveland for 2009.

DOVER, Del. In politics, it’s call a distraction when substantive issues are overshadowed by a meaningless talking point. In NASCAR, anything that causes a Chase qualifier to lose his grip as he pursues the coveted Sprint Cup championship is considered a major distraction. Right now, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is trying to regain his focus after spending part of this weekend swatting back a volley of questions about his verbal sparring match with cousin and crew chief Tony Eury during last Sunday’s postseason opener, the Sylvania 300 in Loudon, N.H.

Fundamentals are key to the game of basketball—it takes a solid defense and offense to win consistently. Success in life is much the same way, some of Virginia’s best-known hoops stars told Richmond-area youth yesterday. “The game of life is more important than all the [basketball] games you will ever play,“ Calvin Duncan, a local pastor and former basketball standout at Virginia Commonwealth University, told the young people at the Richmond Midnight Basketball League’s first daytime event. “The question you have to ask yourself is, how well are you playing that game?“

Sports Editor: Does Paul Woody have any idea about the sports he writes about? On Sept. 4, he ripped into Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer and his decision to take the redshirt off of Tyrod Taylor. Woody said, “This is a bad idea, a terrible idea. It does little to improve the team and jeopardizes the program three years from now.“

Credit L.C. Bird’s 34-0 pasting of Manchester last night to the Skyhawks’ relentless, take-no-prisoners defense. “Yeah, everybody talked about our performance last week in the shootout with Clover Hill,“ said coach David Bedwell of his team’s 55-53 victory over the Cavaliers. “Tonight, our kids stepped up, played well, and that’s what we needed them to do. They wanted to prove they can play. We played with a lot of passion and with a chip on our shoulder after last week.“

James Madison University quarterback Rodney Landers has reaped a handful of national and conference honors for his performance against the University of Massachusetts Minutemen Saturday. Landers, a senior, ran for 206 yards, a single-game record for a JMU quarterback, and completed 4 of 6 passes for 85 yards as he led the Dukes to a 52-38 victory over the Minutemen.

LAUREL, Md.—The Maryland Racing Commission has approved a ban on anabolic steroids for racehorses, following the lead of other racing states including Kentucky, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The issue of doping in horse racing saw increased public scrutiny this spring after Rick Dutrow Jr., the trainer of Big Brown, acknowledged using the anabolic steroid stanozolol on the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner.