EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — If the Giants' franchise-record 10th straight loss proved anything, it's that New York could use a young franchise quarterback. Rookie Michael Penix Jr. showed what a young QB can do on Sunday against the Giants, who need to learn from it. The No. 8 overall pick in the draft, Penix played a nearly flawless game in his first career start to help the Falcons thrash the woeful Giants 34-7 in their best performance in weeks. The Giants gambled in 2019 that Daniel Jones would be their franchise QB and it really never panned out. The one exception was the 2022 season, when the No. 6 overall pick had a career year and led New York to a 9-7-1 record and a playoff berth in the first season after Joe Schoen was hired as general manager and Brian Daboll was named coach. The Giants even won a playoff game. With the release of Jones last month, the Giants (2-13) are now a team without a quarterback who can perform at the level required of an NFL starter. Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock have split the last four starts but neither has provided much of a spark for the league's worst offense. Lock handed the Falcons the game with two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns. To turn things around next season, the Giants must find a quarterback. “I’d say it’s very important,” Daboll said Monday. New York is going to have a high pick in the draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in late April. It could even be the No. 1 overall selection. Choosing the right quarterback is going to be hard. There isn't a can't-miss choice in 2025 draft and forcing one early would be a mistake. Unless the Giants are convinced that Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Jalen Milroe or someone else is the next franchise player, they have have so many needs that it would be better to wheel and deal and fill as many holes as possible. Even if the Giants take a quarterback in the second round, there's bound to be someone available who has a chance to be better than what they have now. What’s working The calendar. The season ends in less than two weeks. What needs help The franchise is in disarray, and a shakeup appears likely. Daboll's future as the coach is not bright, considering the current skid and two straight losing seasons. Schoen has to share the blame and so do co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, who hired the GM and coach. Stock up LB Darius Muasau. The sixth-round draft pick out of UCLA has started the last three games since Bobby Okereke (back) was hurt and eventually put on injured reserve last week. Muasau had 11 tackles Sunday along with a quarterback hit and a tackle for a loss. He made the defensive calls after LB Micah McFadden left with a neck injury. Stock down Lock. In his starts, Lock has had three interceptions returned for touchdowns. He also lost a fumble on a strip-sack at Atlanta. Lock sustained a shoulder injury during the game and had an MRI on Monday. Injuries Besides Lock and McFadden, S Jason Pinnock (eye) also left the game. C John Michael Schmitz and RB Tyrone Tracy were evaluated for ankle injuries on Monday. Key number 1 — Thanks to the Raiders' victory over the Jaguars, the Giants will have the No. 1 overall pick in the draft with two more losses. Next steps For the ninth and final time, the Giants will try to find a way to win at MetLife Stadium. New York is 0-8 heading into Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts. Its only other winless season at home was in 1974 when New York played at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, while Giants Stadium was being built. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Tom Canavan, The Associated PressNacogdoches’ boys basketball team was going back and forth at home against Hudson on Friday night but in the end, the Hornets came away with the 42-37 win over the Dragons. Dragons head coach Christopher Rainey chalked the loss up to poor execution. “Offensively, we turned the ball over too many times for our liking,” Rainey said. “I don’t think we played at a pace that we like or that we practice for and give credit to Hudson. They’re well coached. We just have to be able to learn from this and that’s what I’ve told them. We’ve got to overcome adversity. It was just little miscues on our behalf that we have to clean up.” Cooper Weeks went 1-for-2 from the line to give the Hornets a 1-0 lead. Jonas Hollins put the Dragons on the scoreboard when he came away with a steal and took it back for a layup. Hudson regained the lead when Jackson May came away with an old-fashioned three-point play. Cameron Brady recorded a three-point play of his own with a shot from beyond the arc to give the Dragons a 5-4 lead. Landon Greer’s steal was followed by a layup before Christopher Gardner’s bucket gave the lead back to Nacogdoches. A technical foul against Nacogdoches after a player whose name wasn’t in the official scorebook, subbed into the game. That led to a pair of free throws and a three to give the Hornets a six-point lead. The Dragons fired a shot at the buzzer but it was no good, leaving the score 13-7 in favor of the Hornets after one complete quarter. Weeks scored the first points of the second quarter to spread his team’s lead to eight. Nac trailed 17-8 before Brady drained his second three of the night. That made the score 17-11. Hudson called a timeout with 4:34 left in the first half. Hudson’s Ceylan Williams knocked down a three from the top of the key. That gave the Hornets a 20-11 lead. Hollins dished off a pass to Brady for the assist before tossing in two more points on the next possession. That put Nac within five points. KJ Ferrell put his team three points closer with a shot from beyond the arc. Dernell Pleasant scored back-to-back layups for the final four points of the first half, making the halftime score 23-19. Benjamin Cox tipped in a missed shot for the first two points of the second half to put the Dragons within two points. Micah Lockett dropped it in from under the basket to tie the game up at 23 apiece. Hudson went 1-for-2 from the line. Nac’s Joshua Morones tossed in a two before Williams drained a three to give the Hornets a two-point lead. Morones found his way to the basket again to tie the game. The Dragons’ full-court press forced Hudson to call a timeout with 3:31 left in the third quarter. Greer broke the tie with a two before Morones tied it back up again on the other end. Hollins threw up a shot to give the Dragons a 31-29 lead with about two minutes to play in the third. Williams drained his fourth three of the night to put the Hornets back on top, 32-31. Ferrell scored the last bucket of the quarter to make the score 34-31 in favor of Hudson, heading into the final quarter. Hollins launched a shot from beyond the arc to start the fourth quarter, tying the game at 34-34. Greer tipped in a missed shot to give the lead back to Hudson but just seconds later, Brady drained a three to give the lead back to the Dragons. An and-one from Greer made the score 39-37 in favor of Hudson. With just under 30 seconds to play, Nac threw up a layup that bounced around the rim and was rebounded by Hudson. A pair of trips to the free-throw line helped the Hornets seal up the 42-37 win. Brady led the Dragons in scoring with 14 points. Hollins was next in line with nine. Morones scored six points. Pleasant came away with four while Cox and Lockett each had two points. Greer and Williams each scored a team high 12 points to lead Hudson. Ferrell came away with eight points and May scored six. Rainey said he’s hopeful the experience of playing teams like Hudson will prepare Nacogdoches for district play. “I think that’s going to prepare us for a very strong district,” he said. “I think every team has a winning record. We’re anticipating a strong district. These are the games that we need.” The Dragons will be home Monday against Center. Action is slated to begin with the freshmen at 5 p.m., followed by JV at 6:15 p.m. and the varsity at 7:30 p.m.
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NEWARK— Monday afternoon’s tilt with the New York Rangers was the gift that kept on giving for the New Jersey Devils. It’s no secret that the Rangers are sputtering. They’ve traded their captain, then moved their former second overall pick, Kaapo Kakko, and against the Devils, they scratched their most veteran player in Chris Kreider. The only way it could have gone any worse for the Rangers was if the Devils embarrassed them on the eve of Christmas Eve. And boy, did they ever. Jack Hughes started the scoring in the first period after Paul Cotter threw down with Vincent Trochek. Hughes used the jolt from Cotter’s bout and scored just about 30 seconds later. The Devils’ superstar scored a second goal later in the second period. It was a 4-on-3 power play goal, and the primary assist went to Luke Hughes . The Devils pounced on the Rangers who are going through woes heading into the holiday break, and they leaned into it. After the Devils held a hefty 4-0 lead in the third period, the fans began chanting “Igorrrrr” and “Kaa-po Ka-kko!” That prompted the arena operations to take to the jumbotron and play a viral video from the 2019 NHL Draft. Said video is of Rangers fans at Madison Square Garden watching the Devils make the first overall selection, which was Jack Hughes. Rangers fans gave a raucous cheer at the time. That video has since gone viral, and the Devils saved it for the right moment. After Hughes scored his second goal of the game to bring the game to 4-0, the video showed on the jumbotron, garnering a pretty raucous reaction from Devils fans. However, it also brought a huge smile to the Devils superstar’s face, and a good chuckle. OH MY GOD. The #NJDevils just played the video of Rangers fans cheering when Jack Hughes got drafted. Jack bursted out into laughter when they showed him on the jumbotron. pic.twitter.com/a3bwQogl5j — Daniel Amoia (@daniel_amoia) December 23, 2024 When asked his thoughts on the video, Jack said with a big smile, “No thoughts. I mean, that’s so long ago. You know, I’m really lucky to be a Devil, and we’ve got great fans. I love how much they have my back. I look up in the stands and I see a million 86 jerseys. So, I think this fan base loves me, and I love playing here, and it’s special. So they got my back.” About his smile as a reaction, he said with a chuckle, “No [smile], unless the camera caught me.” The context? You know by now. Jack Hughes has gone on to be a superstar talent. The Rangers, however, just traded Kakko after his stint in New York didn’t go as anticipated. It was a feel-good moment for Devils fans in what was certainly a highlight of their season. A beat down of their rival in which their superstar—once again—took over. The Devils and their fans go into the holiday break feeling quite good about themselves. Jack Hughes, too, in particular. This article first appeared on New Jersey Hockey Now and was syndicated with permission.
A Power Corporation of Canada POW-T unit has co-led a US$150-million equity investment into Valsoft Corp., a rapidly growing Montreal-based software rollup play that is aiming to emulate the success of acquisition machine Constellation Software Inc. Portage Capital Solutions, a growth equity arm within Power’s Sagard alternative asset-management business, is co-leading the deal with past backer Viking Global Investors, a U.S. fund-management giant, and Toronto-based Propelr Growth. All of the money is going to Valsoft, unlike many recent large tech financings that have largely been used to buy out investors and employees. The deal values Valsoft at more than US$2-billion. Valsoft is one of several companies, including Toronto-managed Banyan Software, that have sought to emulate Constellation’s strategy by buying up small, modestly growing software companies that focus on specific customer niches such as hotels, and face little to no competition or customer churn. Valsoft has amassed 107 companies, which collectively employ more than 3,500 people, generate more than US$550-million in revenue and US$125-million-plus in operating earnings. Like Constellation, it has split itself into multiple divisions that each pursue their own acquisitions. The company, which has 60 mergers and acquisitions dealmakers, typically buys small companies with less than US$10-million in revenue. It aims to pay one to two times revenues, although competition for deals has been heating up as flush private-equity firms look to deploy capital. Valsoft then works to expand its acquired companies’ revenues and profits by adding heft to their sales efforts. Like Toronto-based Constellation, Valsoft’s goal is to buy and hold, although it has divested two companies to date. Valsoft sold a minority stake to Viking in 2022 for US$150-million and this year raised US$170-million in debt from Viking and Coatue Management LLC to fund deals. It also has a nine-figure line of credit with Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada. The company is “one of the top IPO candidates in the country” given its mix of size, revenue growth and profitability and the fact that it has “an established model that public market investors in Canada and globally have become extremely comfortable with,” said Propelr managing partner Sanjiv Samant. Valsoft chief executive Sam Youssef said in an interview that he hopes to “eventually” take Valsoft public, but not until revenue reaches US$1-billion. In the past two years, Valsoft has built up a payments-processing unit called Valpay used by 10 to 15 of its companies that now generates US$20-million-plus in annualized operating earnings, Mr. Youssef said. He credited Viking with the idea of building a financial-services offering for its companies. Valsoft is also building artificial-intelligence applications its companies can use to better serve customers and expand revenue. Both initiatives are of particular interest to Portage, which typically backs financial-technology companies. “For nearly a decade, Valsoft has proven itself to be a best-in-class acquirer and operator of software companies globally,” Dan Ballen, co-head of Portage Capital Solutions, said in a statement. “We are excited to help Valsoft pursue growth opportunities in its core software market and, as fintech-focused investors, through the launch of new products and monetization channels, such as embedded financial services and AI-powered customer tools.” Mr. Youssef and Valsoft co-founder Steph Manos graduated from Concordia University with computer engineering degrees in 2004 and built an affiliated online marketing business together. After discovering that pornography sold better than travel products and supplements, they became founding investors of Pornhub, now the world’s largest porn video site. They sold out in 2010, a year after the U.S. Secret Service seized US$6.4-million from accounts controlled by their personal holding company and long before the controversies that have dogged the business, now called Aylo Holdings SARL, in recent years. Mr. Youssef, an entrepreneur since he cut grass and shovelled driveways in his teens, decided to get out of the adult-entertainment business in the late 2000s because he started a family and “my moral compass changed,” he once told The Globe and Mail. “I’m very happy we got out of it, I’m very happy this is not my story and I’ve got a chance at writing another chapter.” Mr. Samant said that past foray “has nothing to do” with Valsoft, and that the founders “have had nothing to do with that other business for years.” In the early 2010s, Mr. Youssef immersed himself in the world of investing, devouring books by Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch and attending the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Mr. Youssef put his money to work in the stock market. One of the companies he bought into was Constellation. He loved Constellation’s model and figured that buying modest niche software companies with few or no competitors was better than playing the markets as it offered high returns for shrewd acquirers. Valsoft bought its first company in 2016, three the following year and eight the next. It now buys about 20 to 25 companies annually. Mr. Youssef and Mr. Manos and a group of other investors oversee two other companies: Valnet Inc., a consolidator of digital-content sites that cater to movie buffs, celebrity watchers, gamers and others, and Valsoft spinoff Valstone Corp., which sells software to industrial companies.