University of Minnesota freshman Jordan Schroeder had two goals and an assist to help the United States beat the Czech Republic, 4-3, last night in the world junior hockey championship in Scotiabank Place in Ottawa.

Schroeder, eligible for the 2009 NHL draft, leads the United States (2-0) in scoring with three goals and four assists.

"I'm focused on winning," Schroeder said. "I'm glad we got the win and it was big for the round robin. If we would have lost that game, it could have been a different story."

New Hampshire's James van Riemsdyk, the second overall pick in the 2007 draft by Philadelphia, added a goal and an assist. Michigan's Matt Rust also scored, and Thomas McCollum, who plays for the Ontario Hockey League's Guelph Storm, made 24 saves.

"Playing with van Riemsdyk and [Colin] Wilson, I knew we'd have a big impact in the tournament," Schroeder said. "They're great players, fun to play with and they make plays,"

The Czech Republic (0-2) was coming off an 8-1 loss to Canada in its opener.

The United States, a 8-2 winner against Germany Friday night, will face Kazakhstan (0-2) tomorrow night, and conclude Pool A play Wednesday night against four-time defending champion Canada (2-0).

Jamie Benn scored three goals, and John Tavares and Cody Hodgson each had two goals and two assists in Canada's 15-0 victory against Kazakhstan.

Running back Shawnbrey McNeal and tight end Daniel Adderley will be granted releases by Miami to transfer to other schools. Miami coach Randy Shannon said he isn't certain which schools the players will chose. McNeal, who has an ailing mother and a small child to take care of in his native Texas, is thought to be considering enrolling at TCU. Adderley likely will return to South Carolina, his home state. Also, Shannon said defensive back Anthony Reddick -- who could have sought to play one more season at Miami if he wanted after missing last year with a knee injury, something that plagued him in his five years with the Hurricans -- will leave with hopes of playing in the NFL next season.

• The lawyer for Danny Villa says the former New England Patriots player and high school football coach will plead not guilty to child rape charges. Villa, who had been working as the football coach at Walpole High School in Massachusetts, was arrested in Tucson, Ariz., Saturday. He is expected to be returned to Massachusetts within a week to face three counts of rape of a child over 14 and three counts of enticing a minor.

Football and men's basketball players are averaging hundreds of points fewer on their college entrance exams than their classmates, according to a newspaper's study of 54 public universities.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution review found the biggest gap between football players and students occurred at the University of Florida, where players scored 346 points lower than the school's overall student body.

Football players averaged 220 points lower on the SAT than their classmates -- and men's basketball players average seven points fewer than football players, the paper reported.

The paper reviewed 54 public universities, including the members of the six Bowl Championship Series conferences -- Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC and ACC -- and other schools whose teams finished the 2007-08 season ranked among the football or men's basketball top 25.

Georgia Tech's football players had the nation's best SAT score average, 1,028 of a possible 1,600, and best average high school GPA, 3.39 of a possible 4.0 in the core curriculum. But Georgia Tech's football players still scored 315 SAT points lower on average than their classmates.