Penn State’s Massaro likely out for 2011

The promising football career of Penn State defensive end Pete Massaro, a former star at Marple Newtown High School, has been subjected to a serious setback for the second time in three years.

The results of an MRI exam on Monday showed that Massaro has a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and likely will miss the entire 2011 season.

In 2009, Massaro suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during the Blue-White spring football game and had to sit out the season.

The 6-foot-4, 264-pound Massaro, who will be a redshirt junior in the fall, suffered the injury during Friday's practice when he caught his foot in the turf.

Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, Penn State's director of athletic medicine, said Massaro will have surgery in the next two to three weeks and then embark on about nine months of rehabilitation.

After starting the last 11 games of the 2010 season, Massaro was expected to start once again in the fall as one of the leaders of a strong corps of defensive ends.

He ranked second on the team last season with 31/2 sacks and fourth with eight tackles for loss. He finished with 37 tackles, 20 of them solo, with one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

Massaro also won academic all-American honors last season, carrying a 3.82 grade point average into the spring semester as a finance major. He also earned academic all-Big Ten honors.