PITTSBURGH — A white Western Pennsylvania family that took in a black teenage foster child who plays for his high school football team said they were targeted by a wooden cross burned outside their home over the weekend after his team lost a playoff game.

State police said Monday they don't know who burned the 6-foot-tall cross, which Joe and Candy Walbeck said they were shocked to find charred in their yard early Sunday.

The Walbecks, who live in a predominantly white community an hour's drive east of Pittsburgh, took in 16-year-old Shaq Howard three years ago as a foster child because he was having problems with his family, and they now have legal guardianship. They said Shaq, a junior who plays inside linebacker and fullback for United High School, is well liked.

The Walbecks have taken in about 16 foster children over the last six years at their home in West Wheatfield Township, Indiana County. They've had a couple of biracial foster children, but Shaq is their first black child. They said no one in the community of about 2,300 residents has expressed a problem with Shaq, an honor roll student and a starter for his school team.