May 25, 2006

A crowd of nearly 6,000 turned out on Friday evening in Baltimore to watch the MIAA's A Conference championship game between undefeated Boys' Latin and McDonogh. The boisterous crowd, which included student sections from both schools cheering nearly non-stop starting 30 minutes before the game, kept Homewood Field buzzing throughout the evening. After a close first quarter however, BL seized control to claim an 11-6 win, capping a 21-0 campaign and becoming the first MIAA squad to finish unbeaten since BL's 1997 team.

Head Coach Bob Shriver, finishing his 27th year at Boys' Latin, said his Laker team saved its best for last. "Obviously, being 21-0, we've been able to put teams away all year," he told The Baltimore Examiner. "But in most of those games we only played well in spurts and let teams back into games. Tonight was the first time all season we sustained consistent play for 48 minutes."

• Not to be overshadowed, a crowd in excess of 4,000 turned out for the Maryland public school championship Wednesday to witness Severna Park's 7-4 victory over seven-time state champion Dulaney. The teams have met in the state semifinal or final in each of the past seven years, and were meeting in the final for the third time in four years. The teams have dominated the top of the Maryland public school ranks over the past eight seasons, with Dulaney claiming five titles during that span and Severna Park now adding its third.

• Also in Maryland public school play, the Mount Hebron boys claimed their fourth state title with a 9-7 win over Urbana in the Class 3A-2A final. And Loch Raven won its first state title by defeating defending champion Parkside 10-7 in the Class 2A-1A final, snapping Parkside's 35-game winning streak in the process.

• Meanwhile, it was business as usual for the Mount Hebron girls' team, which made it 10-in-a-row, blanking Stephen Decatur 16-0 to claim the 3A-2A state title once again. Mount Hebron won its 14th state championship in the past 17 years. The Vikings finished 19-0 this year and extended their five-year winning streak to 97 straight games. Dulaney captured its second straight Class 4A-3A championship, defeating Severna Park 11-9 to finish the year with a 16-2 record. Century - led by its 100-point scorer Jenny Steadman - won the Class 2A-1A title for the second time in three years with a 16-6 win over Pikesville. The Knights also completed their first undefeated season with a 19-0 record.

• In Colorado, Kent Denver's bid for an undefeated season and second straight girls' state championship came to an end with a 9-7 loss to arch-rival Cherry Creek in the final. The two teams were meeting in the state final for the fifth time in the past six years. Cherry Creek has won three of the championship match-ups. Kent finishes 17-1.

• The play-offs are underway on Long Island, and it didn't take more than one game for one player to find his way into the recordbook. Junior Dean Gibbons tallied five goals in Garden City's 20-2 first round win over Jericho Friday night, giving him the Long Island single-season record of 89 goals. He broke the mark of 88 shared previously by GC's Tom Worstell (1979), Ward Melville's Matt Monfett (1999) and Jericho's Max Motschwiller (2005).

• Speaking of Ward Melville, Coach Joe Cuozzo is approaching this play-off tournament with a different perspective than the 36 previous play-off appearances in his storied career. This year, he's serving as the co-head coach. After retiring from teaching last year, Cuozzo was led to believe he would be able to remain in coaching. He then learned that he was being replaced by his former player and assistant Mike Hoppey, who had union support for the job because he is a full-time employee in the district. Eventually, it was agreed that the two would serve as co-head coaches for 2006.

"Somebody said I lost my fastball...that the game has passed me by," said Cuozzo, who has won seven state titles and 15 Long Island championships in his career. "I know in my heart that's not true. I mean, yeah, I'm 68-years old. But I'm still energetic."

Cuozzo, who has a shot at reaching 700 career wins depending on the length of Ward Melville's postseason run, has assumed control of the defense this year while Hoppey oversees the offense. The Patriots host East Islip on Thursday.

"We've made it work because I think we both tried to make it work," explained Cuozzo, "but it's not an ideal situation."

• And finally, we haven't talked much about lacrosse in Maine this year, but it was hard to ignore Saturday's boys' game between Messalonskee and Mount Ararat. Messalonskee, one of just two unbeatens in the state, kept its perfect record intact, but only after surviving a 13-overtime marathon against the Eagles from Ararat. The game lasted three hours and 27 minutes in real time, and 96 minutes and 21 seconds worth of clock time.

That's the equivalent of a 48-minute regulation game, 12 full four-minute overtime periods, and 21 seconds of the 13th overtime. Messalonskee finally emerged with the 6-5 win on Matt Delguidice's goal to improve to 12-0 overall. Perhaps the game would have ended a bit quicker had the two goalies - Joey Charles (30 saves) of Messalonskee and Reuben Fischer-Baum of Mount Ararat - not combined for 54 saves in the game.

"It was quite the effort from all the kids," Mount Ararat Coach Matt Haskell said afterwards in the Maine Times-Record. "There were some tired lads at the end of it."