Catoctin

- Patterson Mill won the first game of its Class 1A state semifinal with Catoctin, but the Huskies were their own worst enemy in the other three games, dropping a 13-25, 27-25, 26-24, 25-22 decision to the Cougars from Frederick County. The Huskies held a 24-22 lead in the second game and a 24-21 lead in the third game but could not put Catoctin away. Haley Jarcynski led Patterson Mill with 26 digs and seven kills. Elise Manning paced Catoctin with 18 kills. The Cougars will face Washington County's Smithsburg in the Class 1A state championship.

Farmers may be leery of anyone from the federal government promising help, but here's one offer that sounds too good to refuse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service announced this week that it is making up to $315,000 available to "farmers, ranchers and forest landowners" in the Catoctin Creek watershed in western Frederick County. The offer is part of a new water quality initiative by the NRCS directing technical and financial help to 157 watersheds nationwide.

Snowstorms in Western Maryland forced the postponement of yesterday's Class 1A, Region II girls basketball semifinal between Wilde Lake and Catoctin.The game was scheduled to be played at Wilde Lake, the second-seeded team in the region. But Catoctin, a winner over Brunswick in Tuesday's opening-round game, was snowed in by a storm that dumped 8 to 10 inches on the area.The game was rescheduled for today at 6 p.m. at Wilde Lake.

For eight years, Renee Gordon's son, Alex, has been attending Camp Greentop, a summer getaway in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains for people with disabilities. Now Gordon is now spearheading a campaign with Michael Hettleman to raise $1 million for the Baltimore-based League for People with Disabilities, which runs the camp. The money will be used to help families pay for the programs, which cost about $260 a day, and to provide training for counselors. "The camp provides the most incredible experience," Gordon said.

The first six innings of yesterday's Class 1A state semifinal against Frederick County's Catoctin were an exercise in frustration for No. 10 Owings Mills.The Eagles made numerous mental and physical errors, ran themselves out of innings and every bloop, bunt and grounder by Catoctin seemed to find a hole.And the Eagles almost won anyway.Down to its last strike, Owings Mills rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings before Catoctin scored four in the ninth to post a 10-6 victory at Randazzo Park.

There were different heroes in each of the three games Francis Scott Key won last night to avenge an earlier loss to visiting Catoctin.It made for a solid, all-around team effort that pleased coach Leo Totten, as Key (5-3) won, 15-10, 10-15, 15-10 and 15-4."The whole team played well and everyone stayed together," said Totten, whose squad lost at Catoctin in its opener in early September."The difference was our passes were much better and the teamwork was there tonight. Everyone stayed up, whether they were on the court or on the bench."

Doug Williams, who has been Severn School's head football coach for the last seven years, has resigned to take a teaching and coaching position at Catoctin High in Frederick County.Assistant coach Jim Doyle, who also is Severn's head basketball coach, has been named Williams' successor."It was time for a change and a chance to work at a bigger schooland have a chance for a state title," said Williams. "I'm going to miss Severn, but the teaching and coaching position at Catoctin is a very good opportunity."

The effort was there for the Francis Scott Key Eagles. The goals were not.The Eagles spent the better part of the second half against visiting Catoctin pressing the issue yesterday afternoon, only to come up on the short end of a 3-1 decision.The Eagles (3-7-1) looked like an entirely different team in the second half after starting slow and trailing 1-0 to the Cougars (6-5-1) at intermission.When Kelly Jirout took a short feed from Lisa Turner seven minutes into the second half and went high with a shot from 15 yards to beat Catoctin goalie Dana Bollinger, it appeared the Eagles were on their way."

The game had been over for 10 minutes and the Catoctin Cougars had packed up their equipment and were on the bus celebrating a 12-6 Monocacy Valley League softball victory over Francis Scott Key yesterday at the Uniontown school.An unhappy Key coach, Joe Linthicum, stood behind the backstop and stared at the field."We lost to an average team with some good players," said Linthicum. "It was the same story as all our seven losses this season. A couple of big innings in which we made errors."

Another slow start proved costly for the Francis Scott Key girls, as they saw their two-game winning streak end with a 58-43 loss against visiting Catoctin last night in Uniontown.The Eagles (3-6 and 3-2 in the Monocacy Valley Athletic League) opened the game missing their first 10 shots. By the time Tina Smith hit a layup with 2:49 left in the first quarter, Catoctin (8-2, 5-1) had already built a 12-0 lead."We have a tendency to come out intimidated, and it takes us a few minutes to realize we can play with these teams," said Francis Scott Key coach Brian Hollingsworth.

0 Events Century won at the state meet. The Knights still took the Class 2A championship. 1.5 Carver's margin of victory over Catoctin at the Class 1A title meet. The Bears won, 80.5-79. 40 Points Ian Miles helped score for Mount St. Joseph at the MIAA championship. He won three races and ran on the victorious 800 relay.

A historic aqueduct in Western Maryland has been restored nearly four decades after two of its three arches collapsed, leaving the now-139-year-old structure in ruins. State and federal lawmakers held a ceremony Saturday near Point of Rocks, about 15 miles southeast of Frederick along the Maryland-Virginia border, to celebrate the reopening of the Catoctin Aqueduct, one of 11 aqueducts along the 184.5 miles of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. "It just couldn't have been a more perfect day," said George E. Lewis Jr., a veterinarian who is president of the Catoctin Aqueduct Restoration Fund Inc., by phone Saturday.

It was a family reunion of sorts. I was in College Park on Saturday with my wife and our older daughter and a couple of family friends to watch the Howard High softball team tangle with Calvert County’s Northern High School for the  3A state championship.  My father, who was the home plate umpire during the 1A matchup between Loch Raven and Catoctin later that day, arrived early, and our brother-in-law and nephew showed up unexpectedly. All attended the game knowing it was very unlikely that Howard reserve outfielder Julia Miller would see any action.

— The Loch Raven Raiders had a dream season — in Baltimore County competition. Saturday at the University of Maryland, they found out just how good the rest of the state can be. The Raiders could only manage three singles off Catoctin freshman starter Rhianna Drieu in the Class 1Astate final, falling to the Cougars, 10-0, in a game called in the bottom of the sixth because of the 10-run rule. The state championship was the sixth for Frederick County's Catoctin (19-3). By contrast, it was Loch Raven's first visit to the state tournament in 22 years.

Catoctin already had scored three touchdowns and taken an 18-point lead by the time Joppatowne ran its first play. It was just the beginning of a long day for No. 5 Joppatowne in Saturday's Class 1A state championship game. The Mariners repeatedly stopped themselves with mistakes, and Catoctin pulled away for a 37-12 victory at M&T Bank Stadium. Joppatowne (13-1) moved the ball easily but couldn't make the big plays that Catoctin (14-0) did. The Mariners got inside the Cougars' 20-yard line five times but converted those drives into only six points.

THURMONT - -Dunbar's quest for a fourth consecutive Class 1A state championship came to a crashing end at Catoctin of Frederick County in Friday night's state semifinal. With winds gusting up to 20 mph and temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, the Poets relied on their punishing running game against a Catoctin defense that bent but didn't break. In the end, the Cougars managed to control the clock and pulled out a 13-12 victory. Catoctin improved to 13-0 and will play for its first state title against Joppatowne next Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium.

THURMONT -- Nowhere in Maryland is the impact of the state's burgeoning deer herd more visible than at Catoctin Mountain Park.Thought to be capable of supporting 125 to 175 deer, the heavily wooded, 5,700-acre mountain preserve in Frederick County is under assault from an estimated 400 to 800 hungry deer.The damage isn't immediately visible to casual visitors. In fact, except for the Camp David presidential retreat, Catoctin is probably best known for its abundant deer. More than a half-million people visit the national park each year, many just to catch a glimpse of deer.

The magic number for Wilde Lake's girls basketball team has been 40 all season. The Wildecats are 12-1 when scoring 40 points or more, 0-7 when scoring 39 or fewer.Second-seeded Wilde Lake (13-8) surpassed 40 against visiting Catoctin last night with 4:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Wildecats had to withstand a late rally by the Cougars to win, 45-40, in the Class 1A, Region II semifinal.Wilde Lake, winning its first postseason game under second-year head coach Kelli Rosati, advances to play at top-seeded and No. 17 Milford Mill (18-4)

Dunbar's quest for a fourth consecutive Class 1A state championship came to a crashing end at Catoctin of Frederick County in Friday night's state semifinal. With winds gusting up to 20 mph and temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, the Poets relied on their punishing running game against a Catoctin defense that bent but didn't break. In the end, the Cougars managed to control the clock and pulled out a 13-12 victory. Catoctin improved to 13-0 and will play for its first state title against Joppatowne next Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium.