Chesapeake

For Broadneck's boys soccer team, the school year has just begun, yet it is already time for report cards.The grades will come in tonight when the sixth-ranked Bruins (1-1) face Chesapeake-Anne Arundel at 7:30."Chesapeake. Now, that's a big game," coach Kevin McMullen said in the wake of Broadneck's 2-0 defeat at No. 3 Severna Park last night. The loss left Broadneck's playoff boat listing, if not actually dead in the water.McMullen downplayed the game all week, but saw enough to leave him visibly concerned heading into Chesapeake.

After scouting Severna Park against Annapolis this week, Chesapeake field hockey coach Jerry Raab left with a conclusion that smacked of sacrilege."We're better," she said.Chesapeake better than No. 1 Severna Park? Better than the defending state Class 4A champion? Better than the Falcons whose 26-game winning streak stretches to 1992?Raab's players obviously thought so, too. They gave her a feather for her hair before the game yesterday, telling her that "we're going to pluck the Falcons."

As she gathered her players on the sideline before the first overtime against visiting Chesapeake, Severna Park girls soccer coach Joyce Stefancik reminded them that "a tie is better than a loss."Judging by the caliber of the two teams, that might have been the logical conclusion.Severna Park's Stephanie Roberts scored her second goal with 1 minute, 30 seconds left in regulation, and neither side converted during two 10-minute overtimes, as No. 3 Chesapeake and No. 9 Severna Park played to a 2-2 tie yesterday.

Chesapeake-AA's Jeremy Pellegrini sank a 30-foot three-pointer at the buzzer to salvage a 48-47 triumph for the Cougars over Northeast last night in the opening game of the Pascal Holiday Tournament at North County High.In the nightcap, Lou Brown led all Pascal Boys Tournamentscorers with 19 points and James Rivers had a game-high 14 rebounds and all eight of his points in the fourth quarter as the host Knights pulled away from Severna Park in the final four minutes for a 69-60 victory.North County (3-3)

No. 4 Northeast and No. 13 Chesapeake got into their second wrestling brawl of the season and this time they invited DeMatha.At the match held at Northeast, DeMatha's Stags (2-1), the seven-time Metro Conference champions, defeated Chesapeake (2-3), 40-23, before losing 49-15 to Northeast (7-0), which crushed Chesapeake, 48-18, for the second time this season.The featured bout of the evening had Northeast's third-ranked 112-pounder Marty Kusick (9-0) dropping to 103, where he won, 8-7, over Dematha's top-ranked Todd Beckerman (17-1, 14 pins)

His team's nine-point thrashing by No. 8 Annapolis was only seconds old when Chesapeake coach Jim Buchan listened to the question and provided an answer without hesitation.Who can beat Annapolis?Severna Park already has, but no one else has, and host Chesapeake was victim No. 11 yesterday as the Panthers (11-1, 5-1 in league) continued its drive toward the top seeding in the Class 3A-4A East Region playoffs with a 20-11 victory."They can be beaten, but we weren't that team, obviously," Buchan said.

After losing its first seven games this season and 14 of its past 15, Chesapeake of Anne Arundel County finally experienced some good fortune.The Cougars scored two touchdowns off fumble recoveries en route to a 19-18 overtime victory over Meade on Friday.Chesapeake coach Tom Kraning called it "a game of ineptitude". Meade also scored a touchdown off a fumble recovery, and both kickers missed an extra-point attempt and each had an extra-point attempt blocked.Trailing, 12-0, in the second quarter, Chesapeake's Brandon Steinheim fumbled, and the ball bounced into the end zone, where teammate Kevin Sellers fell on it for a touchdown.

Coach Jim Simms said clutch hitting and a little luck carried his 14th-ranked Chesapeake squad into yesterday's 4A East Region semifinal against No. 8 Arundel.But both ran out in a 3-1 loss that ended a streak that included the Cougars' winning nine of their last 11 games.Visiting Arundel's Steve Brunner went 2-for-3, with a run-scoring double and a run-scoring triple, and played solid defense along with Brian Burden (third base) and Casey Trout (shortstop). Left-hander Andy Vermillion struck out four, walked one and scattered four hits.

The plague of avian cholera that has swept down the Chesapeake Bay this winter reminds us of the perplexing factors that nature periodically employs to regulate the ecosystem.Scientists admit to helplessness in the wake of the rapid contagion that has killed thousands of ducks from Queen Anne's County through Virginia's portion of the bay. Department of Natural Resources workers can do no more than promptly retrieve the carcasses to keep the disease from spreading into the streams, rivers and ponds that could infect other birds, from sparrows to swans.

Marylanders have always kept a close eye on the health o King Crab, but usually only after he has been properly steamed and seasoned.Market prices and available sizes at restaurants, seafood markets and carryout shops have been the primary public measures of change to the prodigious populations of these beautiful swimmers of the Chesapeake.Some years the delectable crustaceans are huge and abundant, other times they're scarce and small and costly. But that has always been the way with the cycle of nature.