Gaels

Phil Booth Mount St. Joseph, junior, guard * Second-team pick last season averaged 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists this season * Named Baltimore Catholic League's Defender of the Year and tournament's MVP as the No. 4 Gaels won the title * Has scored more than 1,200 points in his first three varsity seasons * Highly recruited Division I prospect has offers from Indiana, Georgetown, Maryland and Villanova, among others...

The junior pitcher-outfielder made significant contributions on the mound and at the plate as the No. 8 Gaels had a 5-0 record last week. On April 23, he tossed a complete game in a 6-2 win at No. 1 Calvert Hall, limiting the Cardinals to six hits with five strikeouts. In Thursday's 4-3 win over then-No. 2 Gilman, he went 1-for-3 at the plate and drove in the game's first run with a double. Mount St. Joseph won the Intra-City Tournament in Philadelphia over the weekend with three wins.

The No. 3 Mount St. Joseph soccer team scratched and clawed and defended with everything it had in Monday's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship against No. 1 and two-time defending league champion McDonogh. All the hard work - 100 scoreless minutes' worth - got the Gaels to a familiar place, penalty kicks. And once again, senior forward David Arnold - tall, athletic and with a knack for guessing right - turned temporary goalie and ended up the hero.

This time, the No. 2 Glenelg softball team didn't wait until the seventh inning to issue the knockout blow against No. 12 Howard. Mandy Bendix and Faith Kujawa each delivered a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning Friday, breaking open a tie game and providing the deciding runs in a 6-3 victory that keeps the Gladiators undefeated this spring. The win also secured Glenelg (13-0, 16-0) a season sweep of Howard (9-4, 11-5), having come back to win the first meeting over the Lions back in March by scoring four times in the top of the seventh.

Three years ago, Mount St. Joseph's tennis team finished 0-10, but if the Gaels' early-season exploits are any indication, they just might be headed for the best tennis season in school history. They opened with their first-ever win over McDonogh, the two-time defending Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference champion and one of two teams with a chokehold on the conference title for 14 years. McDonogh and Gilman have won every title during that stretch except in 2001, when Calvert Hall took it. The Gaels are hoping this will be their year.

The Mount St. Joseph boys soccer team is the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference champion, thanks in part to gutsy defense, poise and a key decision by coach Mike St. Martin that enabled the No. 3 Gaels to get past No. 1 McDonogh on penalty kicks Monday. St. Martin watched senior goalie Brad Benzing make eight saves - a number of them brilliant - during 100 minutes of scoreless play. But when it came to who would be in goal for the deciding shootout, St. Martin went to his unconventional source, David Arnold . With Benzing sidelined in the semifinals against Calvert Hall, St. Martin had turned to Arnold - 6 feet 5 with uncanny athleticism - during the shootout, and he responded with three saves despite not having played in goal since he was 11 years old. With Benzing back and playing well Monday, the decision was much tougher.

Backup quarterback Danny Cameron, son of Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, threw three touchdown passes and senior kicker Bennett Bradley converted a 19-yard field goal with 13 seconds remaining to rally host Loyola to a 31-28 victory over Mount St. Joseph on Saturday. With the victory, the Dons (5-4, 2-2 conference) earned the fourth seed in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference playoffs. They will host fifth-seeded McDonogh in the A Conference quarterfinals next weekend.

Ryley Beaumont had a game-high 21 points as top-ranked Mount St. Joseph routed visiting John Carroll, 70-30, in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference tournament semifinal Friday. The Gaels (28-2) advance to Sunday's championship game at UMBC at 5:30 p.m. where they will face No. 2 St. Frances, a 63-51 winner over No. 3 Calvert Hall. Mount St. Joseph has won two of three meetings with the Panthers this season, the last one a 69-68 Mount St. Joseph victory Jan. 31. Against the Patriots, Mount St. Joseph led 27-11 at the half before going on a 19-6 run in the third quarter.

The bottom of Gilman's lineup helped the Greyhounds reach the top of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference on Thursday. Gilman's No. 2 doubles team of Jay Barrett and Will Faison rallied to win a tiebreaker that let the Greyhounds tie host Mount St. Joseph in the conference's title match. The only match left was at No. 3 singles where Galen Rende of Gilman was finishing off his 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Tristan Boustany. That completed Gilman's come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Gaels in the A Conference championship.

Reggie Boyce returned a punt 50 yards for a touchdown with 52 seconds left to give No. 14 Loyola (1-2, 1-0) an 18-13 win over host Mount St. Joseph (0-4, 0-1) yesterday in a Maryland Scholastic Association Armstrong A Conference game.The Dons struck first with a 10-play scoring drive that was capped by Brian Oates' 3-yard touchdown run. Kevin Kaiser's extra-point attempt went wide left.The Gaels answered with an 11-play drive that was capped by a 5-yard touchdown run by senior Julius Weems.

Mount St. Joseph lacrosse coach Dave Slafkosky wasn't looking for cupcakes for his team's Easter Lax Day. Tough challenges, he thought, could only help his young squad heading into the core of its Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference schedule. The No. 13 Gaels found more than they could handle in their opener Saturday against Westminster. The Owls, who lost to South River in the Class 4A-3A state final last season, took 14 of the game's first 15 shots, getting four goals each from midfielder C.J. Nichols and attackman Ryan Drenner in a 15-7 win. "Westminster ran by us and played tougher than us in every aspect," Slafkosky said.

Phil Booth Mount St. Joseph, junior, guard * Second-team pick last season averaged 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists this season * Named Baltimore Catholic League's Defender of the Year and tournament's MVP as the No. 4 Gaels won the title * Has scored more than 1,200 points in his first three varsity seasons * Highly recruited Division I prospect has offers from Indiana, Georgetown, Maryland and Villanova, among others...

Phil Booth hit back-to-back 3-pointers late in the game to get the No. 3 Mount St. Joseph boys basketball team within striking distance of Bishop Denis J. O'Connell (Va.). But the Gaels' final, potentially game- winning 3-point attempt with 3.7 seconds left bounced off the rim and the Gaels fell, 70-68, in the opening round of the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament in Cumberland on Thursday. "I was disappointed in the result, but not disappointed in the effort," Gaels coach Pat Clatchey said.

There's no question that the No. 3 Mount St. Joseph boys basketball team has revolved around the All-Metro guard tandem of Kameron Williams and Phil Booth the past two seasons. But behind them has been a steady group of contributors. In Monday's 42nd Baltimore Catholic League championship game against No. 6 Archbishop Spalding, Mount St. Joseph's contributors stepped up in an even bigger way. Senior forward Charlie Jones, junior forward Kyle Doran and junior guard Jaylen Adams all made big baskets and other important plays.

The Mount St. Joseph boys basketball team took care of two things in Sunday's Baltimore Catholic League semifinal against John Carroll at Loyola University's Reitz Arena. With junior guard Phil Booth leading the way with 16 points, the No. 3 Gaels came away with a 62-53 win over the No. 7 Patriots that gave coach Pat Clatchey his 500th career win and sends them into the final to defend last year's championship. Mount St. Joseph (29-6) will meet No. 7 Archbishop Spalding in Monday's championship game.

There hasn't been a boys basketball team in the area able to consistently match the size, athleticism, depth and togetherness that No. 1 St. Frances has brought to the court this season. And when the Panthers are hitting their shots, they simply make the game look easy. Sunday's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship game against No. 2 Mount St. Joseph was one of those occasions. The separation between the area's top two teams was significant at UMBC's packed RAC Arena, where the Panthers scored the game's first 11 points, led by as many as 24 in the second half and coasted through the fourth quarter in capturing the MIAA A crown with a 75-62 win over the Gaels.

Mount St. Joseph needed only one victory yesterday to win two titles. The top-ranked Gaels (25-2) defeated Towson Catholic, 71-62, to clinch the regular-season basketball titles for the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference and Baltimore Catholic League. Eric Atkins paced Mount St. Joseph with 22 points. The fifth-ranked Owls were led by Brandon Greene's game-high 25 points. Greene got the better of his matchup with the Gaels' Henry Sims, a Georgetown recruit, who scored nine points and was in foul trouble for most of the game.

Mount St. Joseph coach Drew Bowden can live with the physical mistakes and he'll even tolerate the mental ones, as long as they are committed at full speed."

St. Frances coach Nick Myles had some concerns about his team having a week off after earning a first-round bye as the top seed in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference playoffs. That type of layoff can potentially cause a team to lose some of its edge at the most crucial time of the season. The No. 1 Panthers, however, showed no ill effects against No. 5 John Carroll in Friday's semifinal and took control by forcing several early turnovers and converting a couple of clutch 3-pointers.

With the playoffs quickly approaching, Mount St. Joseph picked a good time to hit its stride. The No. 2 Gaels hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter and led for all but 22 seconds in their 76-65 win at No. 7 John Carroll on Wednesday night. Senior guard Kameron Williams led the Gaels (25-5) with 35 points, and senior guard Rodney Elliott scored 27 to lead host John Carroll (23-10). "We pride ourselves on our shooting," Mount St. Joseph coach Pat Clatchey said. "Some nights it's better than others, and I tell them not to fall in love with the jump shot, cause it's fool's gold.