Ground Balls

Mount Hebron showed yesterday why it is considered to be by far the best team in Howard County this season.The Vikings, last season's state Class 3A finalist, gave Mount Saint Joe (2-4) a clinic on faceoffs and badly outhustled the Gaels on ground balls to score a 13-8 victory in the rain at Mount Hebron.The win was particularly sweet because the Vikings (2-0) had lost to St. Joe by a goal last season -- one of only two loses.The advantage on faceoffs was lopsided in Mount Hebron's favor, 19-6.

Stevenson's 18-2 record and No. 4 ranking in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll has been aided by Division III's sixth-ranked offense and 14th-ranked defense. But another pillar of the program's success this season has been ground balls. The Mustangs entered the week ranked second in the nation in ground balls per game (47.4), and that number will improve after the team collected 70 loose balls in an 18-6 pummeling of Christopher Newport in the first round of the NCAA tournament Wednesday night.

They're the scrappers. The players who do a lot of the hard work before the goals are scored. The ones who track back defensively as fast as they push up on attack.They're also the guys who would have preferred to play in the early-season cold and rain.Duties include winning draws, scooping up ground balls, riding relentlessly on defense and whatever else it takes to get their team a win.Westminster coach Jim Peters talked about the days when midfielders played all 60 minutes of a game. Those days are gone now with teams using three and sometimes four midfield lines, but there are still some midfielders who come close to qualifying.

When Stevenson lost a starting defenseman in senior Kyle Fendlay for personal reasons prior to the beginning of the current season, the thought was that the unit might suffer a little bit. But that hasn't been the case thanks to the emergence of sophomore Callum Robinson. As the No. 3 Mustangs prepare to meet Tuesday night a Roanoke squad that upended No. 7 Lynchburg, 9-8, last Saturday, Robinson, 21, leads the No. 3 Mustangs (11-1) in caused turnovers with 17, ranks third in ground balls with 36, and has scored two goals.

Most lacrosse coaches can't stress enough the importance of winning ground balls. And Jim Beardmore, coach of defending Class 4A-3A state champion Severna Park, is one of those coaches. His team's success helps him get the point across. "Ground balls were very important to our success last year," said Beardmore, who led the Falcons to an overall 15-4 record and No. 11 ranking in 2004. "Ben Hunt was like a machine on ground balls for us. He really worked hard to get them, and while he wanted to score or assist, getting ground balls was every bit as important to him."

Scoring goals is a necessity in boys lacrosse, but ground balls were the difference for Gilman. In a matchup between the area's two best lacrosse programs, the top-ranked and visiting Greyhounds slipped past No. 2 Boys' Latin, 14-12, yesterday. Although Lakers senior attack Brian Nee led all scorers with seven goals and senior attack Dan LaMonica contributed a goal and four assists, Gilman improved to 2-0 in the MIAA A Conference and 3-0 overall by dominating ground balls (51-37) and faceoffs (20-10)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- On Day One of the Javy Lopez experiment at first base, the displaced catcher was flawless. Lopez turned in three good plays in the Orioles' 6-4 loss to the Florida Marlins in their exhibition opener at Fort Lauderdale Stadium, making two good pickups of ground balls in the third inning and throwing a runner out at home in the fourth. "I was still a little intimidated and nervous, but once I made the first play, I kind of calmed down a little bit," said Lopez, who has looked shaky at the position at times throughout training.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts said Wednesday morning that he has more good days than bad in his recovery from multiple concussions. Roberts is gradually beginning to do more baseball work on the back fields of the Ed Smith Stadium complex. He has begun taking live batting practice from coaches, and for the past week, he has been working with former Orioles shortstop Mike Bordick, taking ground balls. He's also doing running and stretching activities with special assistant Brady Anderson.

Navy sophomore Geoff Leone was living a nightmare only a defensive midfielder knows. Under 80-degree sunshine at Homewood Field, with the Johns Hopkins offense taking constant aim at him, Leone was fading fast as he tried to overcome painful leg cramps. The Blue Jays were dominating possession time and relentlessly attacking the Mids' short-stick defenders - especially Leone. During a second-half comeback that led to a 10-9 Hopkins victory, Blue Jays midfielder Brian Christopher took Leone behind the net, ran past him, circled the crease and scored.

COACH OF THE YEAR* Warren Michael, Mount Hebron -- At the beginning of the season Mount Hebron was judged to be the third-best team in Howard County behind Centennial and Oakland Mills.By the end of the season the county champion Vikings (14-2) surpassed both those teams and narrowly missed winning the Class 3A/4A state championship, losing in overtime to Arundel, 12-11. Their only other loss was in overtime to Mount St. Joe, 9-8.His teams displayed discipline and intensity -- two elements that characterize his own personality.

Syracuse defenseman Brandon Mullins will miss the rest of the season because of a right knee injury that will require surgery, the team announced Thursday. Mullins went down in the fourth quarter of Friday night's 9-8 overtime victory against Virginia, clutching his knee when he hit the Carrier Dome turf. He labored off the field but did not return. Mullins was enjoying a strong start to his sophomore campaign, contributing significant minutes in Syracuse's first three games, including starting two. He garnered attention for his ability to cover skilled offensive players and make plays in the middle of the field.

Several key matchups figure to loom large in Saturday's tilt between No. 1 Loyola and No. 3 Maryland, but one of the more intriguing individual clashes pits two of the best long-stick midfielders in the country. Senior Scott Ratliff for the Greyhounds (2-0) and senior Jesse Bernhardt for the Terps (2-0) are renowned for their relentless pressure on defense and their willingness to turn defense into offense. Bernhardt said he's looking forward to seeing his counterpart on the field, but he also recognizes that their competition will pale in comparison to the final outcome.

James McCormick "Mickey" Webster Jr., an outstanding lacrosse attackman who was co-captain of the 1959 Johns Hopkins University national championship team and later became an insurance and financial planning executive, died Friday of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. He was 75. "Mickey was an exalted figure in the game. There are All-Americans every year who deserve it, but he was more than just an All-American, he was one of lacrosse's greats," said Bill Tanton, former longtime sports editor of The Evening Sun. "When it comes to feeding, his name is synonymous with the great Hopkins teams of the late 1950s.

Steele Stanwick , Virginia Senior, Baltimore, attackman Stanwick tied a career high with eight points (three goals and five assists) in the top-ranked Cavaliers' 12-8 victory at No. 11 Maryland on Saturday. After the Terps took a 7-5 lead in the third quarter, the 6-foot, 190-pound attackman powered Virginia's 7-1 game-ending run, recording three goals and two assists during that spurt. Stanwick, who also collected five ground balls, earned the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week award.

Anna Barnett, UMBC Freshman, Midland, Texas, goalie In her first career start, Barnett led the Retrievers to their biggest win of the season, an 8-5 upset of then-No. 13 Albany. She made nine saves, including four of five free-position shots, and had two ground balls and a caused turnover. In helping the Retrievers avenge their loss in last season's America East Conference tournament championship, Barnett stopped two free-position shots in the final 3:48 to preserve the win. Her .559 save percentage ranks No. 1 in Division I, and her 7.02 goals-against average is second; she plays about 25 minutes per game.

No. 2 Johns Hopkins (7-0) Coming up: At No. 1 Virginia, Saturday, 2 p.m. Comment: The Blue Jays ended a six-game losing streak last year to the Cavaliers but haven't won in Charlottesville since 1998. Junior Mike Poppleton ranks third in Division I in faceoffs, winning 64.8 percent (68 of 105). No. 8 Loyola (7-0) Coming up: At UMBC, Saturday, 7 p.m. Comment: The Greyhounds are off to their best start since 2002 and are looking for their first 8-0 opening since 1999.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts said Wednesday morning that he has more good days than bad in his recovery from multiple concussions. Roberts is gradually beginning to do more baseball work on the back fields of the Ed Smith Stadium complex. He has begun taking live batting practice from coaches, and for the past week, he has been working with former Orioles shortstop Mike Bordick, taking ground balls. He's also doing running and stretching activities with special assistant Brady Anderson.