Hawks

Early in the season, North Harford beat Loch Raven for the first time in school history, but the Hawks could not make it two in a row yesterday.The host Raiders stunned unbeaten, No. 9 North Harford, taking an 8-5 victory for the Class 1A-2A North region championship.For the seventh straight year, the Raiders advanced to the state final four this weekend at UMBC, where they will meet Hammond, which beat Glenelg, 11-7.This marked the Raiders' second straight regional title victory over the Hawks.

Last night's Howard County girls basketball championship at River Hill had all the trappings of a prime-time event - a huge crowd, a DJ and rowdy visiting fans. Thanks to Keisha Eaddy, it also had a prime-time player. The Temple-bound senior scored 15 of her game-high 21 points in the first half as host and No. 8 River Hill ran away with the county title, 66-47, over No. 11 Atholton. She added 11 rebounds and six steals. Junior Kelsey Erdman contributed 17 points for the Hawks (23-0, 19-0)

The baseball diamond at North Harford sits high on a hill above the stadium. Everything drains off this field including, it seems, last year's problems.On the hill, first-year coach Tim Larrimore and a strong group of holdovers from a disappointing 1990 hatched a plan to rebound from that 6-13 season. Tuesday, they pulled off the upset of the season so far, surprising Edgewood, 11-10.Rick Johnson scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning. The senior reached on a fielder's choice, took second on a passed ball, went to third on Matt Machala's single and scored on a wild pitch.

This is how bad it was last night for River Hill in its season opener against visiting Urbana: the Hawks had more free-throw attempts and more turnovers than they did total points."

COLLEGE PARK -- River Hill's path to a highly anticipated date in the Class 3A state final seemed pretty clear when the pairings for the state tournament were announced. Trouble is, somebody forgot to tell Towson. The Generals gave the top-ranked Hawks everything they could handle and then some Tuesday, but River Hill prevailed, 25-16, 25-27, 19-25, 25-19, 15-12, in the Class 3A state semifinals at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum. The Hawks will face Northern of Calvert County, a 25-14, 25-19, 25-23 winner over Damascus in the other semifinal.

The top-ranked River Hill boys soccer team struggled to find its rhythm at Oakland Mills yesterday, but the Hawks finally fended off a determined challenge by the No. 2 Scorpions in overtime, 1-0.Adom Crew's 12-yard put-back volley in the 84th minute ended a contest filled with whitewater moments demanding quick decision-making, crisis management and physical stamina.And until Crew's shot, lionhearted Oakland Mills (4-1 overall, 1-1 league) held the edge in most of those categories against the highly skilled and more experienced Hawks (4-0, 2-0)

LANDOVER -- Washington Bullets coach Wes Unseld, savoring his first home victory since Nov. 2, had kind words for almost all his players last night, but singled out rookie forward Larry Stewart of Coppin State for special praise in whipping the Atlanta Hawks, 126-115.Point guard Michael Adams, returning from a one-game absence with a sprained shooting hand, scored a game-high 30 points and added eight assists. Center Pervis Ellison contributed 24 points and nine rebounds. Forward Harvey Grant ended a shooting slump with 19 points, and A.J. English came off the bench to score a season-high 25 points.

No. 1-ranked teams find a way to win even on their bad days.River Hill's skill at set pieces and shaky Wilde Lake goalkeeping were all the unbeaten Clarksville team needed to score a 3-0 victory yesterday in a game most of the Hawks would just as soon forget, even though it was their seventh shutout this season and 19th straight victory dating to last season."

The River Hill girls basketball team, which has won four straight county championships and captured its first Class 3A state title last season, finds itself in familiar territory with the regular season in its final week. The path taken this winter, however, has been far different from recent years. The Hawks' 36-35 win at Mount Hebron on Thursday typifies the scratch-and-claw identity of the team. Trailing 31-23 after three quarters and still down by six with 2:20 to play, the Hawks got a put-back from Alicia Seelaus with two seconds left to edge the Vikings and put themselves in position for another county championship game appearance.

LANDOVER -- The Washington Bullets' prospects looked less than rosy going into last night's game. Not only had they shot poorly in losing four of the last five games, but they were facing an Atlanta team that had won 10 in a row against Washington.So, of course, the game was no contest, with the win-big-today, lose-big-tomorrow Bullets dominating the Hawks, 96-79, before 10,403 at the USAir Arena.It was the fewest points allowed by the Bullets in nearly eight years. And Atlanta's 34.7 percent shooting was the lowest field-goal percentage allowed by Washington this season.