Kick

It's no secret the Blast will need its offense cranked up on high to win games in the Major Indoor Soccer League this season, at least early on as the team breaks in two rookie goalkeepers who are brand new to the indoor game. If Saturday night's home opener against the Chicago Soul is any indication, the Blast will be just fine. Overcoming a jittery start, the Blast showed off a surplus of offensive firepower to easily shake the Soul, earning an entertaining 23-13 win in front of an announced crowd of 6,311 at 1st Mariner Arena . "It wasn't rocket science.

Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s column ("Obama's foreign policy reset has little to show for it," Oct. 28) criticizes President Barack Obama's foreign policy. It focused much on the tour that the President Obama undertook early in his administration. Mr. Ehrlich rightly points out that Mr. Obama never used the word apology. The tour could have been criticized for focusing too much on the foreign policy mistakes that the U.S. has made in the past but that would not have gained headlines, so the president's opponents called it an apology tour.

At game's end, Kyle Kauffman scooped up the soccer ball at his feet at midfield, trotted over to the grandstand and, with a stage actor's aplomb, bowed to the crowd. Five hundred people, including Kauffman's parents, stood and cheered the college senior, who had fought through a lifelong neurological and physical disability - cerebral palsy - to play 18 long minutes in Stevenson's 2-0 victory over visiting Hood (3-10-2, 0-8 Middle Atlantic Conference) on Tuesday night. "This is something I will always remember," Kauffman said.

Has Apple gotten lousy at keeping secrets these days? The tech press is abuzz with speculation that the company which birthed the iPhone and the iPad will be coming out with an in-between device, an iPad mini. The mini is expected to be smaller than the iPad but larger than the iPhone, and presumably go head-to-head against other similar devices from Amazon (Kindle Fire), Google (Nexus 7) and other manufacturers. What's interesting is that Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows 8 later this week, plus its own tablet competitor, Surface, on Friday.

Prior to the Ravens' home game against the Dallas Cowboys, Deonte Thompson had ranked 13th in the NFL in kick return average (25.9 yards). But the undrafted rookie learned the importance of protecting the football. Thompson was stripped of the ball on a kickoff to open the third quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 7. Kansas City converted the turnover into a field goal, and the Ravens persevered with a 9-6 win, but Thompson conceded that his gaffe may have influenced the coaches to bench him against Dallas.

The Ravens deactivated a few surprises for Sunday's home game against the Dallas Cowboys, including starting left guard Ramon Harewood. Harewood had started the first five contests, but he appeared to struggle slightly in his last two outings. The Sun reported Friday that Harewood would be replaced in the starting lineup by Bobbie Williams. The team also elected to sideline kick returner Deonte Thompson. The undrafted rookie ranked 13th in the NFL in kick return average (25.9 yards)

Here are observations made during Maryland's 27-20 victory over Virginia: *How many times have you seen a kickoff returner pause to consider whether to run the ball out of the end zone … and then bolt past the coverage? That's what happened on Stefon Diggs' 100-yard touchdown return. Sometimes, even a short hesitation can cause the coverage team to either pause or overrun the play. “The ball was 5 yards deep, I believe and we had the feeling that (Diggs) was going to take a knee,” said Virginia kicker Ian Frye.

Maryland entered the day knowing it needed to improve a running game ranked last in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But the Terps were without leading rusher Wes Brown (shoulder). Maryland started Justus Pickett at tailback and also played Albert Reid. Pickett caught a 20-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. But Pickett, the primary ball carrier, struggled early. He had 10 carries in the first half for a net of minus-3 yards. Overall, Pickett carried 15 times for a net of minus-8 yards.

Many Maryland fans complained on Twitter that they missed the opening of today's Terps-Virginia game because the Richmond-New Hampshire television broadcast ran long on Comcast SportsNet. The Maryland game began at 3 p.m. Fans missed a portion of the opening quarter, which included a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown by Stefon Diggs on the first play. Maryland released a statement attributed to Brian Potter of Comcast SportsNet (below): "In order to be fair to all teams and their fans, Comcast SportsNet's policy (which is similar to other sports networks)

MGM Resorts International has kicked in another $3 million for its effort to win passage of Maryland's gambling expansion referendum as the money meter in this duel of the casinos shot past $40 million. With MGM's newest contribution, posted at the State Board of Elections Thursday, the total contributed by the company and its allies now amounts to $22 million -- of which $17.8 million has been spent. That puts MGM and its allies -- Caesars Entertainment and Peterson Cos. -- roughly at parity with rival Penn National Gaming.