La Plata

Two Charles County men drowned after becoming trapped i a narrow well -- some 40 feet deep but only 31 inches wide -- they were cleaning yesterday.The men's claustrophobic predicament some four stories below ground level frustrated attempts at rescuing them over several hours.Three rescuers passed out because of a lack of oxygen during attempts to pull George L. Montgomery, 49, of Nanjemoy and Gregory J. Keys, 40, of Indian Head from the well at a home in the 3400 block of Washington Ave. near La Plata.

Carl and Barbara Baldus refer to their very wide, one-story brick house as a rambler. In the "Old Line" Colonial location of Charles County in Southern Maryland, the sprawling house sits at the top of a long driveway amid acres of rolling green and landscaped gardens that include a large pond. Both have lived in Charles County all their lives. When he was 19, Carl Baldus, now 77 and owner of Baldus Realty, purchased 93 acres of land in the town of La Plata before going off to serve in Korea.

Wilde Lake's nine seniors refused to lose a third straight state title game yesterday at Old Mill High.Instead, the No. 6-ranked Wildecats, with major help from two freshmen and a sophomore, defeated the La Plata Warriors of Charles County for the Class 3A title, 2-0."We lost two heartbreakers in a row, but finally got the monkey off our back," said Wilde Lake coach Dave Nesbitt, who also coached the Wildecats' 1991 state championship team. Wilde Lake also lost a state final in 1993.The victory, Wilde Lake's ninth shutout, completed an unlikely hat trick of 1A, 2A and 3A state titles in one season for Howard County schools, a feat that only one other county has accomplished -- Baltimore County in 1974.

LA PLATA - It has been a year since the tornado, and not everything is coming back. Not the oak trees that lent this Southern Maryland town a stately charm, nor the toppled water tower, nor the 100-year-old wood-frame house that carpenter Ronald Johnson had lived in all his life. A beauty salon is simply gone, as are a home improvement store, a fast-food chicken joint and a grocery. Weeds wave slowly in the breeze in the vacant lot where Patsy Benson's flower shop stood until winds exceeding 207 mph careened through town amid ominous hail and premature darkness in the early evening of April 28. "It's just a little plot of grass now," Benson says of her store.

Hard work and sweat on the wrestling mats that started in mid-November paid off Feb. 1 as the Laurel Boys and Girls Club captured the program's first-ever Southern Maryland Junior Wrestling dual meet championship. The squad overcame adversity with dedication and determination while forming a winning bond that peaked at the right time. "Our youth worked very hard to achieve this measure of success," coach Steve Overton noted. In the tournament, held at Patuxent High School, Laurel defeated Calvert, 80-60 in the first round, and Glenarden, 76-71 in the second round.

During the course of this season, the C. Milton Wright Mustangs used equal doses of pitching and defense to cruise to a Harford County championship.In last night's Class 3A state semifinal, however, the Mustangs could have used a stronger prescription.The Mustangs committed five errors and allowed five unearned runs in their 6-2 loss to La Plata of Charles County at Randazzo Park."Mistakes happen, but it's an unfortunate place for them to happen," said Mustangs coach Joe Dunch. "It's kind of unlike us to make this many.

LA PLATA - Among the legions of volunteers who helped out in this decimated city yesterday, the dozen soft-spoken men in straw hats, bushy beards and suspenders stood out. The Amish had come, quietly but purposefully, to see what needed to be done. Their skilled hands quickly found much to do. As at an old-fashioned barn-raising, the men from Mechanicsville in St. Mary's County clambered onto roofs to nail down tarpaulins or fasten plywood patches. Others went house to house clearing away felled tree limbs.

LA PLATA -- Wallace Dudley Ball, the handyman accused of killing Debra Ann Goodwich during a burglary in her parents' Baltimore County home, confessed three times to the slaying -- including once in a letter to the victim's mother.The confessions were enumerated yesterday by Ball's lawyer during opening statements in Charles County Circuit Court, where the trial under Maryland's death penalty statute was moved at the defendant's request because of widespread publicity about the 1994 slaying.

LA PLATA - It was just a charm bracelet. What did it cost, anyway? Why all the digging and volunteers and donated bottled water and work gloves? No one had even met the lady. In one disaster area in La Plata - the two-story rental home that stood at 7 Maple Ave. as of last Saturday - volunteers this week descended on the rubble left as of Sunday's tornado. Was it #7? Hard to tell. Nothing was upright, so the official types had to plant a board on which to post a "This Property is Condemned" sign.

La Plata coach Chris Butler said before yesterday's game at Hammond that he didn't expect his team to win, but was just happy for the opportunity to come into "real soccer country" and maybe gain some respect for Southern Maryland soccer. The Warriors, Class 3A South Region champs a year ago, are ranked No. 10 by the Washington Post and return 10 starters, so Butler may have been kidding just a bit. Whatever his real expectation, La Plata scored a 3-1 victory despite a strong if not dominating effort by Hammond, which has high hopes for this season.