Lacrosse

On any warm spring evening, the parking lots at Towson High are full. Volvo station wagons. Troopers. Towncars. Beamers. Jags.Kids from ages 5 to 15 run the fields; carrying long sticks, wearing baggy pants, droopy jerseys and oversized shoulder pads. Parents line the practice field. Dads are dressed in business suits or at least a white shirt and tie, while a lot of moms are clad in short suits.On the field are several players whose first name is Brandon, Tyler, or Tucker or last name is Webster, Thomas, Dressel, Morrill or Radebaugh.

Ronnie Zeberlein C. Milton Wright, baseball The senior second baseman went 6-for-9 with a home run, two doubles and four RBIs this week in helping lead his Mustangs to three wins, one a 4-1 victory over then-No. 1 Calvert Hall. He drove in three of his team's four runs against the Cardinals and knocked in the winning run in the last inning of the Mustangs' 5-4 victory over North Harford. His coach, Tony Blackburn, says Zeberlein is "a tireless worker. He would take ground balls all day if we let him."

Century senior Katie Schwarzmann looked forward to playing three solid opponents from outside Carroll County over the Easter weekend, but when Saturday's rain washed out two of those games at Dulaney's Baltimore Showcase, she said, it didn't hurt for her No. 13 girls lacrosse team to have a midseason rest. It sure didn't. Monday morning, the Knights rolled past Roland Park, 16-6, at the 13th Maryland High School Lacrosse Showdown at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field. Schwarzmann had seven goals, and Claire Brady added five.

The Broadneck boys lacrosse team played almost flawlessly Friday night against visiting Arundel by controlling the majority of loose balls, shutting down the Wildcats' offense with crunching checks and capitalizing on its opportunities on the attack. The Bruins are looking to make a deep run in the playoffs with seven returning seniors, and their poise and some big plays by underclassmen were the difference in the 10-4 victory. Sophomore Mark Brashears led Broadneck with four goals, and senior goalie Houston Zemanski came up big with nine saves when Arundel managed to find an opening in Broadneck's aggressive defense.

Boys lacrosse No. 1 Gilman @ No. 3 St. Mary's WHEN: Friday, 4 p.m. OUTLOOK: The visiting Greyhounds have the area's finest midfield, led by seniors Jack Doyle and Greg McBride, to go with standout attackmen Marcus Holman and Davey Emala. The Saints counter with midfielder Mark McNeill and attackman Nick Doub. Gilman has a decided edge in depth and experience. THE BALTIMORE SUN'S PICK: Gilman Girls lacrosse No. 7 Archbishop Spalding @ No. 3 Notre Dame Prep WHEN: Thursday, 4 p.m. OUTLOOK: Spalding has lost All-Metro goalie Cosette Larash to a season-ending knee injury, but Mackenzie Jones has stepped in. The Cavaliers' Danielle Kirk and NDP's Erin Laschinger, an All-Metro selection, are two of the toughest players in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference to contain.

Boys lacrosse No. 4 Boys' Latin @ No. 5 St. Paul's WHEN: Thursday, 4 p.m. OUTLOOK: Both teams try to rebound from losses Tuesday. The Crusaders (6-2, 1-1 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference) have had plenty of balance on offense, led by Pat Powderly and Taylor Michel. Goalie Harry Krieger should get plenty of work against the attack of the Lakers (7-1, 1-1), led by Jack Rice, Patrick Foster and Wells Stanwick. THE BALTIMORE SUN'S PICK: St. Paul's Girls lacrosse No. 3 NDP vs. No. 15 Hereford WHEN: Monday, 1:30 p.m. WHERE: Dulaney OUTLOOK: The teams have split their meetings the past two years at the Baltimore Lacrosse Showcase, a four-team round-robin event.

Dave Pietramala smiles when he hears the question. It's one he has heard before. They look at him - his big-barreled chest, his oak tree of a neck and his linebacker-thick arms - and just assume. You played football growing up, didn't you? No, sadly, Pietramala did not play high school football. It wasn't that he didn't want to, and it wasn't that his parents wouldn't let him. Quite the opposite. There simply was no football in his small world. His tiny Catholic high school, St. Mary's in Hicksville, N.Y., couldn't afford the insurance, and so in the mid-1980s, a generation of broad-shouldered young men like Pietramala were steered to lacrosse and told to seek athletic glory scooping ground balls instead of wrestling running backs to the ground.

Freshman midfielder Michael Kimmel scored one minute into the four-minute, sudden-death overtime period as third-seeded Johns Hopkins defeated Notre Dame, 11-10, in an opening-round game of the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament last night at Homewood Field. Kimmel beat midfielder Taylor Clagett from behind and right of the goal to pull out the win for the Blue Jays, who advanced to the quarterfinals Saturday at Princeton University. Kimmel, out of Loyola High, didn't have one of his better games this season, but he had his biggest goal.

David F. Evans Bethesda's Evans graduated from Duke last year and, according to relatives, has been working for a communications firm. He was the only player to publicly address the media the day he was charged, saying: "You have all been told some fantastic lies." Evans is the son of Washington attorney David Evans and Rae Evans, founder of a Washington-based lobbying and consulting firm. Evans graduated in 2002 from Landon, an all-boys school in Bethesda. He was a member of one of Landon's best lacrosse teams, the 2002 squad that went 20-0.

Gary Gait, a record-setting player who won three NCAA titles and was a four-time All-American as a Syracuse player, was named coach of the school's women's team yesterday. Gait, 40, was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2005. "Gary has proven that he is one of the best [coaches]," Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross said. "To have the greatest player to play the game who has had success at every level of coaching leading our program is extraordinary." Said Gait: "I'm looking forward to working to take the women's lacrosse program to the next level."

College lacrosse Discount for buying tickets to Face-Off, Day of Rivals Fans who buy a ticket to both the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic and the Smartlink Day of Rivals at M&T Bank Stadium will save 50 percent on lower-level tickets (normally $20 each) and will receive a "Baltimore Lacrosse" T-shirt while supplies last. The package is $20 and is available online at BaltimoreRavens.com/lacrosse, as well as at M&T Bank Stadium during Ravens home games. A display booth is located near Section 105. The Face-Off Classic is March 6; participating teams are Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Maryland, Duke, Notre Dame and Loyola.

WNBA Toliver leads Sky past Fever, helps Chicago near playoffs Kristi Toliver (Maryland) came off the bench to score 19 points, Candice Dupree and Mistie Bass had 15 points each and the host Chicago Sky beat the Eastern Conference-leading Indiana Fever for the first time in four meetings this season, 86-79, on Thursday night. "Anytime you can get that kind of contribution from the bench and then your starters come along [and] finish the game for you, that's a huge thing," said Chicago coach Steven Key, whose team closed in on a postseason berth.

Peter Kohn, a retired college athletic team field manager inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, died Wednesday at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. He had suffered a heart attack while on a fishing trip near Cape May, N.J. The North Baltimore resident was 77. "He was an inspirational figure," said former Middlebury College lacrosse coach Jim Grube. "Pete thrived in the environment of coaches and athletes." Born Myron Gutman "Peter" Kohn in Baltimore, he was the son of Bernard Kohn, whose family owned the old Hochschild Kohn department store.

Drew Charles Pfarr, an outstanding Towson University lacrosse midfielder who went on to play the sport professionally, took his life July 24 in Belize. The Towson resident was 27. Mr. Pfarr was in Belize being treated for substance abuse at the time of his death, family members said. Mr. Pfarr was born in Lancaster, Pa., and raised in Severna Park. He was a 2000 graduate of St. Mary's High School in Annapolis, where he excelled as a lacrosse player. "Drew began playing lacrosse when he was 4," said his sister, Anastasia Khoo of Washington.

Soccer AC Milan-Chelsea match at M&T Bank Stadium sold out The Ravens announced Tuesday that tickets for the international soccer match between AC Milan and the Chelsea Football Club at 70,000-seat M&T Bank Stadium on July 24 have sold out. The first soccer game at M&T is part of the World Football Challenge. The round-robin tournament will also feature games in Atlanta, Dallas, Foxborough, Mass., Los Angeles and Palo Alto, Calif. "A sold-out stadium helps to create the energy that fans want to experience on game day," Ravens president Dick Cass said in a release.

In recent years, cities and regions all over the country have played host to reality television shows. While most of these are based in New York and Los Angeles, Baltimore's nearest neighbor is getting in on the act. Recently, camera crews descended on DuPont Circle to begin filming The Real World: Washington, D.C.; meanwhile, the Lifetime Channel is preparing for the fall debut of Blonde Charity Mafia, following three young Washingtonians as they navigate...

Amateur lacrosse Check-Hers beats Stars Gold to win championship in Bel Air Top-seeded Check-Hers 2012, composed mainly of players from Carroll County public schools, cruised to a 19-12 win over 11th-seeded Stars Gold (Va.) to claim the US Lacrosse U-15 national championship trophy at Cedar Lane Sports Park in Bel Air. Madison Cyr, a rising sophomore at Winters Mill, scored six goals and added two assists to help her team finish three days of play unbeaten, and land herself a spot on the Lacrosse Magazine All-Tournament Team.

Track and field Baltimore Olympian Carter retires during nationals event James Carter has reached the finish line of his track and field career. At 31, the veteran 400-meter hurdler out of Mervo and Hampton University, a two-time Olympian and three-time U.S. national champion, announced his retirement Sunday after failing to complete his event at the USA Championships at Hayward Field, Eugene, Ore. After hitting several hurdles in the final of the...

The helmets looked a little too big, like those bobble-headed dolls people used to have in their cars. On Saturday morning in a Southwest Baltimore park, a few of the boys charging around a field wielding lacrosse sticks looked like pros, expertly scooping balls and netting them with panache. Others needed, well, remedial training. "It takes a long time to learn," said Drequan Stanley, who, at 11 years old, was one of the more accomplished players and was helping some of those less adept.

When recent John Carroll graduate Brittany Dashiell stepped on campus at the University of Florida, she knew it was the place for her. It turned out to be the place for five other local lacrosse standouts who will join Dashiell today at Towson University's Johnny Unitas Stadium for the Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Classic. Dashiell, Mount Hebron's Ashley Bruns, Severna Park's Sam Farrell, McDonogh's Kitty Cullen and Colby Rhea, and St. Mary's Haydon Judge will all suit up for the South team in the all-star event featuring the top 47 senior girls lacrosse players in the country.