Lightning

HockeyLightning: Recalled D Jassen Cullimore from AHL Providence.Oilers: Recalled G Eric Heffler from AHL Hamilton.

The Long Reach Lightning took advantage of Howard turnovers to upset the No. 6-ranked and previously unbeaten Lions, 13-7, last night before a packed stadium at Howard.The Lightning (4-3 overall, 4-2 league) converted two first-period Howard fumbles into touchdowns, and its defense did the rest, holding Howard to 17 yards in the first half and 96 yards for the game.Long Reach's Tally White rushed 17 times for 118 yards, and Robert Francois had 85 yards on 17 carries."This has definitely made my season," White said.

Long Reach's 21-14 overtime win at Oakland Mills was a thing of beauty yesterday. It was only after the game that things got ugly.Long Reach quarterback Stewart Long scored on a 1-yard run on the third play of overtime to give the Lightning (5-3, 5-2 Howard County) a 21-14 lead.After recovering a fumble on Oakland Mills' overtime possession, the Lightning players stormed the field in celebration. Several Oakland Mills players and fans raced on to the field.For five minutes, there were more than 200 people on the field.

Howard County will attempt to crack down on game officials who fail to stop games at the first sound of thunder or first flash of lightning."I've called all my assigners and reiterated our policy. We have a shortage of officials, but will ask that those who violate our policy not be assigned to Howard County," Howard County Coordinator of Athletics Don Disney said after receiving several complaints about games played last Thursday that should have been stopped but weren't.Disney will also deliver one coach's request for a mandatory statewide rule to the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association.

Long Reach's Kristen Schaper (12-6) threw a perfect five-inning game as the Lightning defeated visiting Oakland Mills, 12-0, yesterday. Schaper faced the minimum 15 batters and struck out seven, running her 18-game total to 157 strikeouts.

Long Reach's 21-14 overtime win at Oakland Mills was a thing of beauty yesterday. It was only after the game that things got ugly.Long Reach quarterback Stewart Long scored on a 1-yard run on the third play of overtime to give the Lightning (5-3, 5-2) a 21-14 lead. Long led his team with 115 yards rushing on 18 carries.When Oakland Mills (0-8, 0-6) got the ball, quarterback T.J. Rembert's pitch eluded running back Keion Reames on the first play, and Long Reach's Phil Niles fell on the ball to give the Lightning the victory in the school's first overtime game.

First, she had to teach them the sport. Then, she had to teach them to believe in themselves, despite not winning a game the first season.It was 1996 when Kelly Snyder began the field hockey program at Long Reach. Eight players who were on that team -- including six of them who started -- were on the field yesterday when the Lightning played Glenelg in their last home game of the regular season.They walked off field with a share of the county championship.Long Reach needed a victory over Glenelg to force a first-place tie with the Gladiators, who had clinched a share of the title last week.

Some might have questioned Long Reach coach Kelly Snyder's decision to replace star forward Brandi Franks for a brief time in the final of a Class 3A North regional matchup with North Carroll. However, Franks' replacement, Shelby Orndoff, made her coach look like a genius.Orndoff, a sophomore forward, scored a goal three minutes after entering the game, and senior midfielder Jessica Burkhardt added another two minutes later to spark the ninth-ranked Lightning to a 2-0 win over No. 8 North Carroll in Hampstead yesterday.

Some might have questioned Long Reach coach Kelly Snyder's decision to replace star forward Brandi Franks for a brief time in the final of a Class 3A North regional matchup with North Carroll. However, Franks' replacement, Shelby Orndoff, made her coach look like a genius.Orndoff, a sophomore forward, scored a goal three minutes after entering the game, and senior midfielder Jessica Burkhardt added another two minutes later to spark the ninth-ranked Lightning to a 2-0 win over No. 8 North Carroll in Hampstead yesterday.

Long Reach didn't lose yesterday to visiting River Hill, but it felt that way to the ninth-ranked Lightning."It's not a loss, but it doesn't help us," said Long Reach coach Kelly Snyder after her team battled the Hawks to a 1-1 tie after 80 minutes. "This could hurt us later [in the season] because it's a very competitive league."In its fourth year, Long Reach (3-1-1 overall, 0-0-1 league) believes it has the personnel to capture the Howard County title. This was not the way it planned to open the county schedule.

The weather seemed heaven-, or Hollywood-, sent: threatening skies spitting light rain. The surroundings seemed too perfect as well: campers playing tennis and basketball at Howard County's Centennial Park. The only thing missing at Wednesday's announcement of the county's participation in a National Weather Service campaign on how thunder is "nature's early warning system" for the dangers of an impending lightning strike were a few loud claps of thunder. "When it comes to thunder, it used to be a judgment call, somebody's mom or dad calling them in," said Howard County Executive Ken Ulman.

1 Give him suspenders: In tonight's NFL game (49ers at Cardinals, 8:30 p.m., ESPN), the cameras will stay at least waist-high on San Francisco coach Mike Singletary (left) - in case of another wardrobe malfunction. 2 Hair club: It's a darn shame television appearances for Barry Melrose's fabulous mullet are now limited to games involving his Lightning (Tampa Bay at Washington, 7 p.m., Versus). 3 Coach explains: it all for you: Ravens coach John Harbaugh holds his day-after meeting with the media in the late afternoon.

Betty Callahan arrived at her Hampden church before firefighters did early yesterday morning, only to see "fire tongues" licking the base of the steeple and then engulfing the 130-year-old bell tower and slate roof in flames. Minutes later, about 6:30 a.m, firefighters were dousing Mount Vernon United Methodist Church at 801 W. 33rd St., as evacuated neighbors looked on in the gray dawn. "It looked like Niagara Falls," said Callahan, the church's lay leader and treasurer, of the water shooting from the 15 fire engines called to the scene.

Ken Legace of Stewartstown, Pa., writes: "I thought lightning happened when positive-charged clouds and negative-charged earth connected electrically with a huge ZAP. Then what causes cloud-to-cloud lightning?" While the tops of thunderclouds become positively charged, the bottoms go negative, which induces a positive charge in the ground. Wherever the difference reaches 15 million volts per mile, it discharges. Bolts fly twice as often within clouds as between clouds and ground.

COLLEGE PARK -- When you're young, it doesn't take long to go from elation to frustration. For Long Reach, it took about 48 hours. On Thursday, the ninth-ranked Lightning boys basketball team capped an improbable comeback with a victory over top-ranked Lake Clifton. Yesterday, it couldn't get going early before falling to Prince George's County's Largo, 84-58, in the Class 3A state championship at Comcast Center. Klevin Pollard led Largo - ranked ninth in the Washington area - with 21 points.

When looking at the top of the Howard County boys basketball standings, everything was nip and tuck, with four teams going into last night's play with just one league loss. That changed quickly with Atholton's visit to Long Reach. With start-to-finish intensity on defense and a hot-shooting second quarter that provided an insurmountable cushion, the Raiders had a stunningly easy time in a 75-45 victory over Long Reach, ending the Lightning's 30-game home winning streak that dated to the team's 2005-06 state championship season.

Football players have long prided themselves on braving the elements - from wearing short sleeves in frigid temperatures to completing two-a-days in the stifling heat of August. But lightning is a whole different story. Since the NFL adopted its current 32-team makeup for the 2002 season, Mother Nature has disrupted two preseason games with lightning. The most recent was Saturday night, when two storm fronts swept through the Washington area and forced first a delay and then the end of the Ravens' game with the Washington Redskins.

Thunderstorms rumbled through the area last night, cutting power to thousands of homes, sending fans scrambling for cover at sporting events and otherwise dampening events across the region. Severe storm warnings were issued for 16 Maryland counties as a line of rain showers and lightning moved through Frederick and Montgomery counties, the Baltimore area and out into the Chesapeake Bay. About 45,000 customers of BGE were without power shortly after the storm, with the greatest outages reported in Anne Arundel County.

Hit hard by graduation losses from last year's Class 3A state title team, the Long Reach boys basketball team suffered another setback when senior forward Michael Bowden went down with a knee injury in the team's season opener on Dec. 5 It did not keep the Lightning from making an impressive statement last week in county play. With home wins over Atholton, Oakland Mills and Wilde Lake, the Lightning (4-1 going into this week) started off the county schedule as it ended last season - this time relying on a new cast of players and different measures.

The Tampa Bay Lightning looked for a reliable goalie last offseason. It might have found one in Johan Holmqvist. Holmqvist made 22 saves yesterday to win for the eighth time in his past nine starts, leading the Lightning past the visiting Ottawa Senators, 3-1. "That's how you win a lot of games in the league, your goaltender," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said. "He's just on a little bit of a roll here. We're trying to grab points here, and he's done a great job for us. Johan stood tall."