National Championship

COLLEGE PARK -- Third-ranked Southern-B won its second state Class 4A championship in three seasons, routing Northwestern of Prince George's County, 64-41, at Cole Field House last night.Dedric Galloway and Marlin Wise led a balanced Southern (24-3) attack with 15 points each and John Hemsley added 12. Sean Smith led Northwestern (17-7 and ranked No. 9 in the Washington area) with 10 points.In winning their third state championship in four seasons, Southern, ranked No. 16 nationally by USA Today, also gave Baltimore City seven state titles in four seasons and a 61-8 record in tournament play.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The road to college football's national championship has taken several detours this season -- through Florida, Penn State and Nebraska.But it all could end in a familiar spot -- in the green flatlands of Tuscaloosa, Ala., a small college town surrounded by barbecue stands and small shopping centers, and overshadowed by a legend named Bear Bryant."I don't know if anybody picked us to be in this position at this point in the season," said Alabama coach Gene Stallings. "I think we've come from behind four or five times this year, so we're just sort of winning some close games.

MIAMI -- Tom Osborne walked into the interview room at media headquarters yesterday morning with the same purposeful, stoic style that he showed during the week leading up to Sunday night's Orange Bowl.Then again, it's the way Osborne has been, at least publicly, during his 22 seasons as football coach at Nebraska. There was no hint of what had happened hours before, no clue that this was a man celebrating the most significant victory of his career."I'm no better a coach this year than I was last year," Osborne said, referring to his top-ranked team's 24-17 victory over third-ranked Miami on Sunday night as much as to last year's 18-16 loss here to Florida State.

The University of Maryland put its name in the history books and brought a championship banner to College Park last night as the Terps officially became an elite member of college basketball . It wasn't pretty. Actually, it may have been one of the ugliest championship games in NCAA history as Maryland defeated Indiana, 64-52, last night before a crowd of 53,406 at the Georgia Dome to capture its first national title. But who cares about cosmetics? The Terps did what they had to do. They did what Len Bias, Keith Booth and Steve Francis couldn't do. They succeeded where Tom McMillen and Len Elmore failed.

There was no Syracuse men's lacrosse team this time to deny Charley Toomey and Loyola. Twenty-two years after he was the starting goalkeeper of the squad that was routed by the Orange in the 1990 title game, Toomey and the Greyhounds captured the university's first national championship in lacrosse with a 9-3 victory over Maryland in the NCAA tournament final before 30,816 at Gillette Stadium on Monday afternoon. Loyola, the top seed in the tournament, completed its most successful campaign in program history with its record 18th win in 19 games.

A year after leading Towson to its first Football Championship Subdivision appearance in school history, fourth-year coach Rob Ambrose reacted angrily Sunday after his 7-4 Tigers were snubbed by the NCAA selection committee for an invitation to this season's playoffs. Despite finishing the season on a four-game winning streak, including a 64-35 demolition of playoff-bound New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., Saturday, Towson failed to be invited into the 20-team field after losing in the opening round to Lehigh in 2011.

Soccer Barreiro, Bulls taken in MLS Supplemental Draft Former area soccer standouts Christian Barreiro (Calvert Hall) and Andrew Bulls (McDonogh, UMBC) were selected in the Major League Soccer Supplemental Draft on Tuesday. Barreiro, a midfielder-forward, was chosen in the third round by the New York/New Jersey Red Bulls, while Bulls, a midfielder, was taken in the fourth round by the Columbus Crew. Both players were members of the Baltimore Bays 90s team that won the Under-16 USYSA national championship in 2006, the U-18 U.S. Development Academy national championship in 2008 and the U-19 USYSA national championshp in 2009.

COLLEGE PARK -- A year ago on the night of Maryland Madness, the official start of college basketball here, Marissa Coleman and her Maryland women's basketball teammates felt like afterthoughts, like a speed bump on the way to the introduction of the men's team. A year later, and with a national championship in tow, Coleman peeked her head out from the tunnel entrance at Comcast Center last night, waiting to see and feel how much love the crowd would wash over her and her teammates. "It [the feeling]

Notre Dame has made two Final Fours in the last three years, including reaching the national title game where they fell to Duke in overtime in 2010. Last season, the program lost to eventual NCAA champion Loyola in the national semifinals. Those trips were nice, but coach Kevin Corrigan said he doesn't want his players banking on the past. “I want them to be completely present in the now, and that means for each of them, they need to bring their experiences and everything they've done until now to the present time,” he said.

As former players for Maryland, Michael Dello-Russo and Will Swaim understand what it's like to be part of a program where anything short of competing for a national championship can be viewed as a failure. Dello-Russo and Swaim, both from Howard County, are now assistants for Terrapins head coach Sasho Cirovski and have become mentors, instructors and sometimes sounding boards for the current crop of players. Maryland (18-1-2) heads into the third round of the NCAA men's soccer tournament Sunday, playing host to a surging Coastal Carolina (20-2-2)