Quakers

The Friends football team will forfeit Friday afternoon's scheduled game against St. Frances because the Quakers don't have enough players, Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association officials announced Wednesday. “Friends was down to 13 or 14 kids,” MIAA executive director Rick Diggs said. “They just didn't have enough players to play the game. It's a safety thing. We don't like for teams to forfeit, but we had to consider the safety of the kids.” The forfeit between the two C Conference foes will not impact postseason play because only the top two teams in the C Conference advance, and the Quakers were already out of contention at 0-3. They now fall to 0-4, as well as 3-6 overall.

Fifth-ranked Bryn Mawr had just one plan for yesterday's showdown with No. 7 Friends -- keep the Quakers' attack away from backup goalie Lisa Parks.Parks, a midfielder, had to step in for starter Ellen Phillips, who got sick earlier in the week and missed a couple days of practice. Because Parks had little experience in the cage, her defense-minded teammates took over.As a result, Parks never touched the ball as the visiting Mawrtians (3-0) made an early 1-0 lead stand up in the Association of Independent Schools A Division nonleague game.

By the end of yesterday's game at Friends, four John Carroll players were bleeding from the head, and another had a knee injury.But the Quakers found a different way to hurt the Patriots even more: by making their foul shots.Friends outscored the Patriots 23-6 from the foul line en route to a 67-62 Maryland Scholastic Association Armstrong Conference win."I think a big difference was the wide desparity at the free-throw line," said John Carroll coach Pat Goles of the B League Division II game.

After thunderstorms postponed Friday night's Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A2 Conference lacrosse championship game while it was in progress, McDonogh had all night to think about trailing Friends. "It was such a close game, and we were all really nervous," said McDonogh's Casey Pugatch. "But it helped us. They were on a run and a big break would usually help the team that's down stop the momentum." The Quakers had scored four of the last five goals Friday night to take a one-goal lead.

For a short time yesterday, Pennsylvania's men's lacrosse team looked as if it finally would end years of frustration against Navy. The visiting Quakers, who hadn't beaten the Midshipmen since 1988, ran out to a two-goal lead in the first quarter and again in the second quarter.But the Mids, trying desperately to put last week's 17-goal loss North Carolina behind them, rallied for three goals in the middle quarters and held the Quakers scoreless in the fourth to notch a 10-6 victory at Rip Miller Field.

With a 5-0 lead entering the second half of yesterday's boys lacrosse game against visiting Friends, it seemed McDonogh's Eagles -- like the harsh, cold wind -- would blow by the Quakers.Instead, the Eagles (2-4) held on for an 8-5 non-league victory, but not before their egos -- and four third-quarter penalties -- allowed the Quakers (1-1) back into the game."We got a little cocky and started to lose our slides," said senior midfielder Damian Schreiber, who led an Eagles' defense that shut down Spencer Deering, last year's conference Player of the Year, in the first half.

Friends did something yesterday that no team has been able to do for nearly two years -- beat St. Paul's.Alyssa Bergy finished off an early corner play for a 1-0 victory as the No. 10 Quakers dealt the No. 4 Gators their first loss in 21 games.The defending Association of Independent Schools A Division champs had not lost since Nov. 11, 1995, when they fell in the tournament title game to Garrison Forest, 1-0. Since then, the Gators had gone 15-0-5.In yesterday's A Division Homer League game, the Quakers (4-3-1 overall, 1-2 league)

Half of Friends' field hockey team had never played an overtime game until yesterday.No. 9 Centennial taught the Quakers a lesson in the importance of marking in the seven-on-a-side overtime period. The Quakers left only one player open, left wing Connie Garrant, but that cost them the game.Garrant connected on a pass from Allison Altscher less than three minutes into the 10-minute sudden-death overtime to lift the Eagles over Friends, 1-0."We had no idea we would play overtime," said Friends coach Carol Samuels, whose Association of Independent Schools league plays overtime only in its season-ending tournament.

Friends coach Jon Garman liked how his team rallied from a sluggish start, but realized that Jamie Hubbard was the biggest reason the 10th-ranked Quakers scored a 12-5 victory over visiting John Carroll in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference game yesterday."

McDonogh served up 16 aces last night to spark a 15-13, 15-12, 7-15, 15-9 victory over Friends for the Association of Independent Schools A Division championship.The host Eagles (24-4) took an early lead in each game and fell behind by more than a point only once, in the third game."Our serving was the difference," said Eagles coach Ginger Gelston. "The fact that we had 16 aces -- that makes a huge difference. We had more aces than missed serves. That's probably a first."When the Eagles weren't winning points with their serves, they used their balanced attack.