Seconds Left

An opportunity to repeat as Baltimore Catholic League champion didn't come easy to the John Carroll boys basketball team. In Friday's quarterfinal against St. Maria Goretti, the No. 3 Patriots needed three overtime periods to advance. In Saturday's semifinal against St. Frances, they got a free throw from senior forward Jarred Jones with .3 of a second on the clock to come away with a controversial 42-41 win over the No. 10 Panthers at Stevenson University in Owings Mills. It's the eighth straight time John Carroll has gotten the better of St. Frances over the past two seasons.

Terrell Suggs stood on the sideline, and the man who is never at a loss for words could only mouth the words “Oh, my God.” Ray Rice and Torrey Smith said nothing, choosing instead to stare straight ahead and wonder in silence how a long football season full of legitimate Super Bowl aspirations could possibly end like this. Fourteen yards from the end zone and a Super Bowl berth, and seemingly in position for no worse than a game-tying field goal that would force overtime, the Ravens watched two potential touchdown passes get broken up, and then Billy Cundiff pushed a 32-yard field goal wide left with 15 seconds remaining.

Even when all seemed lost for Poly on Saturday afternoon, quarterback Darrell Milburn found a way to make magic. Appearing down for the count late in the fourth quarter against arch-rival City, the No. 5 Engineers twice stopped the Knights on critical fourth-down plays, then drove for a pair of touchdowns in the final 2:23, including Milburn's one-yard pass to fullback Priestly Shuler with 9 seconds left to pull out a 22-16 win before an announced 10,683...

The payback tour of 2011 rolls on for the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team. After avenging last year's losses to Virginia and North Carolina, the No. 3 Blue Jays made amends for a 10-9 loss to Maryland last season by edging the No. 7 Terps, 12-11, in overtime before a rain-drenched 8,072 at Byrd Stadium in College Park Saturday night. Three seconds after a one-minute slashing penalty against Terps senior defenseman Ryder Bohlander had ended, Johns Hopkins senior attackman Kyle Wharton faked a shot from the right wing, stepped to his left, and put his shot over redshirt freshman goalkeeper Niko Amato for the game-winner with 16 seconds left in the extra session.

A wild finish saw Loyola nearly pull out a win against Niagara on Friday at Reitz Arena, but the Greyhounds missed a layup in the final seconds and Niagara won, 59-57. Loyola falls to 12-12 overall and 8-6 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play, while Niagara improves to 6-20 and 3-11 in the MAAC. The Greyhounds led  by one point with 43 seconds remaining, but a layup by Anthony Nelson (20 points) gave Niagara the lead with 15 seconds to go. The back-and-forth game featured 13 lead changes and five ties.

A huge defensive stand followed by Mark Venable's 26-yard run set up Joey Dorsey's fourth touchdown keeper of the game with five seconds left as No. 12 Franklin upset No. 7 North Harford, 28-21, before an estimated crowd of 2,000 in the Class 3A North regional championship Friday night in Pylesville. The loss ended the Hawks' bid for an undefeated season. "Joey, he wanted the ball," Venable said. "I wanted the ball, too, but anything for Joey Dorsey. He's been leading us all year.

After Maryland's opening game, coach Gary Williams resisted lavishing too much attention on promising guard Pe'Shon Howard or Maryland's other first-year players. "This is one game," was the coach's mantra then. After the season's second game Wednesday night, it proved increasingly challenging for Williams not to single out Howard for praise. Capping a night in which he repeatedly made big plays, the confident freshman swished in a basket with three seconds left to lift Maryland to a 75-74 victory over College of Charleston.

Winners of the past two Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championships, the Archbishop Spalding girls soccer team displays an air of confidence at the most opportune times. For a second straight year, the No. 2 Cavaliers relied on such confidence in the closing seconds of the league semifinals against No. 7 John Carroll. All-Metro senior forward Maggie Morrison provided the magic moment, scoring with 10 seconds left in regulation to send the Cavaliers to Saturday's championship game with a 1-0 win over the Patriots.

The momentum clearly belonged to Patterson when Poly's offense took the field with 8:01 left in Friday night's game. Patterson had erased a 22-point halftime lead and tied the score with touchdowns on three straight possessions. But No. 9 Poly quickly settled down. The Engineers made several clutch plays on a 75-yard drive that ended on Jamal Chappell's 2-yard touchdown run with 34.3 seconds remaining, and Poly pulled out a 30-22 victory over No. 14 Patterson in the Baltimore City game at Mervo.

The Calvert Hall boys lacrosse team entered Friday's game against St. Paul's with a three-game losing streak, and then watched the visiting Crusaders score three goals in the final minute of the first quarter — the last coming with four seconds left — to take a four-goal lead. If ever there were a time a team could have wilted, that might have been it. Instead, the No. 5 Cardinals showed poise and went on to find a last-second hero of their own in Carter Brown. The sophomore attackman finished off a chance with nine seconds left to give Calvert Hall a confidence-boosting 9-8 win over the No. 2 Crusaders.