Seven Minutes

After two straight years of losing in the region final, Long Reach will try again at 3 p.m. today at North Carroll."I'm praying that the third time is the charm," said Long Reach senior goalie Jaye Lance after her team defeated Wilde Lake, 2-1, in a Class 3A North region semifinal yesterday at Wilde Lake. "We're going in with more skills [than last year], and we're going more fired up because we want it so bad. We want a banner that says region champions."The ninth-ranked Lightning (11-2-2)

FiresMount Airy: Firefighters responded at 10: 13 p.m. Monday to a trash fire in the 13000 block of Old Annapolis Road. Units were out 2 1/2 hours.Mount Airy: Firefighters assisted Frederick County at 9: 44 p.m. Monday on a fire call in the first block of West Road. Units were out 30 minutes.Mount Airy: Firefighters assisted Howard County at 6: 58 p.m. Monday on a vehicle fire on westbound Interstate 70 at Watersville Road. Units were out seven minutes.

FireMount Airy: Firefighters assisted Frederick County at 2: 50 p.m. Friday at a fire in the 13000 block of Eastside Drive. Units were out seven minutes.Pub Date: 9/01/98

FireSykesville: Firefighters responded at 11: 39 p.m. Wednesday to an automatic fire alarm sounding in the 4500 block of Robinson Road in Baltimore County. Units were out seven minutes.Pub Date: 4/03/98

FiresWinfield: Firefighters responded at 7: 18 a.m. Sunday to a fire alarm in the 1700 block of W. Liberty Road. Units were out seven minutes.Winfield: Firefighters responded at 6: 11 p.m. Saturday to a water detail in the 4100 block of Salem Bottom Road. Units were out 25 minutes.Mount Airy: Firefighters assisted Frederick County at 10: 42 p.m. Friday on an auto fire on Interstate 70 at Bill Moxley Road. Units were out seven minutes.Pub Date: 8/11/98

In the first Battle of Baltimore, a first-rate performance by guard Jason Rowe was enough to get Loyola over the top.Rowe scored a team-high 21 points and rallied the Greyhounds past Towson, 76-67, last night in the championship game of the tournament before 2,020 at the Towson Center.Rowe sparked a 12-2 run that put Loyola up 61-60 with 5: 27 left and added four free throws down the stretch to clinch the win."That's what the Battle of Baltimore is all about," said Rowe, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

FiresSykesville: Firefighters responded at 10: 03 a.m. Tuesday to an electrical fire in the 2600 block of Route 97. Units were out 28 minutes.Sykesville: Firefighters responded at 5: 33 a.m. Tuesday to a fire alarm in the 2400 block of Walden Way. Units were out seven minutes.Pub Date: 9/03/98

FireManchester: Firefighters responded at 5: 10 p.m. Thursday to an auto fire in the 3400 block of Augusta Road.Lineboro: Firefighters assisted York County, Pa., at 7: 37 p.m. Thursday, responding to a chimney fire in the 2400 block of Hamme Road. Units were out one hour and seven minutes.Pub Date: 2/23/98

Call it frustrating and sloppy at times, but the style of the U.S. national lacrosse team remains consistent.The U.S. team endured yet another slow start and sometimes messy effort to wear down the Iroquois Nation, 20-8, yesterday before 7,038 at Homewood Field in the World Games round robin.The United States improved to 3-0 and is now 53-1 in international competition. The Americans now prepare for the much-anticipated showdown at 8 tonight against rival Canada (3-0) for the top seed.Yesterday, the United States waited until late in the second quarter to make its push, bagging the flashy and sloppy acrobatic shots and passes to concentrate on simple dodging and off-ball cuts to the goal.

FireWestminster: Firefighters from Reese assisted Westminster at 26 a.m. yesterday, responding to a fire alarm in the 400 block of Englar Way. Units were out 38 minutes.Westminster: Firefighters responded at 6: 06 p.m. Wednesday to a hazardous condition in the 100 block of Hollow Rock Ave. Units were out an hour and seven minutes.Westminster: Firefighters responded at 12: 57 p.m. Wednesday to an automobile fire on Route 27 at Kate Wagner Road. Units were out 39 minutes.Westminster: Firefighters responded at 11: 23 a.m. Wednesday to a carbon monoxide alarm in the 100 block of S. Center St. Units were out 10 minutes.

Several MARC service schedule changes will begin on the Penn and Camden lines, starting Monday. On the Penn Line, southbound to Washington: * Train 503 will leave Perryville at 4:40 a.m.; all other stops will be seven minutes earlier. * Amtrak Train A151 will leave Perryville at 6:52 a.m., two minutes later. * Train 419 will stop at Seabrook at 9:40 a.m., new Carrollton at 9:45 a.m. and arrive in Washington at 10:06 a.m. * Train 521 will depart Baltimore at 9:45 a.m.; all stops south of the city will be 10 minutes earlier.

For the Mount Hebron boys soccer team to claim the program's third state title and complete its first unbeaten season, the No. 3 Vikings needed a first from midfielder Zach Barnett and the usual from striker Mike Napolitano - all coming in the final eight minutes of yesterday's Class 3A final against No. 11 North Carroll. Barnett, a senior standout more accustomed to controlling the middle and distributing the ball, scored his first goal of the season with 7:33 left and Napolitano scored his 25th a few minutes later as the Vikings overcame a stubborn Panthers' defense for a resilient 2-1 win at UMBC Stadium.

With the game tied late, Morgan State freshman Timothy Mathis stole the ball from Chris Markwood, drove it down the lane and laid it in to give the Bears the lead with 1:11 left, and they were able to hold on for a 71-63 win over Maine last night before 2,372 at Hill Field House. "I didn't want to let my team down," Mathis said. "I didn't want to force anything, but whatever opportunity came up, I wanted to step up. The kid just put the ball out there and I took it." He was an unlikely hero for Morgan State, but that was the theme of the night.

COLLEGE PARK - No. 13 Duke scored a pair of goals just seven minutes apart in the second half and held off a furious offensive rally by No. 1 Maryland for a 2-1 win last night before 4,165 at Ludwig Field. It was the second loss for the Terps since taking over the top spot in the National Soccer Coaches Association poll last week. They lost in double overtime to William and Mary on Wednesday, 1-0. The Terps (5-2-1, 0-1-1 ACC) held a commanding 24-8 lead in shots, but were unable to convert several scoring chances.

ARLINGTON, Va. - Last week, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry returned to Sept. 11, 2001. The senator criticized President Bush for remaining in an elementary school classroom seven minutes after the president had been told a plane had struck the second World Trade Center tower. Mr. Kerry said that had he been president at the time, "I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to." Mr. Kerry's actual decision-making ability, however, was exposed by Mr. Kerry himself July 8 during an appearance on CNN's Larry King Live.

LANDOVER - Leads are never safe around the Washington Redskins. For the third time in four games, Washington squandered a sizable advantage - 17 points this time - but managed to hold off the New England Patriots, 20-17, before 83,632 at FedEx Field yesterday. New England scored 14 unanswered points in the second half and had the final possession in Redskins territory with less than a minute left, but strong safety Ifeanyi Ohalete knocked away Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's pass to tight end Daniel Graham on fourth-and-three to give Washington a 3-1 record.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mont. - Sgt. Charles Horgan noticed immediately that real war happened without a soundtrack. Of course he knew this on some level, but he didn't realize how quiet it could be, there, in the desert of southern Iraq. He couldn't even hear the wind, standing in the turret of a Humvee with his fingers wrapped around the grips of a .50-caliber machine gun. He was ready to fight. He'd trained more than three years for this moment. He'd watched his favorite war movies over and over, memorizing scenes of heroism played out to the sounds of an epic score.

WASHINGTON - It's not often that a guy who plays only seven minutes and scores only two points draws the lion's share of attention after a game, but then, Charles Oakley isn't just any basketball player. Last night, Oakley's experience and knowledge were just what the Washington Wizards needed to pull out an emotional, 105-102 win over the Utah Jazz at MCI Center. Oakley, 38, in his 17th NBA season, had been largely an afterthought for the Wizards (5-4) this year, playing just nine minutes in Washington's season opener in Toronto on Oct. 30. But in a game in which experience was sprinkled heavily on the court, Oakley was the ace in the hole, entering in the last seven minutes, with the Wizards trailing by seven.

With each soccer game, the Centennial girls are putting their early season finishing troubles further and further behind them. Yesterday against county rival Mount Hebron, the visiting Eagles scored three times in the first 17 minutes, with forward Mandy Paizs having a hand in each of them. The speedy sophomore assisted freshman Brittany Kelley on the game's first two goals and then scored two of her own in the first half as the No. 3 Eagles parlayed a quick start into a commanding 4-1 victory over the No. 14 Vikings.

As his family and neighbors sleep, Jimmie Mowder Jr. starts his commute - a 5:30 a.m. ritual that gets him to work an hour early, long before anyone but the janitor is around. He's not looking for a promotion. He's trying to beat the traffic. Even so, he has plenty of company on the road from others with the same idea. Census data released this week show that Maryland residents spent 15 percent more time, on average, en route to work in 2000 than they did a decade before. But most aren't dealing with delays by carpooling or using public transportation.