Striker

1 McDonogh -- The Eagles, who swept through the Catholic's League A Division with a 19-0 mark, are loaded once again starting with junior striker Laurie Schwoy. After scoring 49 goals with 21 assists last year, she's off to a similar start this season with 12 goals and five assists in McDonogh's first two games. The Eagles have six other starters back from last year and added midfielder Julie Baker, a transfer from North Carroll. Sweeper Susie Pitt and stopper Liz French key the Eagles' defense.

* Mo McDonough, St. Mary's, Sr., striker -- Despite facing constant double- and triple-teaming, McDonough led St. Mary's in scoring with 13 goals and eight assists. Nine of her goals either tied the score or gave the Saints the lead. She leaves as the school's all-time leader in goals (68) and assists (31), and was selected to the All-State first team. She received the most votes among county players for the state team.* Michelle Salmon, Old Mill, Jr., striker -- Last year's county Player of the Year had another superb season with 19 goals and four assists.

Basketball Maryland commitment Jake Layman is among 14 finalists who have been selected to continue competing for a spot on the USA Basketball Under-18 men's national team. The 14 finalists, announced late Thursday night, will continue to train through Monday at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The 12-man team will be selected before the team's Tuesday departure for the FIBA Americas U18 Championship, which will be played June 16-20 in Sao Sebastiáo do Paraiso, Brazil.

Most teams coming off a 10-3-2 season would think they had been successful.But for a team like Oakland Mills, accustomed to winning a state championship every other year, last season's failure to win one left the players with an empty feeling.Six returning seniors are determined to right what went wrong last year, when the Scorpions lost to Glenelg in the state Class 2A semifinals.They have led an off-season weight-lifting program to beef up a team that was smaller than average.It's too soon to tell if the new strength and weight will pay off, but most players are checking in bigger and more confident.

As the clock wound down in the second half of last night's state Class 2A girls soccer final, Eastern Tech striker Courtney Kobal thought one opening could give the No. 12 Mavericks chance enough to win the title. When freshman Rachel Tragesar sent a high bouncing cross in front of the goal, Kobal saw that opening. The sophomore leaped to head the ball over Middletown goalie Rachelle Burhman for the game-winner. The Mavericks celebrated their first state title with the 1-0 victory that dethroned the defending champion Knights at UMBC Stadium.

McDonogh junior soccer standout Mike Gamble, regarded as one of the top youth soccer forwards in the country, has made a verbal commitment to play at Wake Forest University. Gamble led No. 6 McDonogh (18-6-1) to a runner-up finish in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association 'A' Conference this season, scoring 28 goals and adding 10 assists. The Eagles fell to No. 1 Gilman, 1-0, in Sunday's championship game. "At first, I didn't really know much about [Wake Forest], but when I went down and talked with the coaches and some of the players, I liked the campus and had a great feeling about it. It was somewhere I wanted to be," said Gamble.

Dante Washington's dream of playing in the 1994 World Cup may have ended, but his involvement with the quadrennial soccer tournament is just beginning.After apparently failing to impress the U.S. national team's coaches in a recent brief tryout, Washington, 23, is in his third week as a full-time administrative assistant in the World Cup USA '94 government relations office."Every soccer player dreams of playing in the World Cup, more so than the Olympics, but I don't think I'll be called back [to the national team]

GERMANTOWN - You hear it time and time again from Maryland Bays under-14 boys coach Steve Nichols, how the team's success all starts with its unflappable defense. Yesterday, up against its sternest test to date, it was at its unflappable best. That's how it had to be, from beginning to end. The Bays successfully protected an early second-half goal by outside midfielder Brandon Fischer, holding off the Nomads of La Jolla, Calif., for a 1-0 win in a first-round match in the Snickers U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships at the Maryland SoccerPlex.

Player of the YearLaurie Schwoy, McDonogh, senior, forward: The numbers -- as staggering as they have grown in the past four years -- are only the start of what Schwoy and her incredible soccer skills have brought to McDonogh, the metro area and the entire state of Maryland."

The politics of President Clinton's executive order precluding the government from doing business with companies that hire permanent strike replacement workers is obvious enough. With his re-election on the line, Mr. Clinton wants to heal his relations with organized labor, which were wounded severely by his principled battles for ratification of the NAFTA and GATT trade agreements over the fierce opposition of the AFL-CIO.What is not so obvious is the legal or economic justification for such a move.