Transition Game

In pre-game warm-ups, Corey Donohoe was the most lighthearted athlete on the lacrosse field, just as likely to poke fun at her teammates as stretch her legs. Donohoe even joked with one of the officials during stick checks, prompting a playful pat on the head from a referee who had watched the recent North Harford graduate throughout her lacrosse career. "I just wanted to stay calm. I didn't want to get too nervous for the game and be off my game," Donohoe said of her pre-game antics.

On a Maryland squad that can run as many as nine midfielders, Landon Carr doesn't garner much attention. But the junior short-stick defensive midfielder has been a sparkplug for the No. 10 Terps' transition game, recording four goals and two assists thus far. Carr has posted three goals and two assists in the team's past three contests. He has taken just six shots this season and is 11-of-15 in his last two years. Carr's contributions did not escape the attention of coach John Tillman, who said he and his staff reviewed Carr's numbers recently.

In order for No. 7 Mount St. Joseph to upset No. 3 Loyola in lacrosse yesterday, the Gaels had to do several things well: capitalize on their opportunities, control the tempo and play solid transition defense. They couldn't manage any of the above. After missing several early point-blank scoring opportunities, Mount St. Joseph couldn't prevent the visiting Loyola midfielders from pushing the ball up field, finding the open man and rolling to a 14-6 victory. "We showed in the first couple minutes that we could play with them," Gaels attackman Brian Gargan said.

The Chesapeake Bayhawks added nine rookies in the Major League Lacrosse college draft Friday night in Philadelphia, including long-stick midfielder CJ Costabile with the fifth selection overall and former McDonogh goalie Tyler Fiorito five picks later. Costabile, a Duke senior from New Fairfield, Conn., is a two-time USILA All-America third-team selection and a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference choice. During the 2011 season, he led the team with 95 ground balls and ranked second in caused turnovers with 23. The defensive standout has 232 ground balls and 31 points during his three-year college career.

There will come a time early this season when Brian Billick will face the biggest temptation of his Ravens coaching tenure. Should he ride new quarterback Elvis Grbac's arm until it falls off? Or does he rely on the running game, field position and defense, an old-fashioned philosophy that garnered the Ravens a Super Bowl title? Here's one suggestion: If Grbac gets hot, Billick could just let it fly. "That's not a bad idea," Billick said, laughing. If this season's offensive options put Billick in a good mood, it may be because it's such a welcome change.

Last night was payback time for Oakland Mills.The No. 13-ranked Scorpions defeated Brunswick (20-4) in the Class 1A South region semifinals, 68-51.Oakland Mills' 13th straight win soothed the bitter memory of last season's one-point loss to Brunswick in the region semifinals.The Scorpions (21-3) will play at Forestville, in Prince George's County, tomorrow night for the region title. Forestville defeated Montgomery County's Poolesville, 63-58, last night.Oakland Mills won in vintage Scorpions style -- with pressure defense that created numerous transition points, and with the offensive pyrotechnics of 6-foot-5 skyrockets Anthony Breland and Murray Graves.

The Maryland Scholastic Association came into last night's Lacrosse for Leukemia game at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field with a reputation as a lacrosse lion.But against a surprisingly game group of Metro all-stars, at times the MSA team looked more like a lamb. Still, the MSA stars survived a late surge by the Metro team and held on for a 17-14 win.Although the MSA team controlled the action for most of the game, a late scoring spree by the Metro team briefly gave rise to thoughts of an upset.

Jamie Gerhart had been a varsity starter for three seasons on C.M. Wright's girls lacrosse team -- and was the Mustangs' leading scorer a year ago -- but for the first time this spring was the center of attention on the attack line.And she has feasted on the opposition. Her 55 goals and 22 assists are among the best in the Harford County League and the Mustangs' recent surge is due in large part to Gerhart. In C.M. Wright's nine straight wins, she has seven times scored five of more goals in a game.

Last night's Catholic League contest between No. 9-ranked John Carroll and No. 14 St. Frances matched two teams in search of their first league win.Early on, St. Frances appeared ready to put the notch in their win column, but the host Patriots' transition game made the difference and a 14-3 third-quarter spurt broke the game open en route to a 78-70 victory.John Carroll, behind 28 points from Kristin Jasper and 20 from Darby Burke, improved to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the Catholic League. The Panthers, paced by Shanika Wallace's 20 points, are also 3-3 overall but dropped to 0-3 in the league.

Unsung Western Maryland put on a women's basketball clinic against Johns Hopkins on Tuesday night in Westminster, and the stunned Blue Jays could do nothing but go along for the ride. The shock waves could be felt all the way back to Baltimore as three quick Green Terror guards picked apart Hopkins all night on the way to a surprising 73-59 dismantling of the Jays. Junior Jen Piccolomini, freshman Kelly Cramp and sophomore Toby McIntire combined for 33 points with all-around performances that helped change the complexion of the Centennial Conference West Division standings.

- Once Maryland's women's lacrosse team gets going in transition, it is hard to slow down. Georgetown's players knew that, and Wednesday night they stopped the No. 3 Terrapins - for a little while. After the No. 8 Hoyas took an early three-goal lead, Maryland kicked in that transition game and scored five straight goals to take the lead for good en route to a 20-11 victory at Maryland's Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex. The Hoyas (2-3) won most of the early draws and scored three goals before the Terps (7-0)

Reservoir's girls soccer team will play in the Class 3A state final today for the first time in the school's eight-year history. At midfield will be Katlyn Axenfeld, a 16-year-old junior who is the team's Most Valuable Player. "We're really talented in a lot of spots," said Reservoir coach Josh Sullivan, whose team is 15-3-1 going into its 5 p.m. game against Tuscarora at UMBC. "But we'd be really searching for answers if we took Katlyn out of the lineup." Axenfeld is a team leader, with poise and confidence, and she is the player others look to "as a calming influence" when games start heating up, Sullivan said.

Once heralded as "The Jewish Jordan," Tamir Goodman never lived up to the hype. A national celebrity at 17 as a junior at the Talmudical Academy in Pikesville, Goodman faded out of the spotlight by the time he turned 20. Without his disappointments in basketball, Goodman said in an interview this week, he would not be as prepared for the end of his professional playing career in Israel and the beginning of a new one. He will announce his retirement at...

Abigail Bisbee * Bryn Mawr, goalie * Extremely quick reflexes and recovery give the senior a chance at almost every shot, and she made a big difference for the Mawrtians with her 90 percent save rate. Liza Blue * Garrison Forest, midfielder * The backbone of the IAAM A Conference champions, the All-Metro junior sparked the transition game and will continue to be a key as the Grizzlies aim for back-to-back titles. Claire Brady * Century, midfielder * One of the catalysts behind the Knights' run to their first state title game a year ago, the senior controls the transition game with her stick skills and ability to anticipate the next play.

No. 13 Broadneck withstood a furious three-point barrage by Annapolis' Garee Boston to end a three-game skid with a 65-56 victory over the visiting Panthers in Cape St. Claire yesterday. Broadneck (13-5), the defending Anne Arundel County champion, led 51-31 with 5:15 remaining when Boston, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, got a hot hand. The Bruins, Annapolis and Arundel were all tied for second at 8-3 in the county behind No. 12 Old Mill (14-2, 9-2) going into last night. Boston, who had a game-high 35 points, including nine threes, scored 20 of his points in the final period, 18 of them on threes.

St. Frances guard Shatyra Hawkes knew she was playing a good team last night. She also knew that if the Panthers turned up the defense, the second half belonged to them. They did, and it did. The second-ranked Panthers (3-0) used a combination of tough man-to-man defense and a supercharged transition game to upset St. John the Baptist (West Islip, N.Y.), 56-35, in the Breezy Bishop Classic last night at Western. St. John (5-1) entered the game ranked No. 1 on Long Island in Newsday, and No. 6 in the country in the USA Today poll.

Cathy Nelson hoped she could finish this season as the only Mount Hebron player to have experienced a varsity loss.Yesterday, however, the rest of the No. 2 Vikings found out what losing feels like.No. 7 Mount de Sales stunned the Vikings with a 12-8 victory in the opening round of the Mount Hebron Spring Lacrosse Tournament.The Sailors' victory snapped a 37-game winning streak dating back almost three years. The last time the Vikings lost, in the state semifinal game in 1991, Nelson was the only freshman on the team.

Arundel coach Clint Gosnell said that Anne Arundel County "has been waiting for Severna Park to really put it together."Wait no more. The Falcons have arrived.No. 12-ranked Severna Park upset No. 10 Arundel, 12-8, last night at Steve Carroll Field in Gambrills in the Class 3A-4A East region final.The win means Severna Park (11-6) will make its first appearance in the state final four at UMBC this weekend.The Falcons won three consecutive district titles back in 1977 to 1979 under coach Mike Heck.

In pre-game warm-ups, Corey Donohoe was the most lighthearted athlete on the lacrosse field, just as likely to poke fun at her teammates as stretch her legs. Donohoe even joked with one of the officials during stick checks, prompting a playful pat on the head from a referee who had watched the recent North Harford graduate throughout her lacrosse career. "I just wanted to stay calm. I didn't want to get too nervous for the game and be off my game," Donohoe said of her pre-game antics.

When Terry Truax was fired as the basketball coach at what is now Towson University in 1997, he didn't know what he would do next. But after more than a quarter-century as a Division I head coach and assistant, he figured he wouldn't have to coach a high school team. As it turned out, the end of Truax's Towson tenure marked the beginning of a nine-year coaching odyssey that put him with players ranging from South Korean pros to 12-year-old rec league girls. For the past three years, he coached at Yeshivat Rambam, a Jewish school in Northwest Baltimore.