Falcons

Basketball is a game of runs. The Faith Christian-Hancock boys game Thursday proved that. The Falcons used two big runs at the end of each half to upend Hancock 62-47. With less than a minute remaining in the second quarter, Faith was clinging to a 22-19 lead before a 9-0 run put the Falcons ahead by 12 at the break. The same run briefly carried into the third quarter when Justin Earl hit a 3 to give his team a 34-19 lead. “The end of the second quarter really hurt us,” Hancock coach Jeff Spielman said.

Maybe the North Hagerstown girls basketball team just needed a little tuneup. Every time the Hubs seemed to close in on Winters Mill, the Falcons would step on the gas and pull away again. In the end, North was running on empty as the Hubs fell Friday to the Falcons 50-39 in the first round of the Maryland Class 2A West playoffs. Winters Mill seemed poised to put the game away in the first few minutes, scoring the first nine points of the game on the way to an early 15-5 lead.

BOONSBORO - The beginning and the end of Boonsboro's Class 1A South volleyball match Wednesday was almost exactly what Wendi Smith wanted to see. It was what happened in between that created problems. During that in-between stage, Poolesville outscored the Warriors 37-11, enough to register a 16-14, 15-7, 17-15 sweep and advance to the final round Friday against Smithsburg. Smith and company watched a 7-0 lead in Game 1 evaporate, then rallied from a 7-0 deficit in the third game to nearly avert the sweep.

View all of the photos for purchase! HAGERSTOWN -- For the North Hagerstown girls soccer team, perhaps the only thing worse than losing in the Maryland Class 2A West final was watching Winters Mill celebrate as the new region champion Tuesday night at Mike Callas Stadium. "Yeah, it's tough," North coach Rick Aleshire said. "But it's what you play for. You're either going to be a winner or you're going to be a loser. " The second-seeded Falcons defeated the top-seeded and defending-champion Hubs 2-1 to capture their first region title in program history, while earning a spot in Friday's state semifinals.

WILLIAMSPORT - Winters Mill used its overwhelming quickness, pressure and experience to notch an equally overwhelming 73-24 victory over Williamsport in MVAL nonconference action Tuesday night. The Falcons used a speedy backcourt, led by Sieara Saunders, to create a swarming pressure defense that forced 12 turnovers in the first quarter. "We try to take advantage of our quickness to set up the press," said Falcons coach Bernie Koontz. "That helps us to create some easy shots.

andrewm@herald-mail.com WILLIAMSPORT - Winters Mill's sharpshooters were more than happy to exchange baskets with Williamsport big man Corey Broadwater in their boys basketball matchup Tuesday night. Broadwater - a 6-foot-7, 250-pound senior center - made eight baskets from the paint on his way to a game-high 19 points, while the Falcons sank eight 3-pointers and won, 61-57. "We have some kids who can shoot the ball," Winters Mill coach Dave Herman said. "Sometimes we have to do that to make up the size difference.

ATLANTA (AP) -- A melee breaks out along the Falcons sideline, and who's right in the middle of it? DeAngelo Hall, of course. "I was pretty sure," said Atlanta receiver Roddy White, a former teammate, "that he had something to do with it. " What Hall desperately wanted to do Sunday was beat the Falcons. Michael Turner made sure that wouldn't happen with a season-high 166 yards rushing, including two long touchdowns, and Atlanta snapped a two-game losing streak by beating Hall and the Washington Redskins 31-17.

BY BILL STERNER / Staff Correspondent photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - The thud you heard at the Butcher Athletic Center Thursday night was another West Virginia Conference foe falling to the Shepherd College women's basketball team. Gail Seimer sparked a second-half rally with 13 critical points and several key rebounds as Shepherd (12-5, 9-1 WVC) finally put down a pesky Fairmont State team, 81-69. [cont.

It didn't take long for Tre Anderson to set the tone for the evening Friday at Mike Callas Stadium. North Hagerstown's senior running back scampered 75 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in the 2012 football season and the Hubs went on to blow out Reginald F. Lewis 66-14 on a muggy night at North. The Hubs (1-0) rolled up 372 yards on the ground and Nick Karlen added 99 yards passing and two touchdowns. North also took advantage of five Lewis turnovers, including four interceptions.

By JACK HILL III / Staff Correspondent photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer Drawing a lot of fouls is just fine, as long as you make the free throws that go along with them. Faith Academy made just enough of them, going 9-for-15 in the fourth quarter Thursday night, to beat Highland View 53-44 in a boys basketball game. Faith led 38-35 after three quarters, but the Tartans closed to 40-39 with seven minutes left. [cont. from sports page ]

Despite taking the defending Maryland Class 2A-1A state champions down to the wire, for Greg Slick, it was not a moral victory. “Not in this case,” said the Hubs coach after watching his team fall 43-30 against Winters Mill on Wednesday night. “You don't get better unless you wrestle the best and we want to get better. We wanted to wrestle the defending state champs.” Not only is Winters Mill the defending state champion, but they are ranked first in the state among public schools.

Senior quarterback Bobby Cooper completed 27-of-38 passes for a school-record 430 yards and three touchdowns on Saturday to help Shepherd University clinch the WVIAC title with a 49-23 win over Fairmont State.     Shepherd earned its 18th overall and 15th outright WVIAC football title, both league records.  The Rams (8-2, 7-1) now await word on their postseason seeding today. Shepherd will host a viewing event for the Division II Football Selection show today at 5 p.m. at the Wellness Center.

Robert Griffin III isn't the type of quarterback to run out of bounds, and Sean Weatherspoon knew it. The Atlanta Falcons linebacker kept up the pursuit and went for the tackle. His upper body rammed into the helmet of the rookie who doesn't shy from contact. Griffin was down and done. A mild concussion, according to Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan. On a day in which the Falcons' usually powerful offense was a bit out of sync, the defense had made a play that changed the game.

It didn't take long for Tre Anderson to set the tone for the evening Friday at Mike Callas Stadium. North Hagerstown's senior running back scampered 75 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in the 2012 football season and the Hubs went on to blow out Reginald F. Lewis 66-14 on a muggy night at North. The Hubs (1-0) rolled up 372 yards on the ground and Nick Karlen added 99 yards passing and two touchdowns. North also took advantage of five Lewis turnovers, including four interceptions.

The Williamsport boys soccer team may have been the No. 2 seed entering Tuesday night's Maryland Class 2A West quarterfinal game against No. 7-seed Poolesville, but the Falcons were the ones who played like they deserved the second seed. Poolesville dominated the vast majority of the first 65 minutes on the way to a 2-0 lead. And while the Wildcats made a furious final push to tie the score in the final 15 minutes, it wasn't to be as Williamsport was eliminated with a 3-1 loss. “We're a young team.

Landon Decisio scored from 2 yards out with 7 seconds left in the game, and Allegheny-Clarion got its first win of the season in stunning fashion Saturday night against Hancock, beating the Panthers 28-24. The win snapped the Falcons' eight-game losing streak dating back to last season. Allegheny-Clarion's last win also came against Hancock, a 13-8 triumph. The 28 points scored by the Falcons (1-6) was more than they had scored in their first six games (26). “Hancock is a small school like us and they were gracious enough to do a home-and-home with us,” Allegheny-Clarion coach Chris McNany said.

The Smithsburg boys lacrosse team suffered a reversal of roles in its Maryland Class 2A-1A West semifinal match against Winters Mill on Monday. Instead of the Leopards weaving their way through the opponent’s hapless defense, it was the Falcons who were doing all of the scoring. Top-seeded Smithsburg was held to one goal in the first three quarters and fell to fourth-seeded Winters Mill, 16-4. “(Winters Mill) brought its ‘A’ game and we weren’t quite prepared for it,” said Smithsburg coach Joe Dietrich.

The North Hagerstown boys basketball team forgot the objective of the sport it was playing. You are supposed to take the ball and put it in the basket. The Hubs did the first part — taking the ball — but they failed in the second part in the second half Wednesday in their Maryland Class 2A West semifinal, which ended in a 56-47 loss to Winters Mill. “Offensively, we had chances,” said North coach Kevin Hartman. “We just didn’t make the shots that we normally made all year.

Basketball is a game of runs. The Faith Christian-Hancock boys game Thursday proved that. The Falcons used two big runs at the end of each half to upend Hancock 62-47. With less than a minute remaining in the second quarter, Faith was clinging to a 22-19 lead before a 9-0 run put the Falcons ahead by 12 at the break. The same run briefly carried into the third quarter when Justin Earl hit a 3 to give his team a 34-19 lead. “The end of the second quarter really hurt us,” Hancock coach Jeff Spielman said.

BOYS BASKETBALL MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Andrew Harrell had 13 points and eight rebounds to lead Heritage Academy to a 40-34 season-opening victory over Faith Christian on Tuesday. Travis Barthalow had 10 points, seven steals and four assists and Aaron Clark had 12 points and four steals for the Eagles. Paul Hercules had nine points, Larry Kerns had eight points and Drew Michael and Evan Vocature had six points each for the Falcons (0-3). Heritage Academy 40, Faith Christian 34 HERITAGE ACADEMY (1-0)