Big Moment

Paulsboro will try to tie a record for consecutive wins when it plays at Haddonfield tonight. Sound familiar? Two years ago, the Red Raiders equaled the South Jersey record of 31 straight wins at Haddonfield. In the same game, Paulsboro quarterback Kevin Harvey broke the South Jersey record for most career points. "I had to present him the ball," said Haddonfield coach Jim Horner, who was the athletic director at the time. "That was weird. I hope we don't have to do that this time.

Lenny Dykstra can't decide what in the world to do. The Phillies' centerfielder will be making the first All-Star appearance of his career tonight at Wrigley Field. He'll be leading off for the National League and playing centerfield. And, for the life of him, he can't decide whether to savor the moment and prolong it or to jump all over the first pitch from Oakland Athletics righthander Bob Welch, the American League starter. Decisions, decisions. "I know he's going to throw me a first-pitch fastball," Dykstra fretted yesterday.

As an annual service to partygoers, here are some New Year's Eve social tips from that well known social arbiter, Slats Grobnik. They are taken from his best-selling book, "My 30 New Year's Eves Without an Arrest. " WHAT TO WEAR The current "in" garments are Edwardian suits for men and maxicoats and dresses for women, or the reverse if you really want to whoop it up. White turtlenecks and bowling-league shirts are no longer tres chic. Regardless of what you wear, the most important consideration is that it can be thrown in the furnace and burned the next day. WHAT TO DRINK Select one favorite beverage and stay with it all evening, and all the next day if you wish.

John Spence Jr. has done almost all there is to do in a bowling alley. Three perfect games. Thirteen titles on the Junior Bowlers tour. A member of William Paterson College's national championship team in 1992. The Monsignor Bonner graduate will add one more line to his bowling resume this year, however. He will coach the William Paterson men's team and direct the men's and women's programs. "It should be a good experience," said Spence, who took over for Dave Carter at the school in Wayne, N.J. "A lot of preparation is involved.

Marquita Dobbins might know a little something about basketball. Trying to be a good mother, Marquita has called the basketball coaches at colleges where her son, Demarice, has applied, just to see whether there might be interest. "I didn't really want her to help," Demarice said, laughing. "But if she wants to, I guess I can't stop her. " In future calls, Marquita can add this to her pitch: "My son is pretty darn clutch. " Demarice Dobbins, a 5-11 senior combination guard, yesterday swished a 9-foot, buzzer-beating jumper to lift Parkway over visiting Franklin Learning Center, 49-47, in a Public League game.

CUPID & CATE, 9 p.m. Sunday, Channel 3. "Cupid & Cate," based on a novel with the significantly less alliterative title "Cupid and Diana," could've been structured a little more efficiently. The romantic telefilm spends its first hour spinning its narrative wheels, protractedly spelling out its fairly simplistic plot complications; then, in 15 minutes, a whole bunch of things happen. The final 45 minutes are given over to the rote resolution of that brief, calamitous spurt of narrative.

Now the La Salle Explorers can brush the streamers from their heads, sweep the blue and gold balloons from the court and get back to concentrating on basketball. The anticipation and the revelry are finished. That's because Lionel Simmons, the Explorers' brilliant 6-foot, 7-inch senior, last night ended his season-long bid to join the exclusive 3,000-point club in a 100-60 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory over Manhattan before 8,136 at the Civic Center. Simmons became only the fifth player in NCAA history to score 3,000, and he did it with a free throw 7 minutes, 16 seconds into the first half.

From: Michael Harrington Donovan scores in stoppage time! The greatest moment in the history of U.S. soccer!!! Wooo . . . have to catch my breath. Talk among yourselves. Amazing stuff by Donovan. Right up there with some of the great American sports moments of all time. Going out in a 0-0 tie would have been painful. But isn't it Thursday? Is it really a great moment in American sports if Gonzo hasn't opined on it? No column for Thursday, Kate. Some basketball writer turned soccer scribe is scheduled to dominate Page 2 until the World Cup is over.

LOS ANGELES - Out on the field, the Dodgers were finishing up their prep work. Some Phillies had already trickled out onto the field, kibitzing with acquaintances from the other team in that odd baseball routine. The late-afternoon sun had already cast streaks of darkness over the dimensions of Dodgers Stadium, providing a little cover for the solitary figure sitting alone on a bench at the top of the visitors' dugout. "I like being by myself a lot of times," Charlie Manuel had said just minutes before, when he met with the media for the first time since his mother's passing.

On distance alone, the longest of Terry Brown's two touchdowns likely would have qualified as remember-it-for-a-lifetime material. Another variable clinched it. Though a defense is supposed to include only 11 players, Brown, a 5-10, 195-pound senior, Friday needed to power his way through 12 while posting a vital, 95-yard touchdown run. And the extra guy was wearing his team's colors. Say hello to Joe Kenney. His job in the five-man officiating crew, which worked Samuel Fels' 22-20 Public Silver victory over Jules Mastbaum Tech at Northeast's Charlie Martin Memorial Stadium, was umpire.

All that Muhammad Wilkerson ever wanted is about to become reality. He isn't exactly sure about the when or who part. And to be honest, he isn't really too concerned about the details. The fact that it's going to happen, and the next step in his life will finally begin, is all that matters. The rest of it is for everyone else to worry about. The first round of the NFL draft will unfold tonight. There's every chance that Wilkerson - a 6-3, 315-pound defensive lineman from Temple who has been timed at 4.9 seconds over 40 yards - could be taken as early as the midteens, which would make him the first Owl to go in the opening round since Heisman Trophy runner-up Paul Palmer in 1987.

ON DISTANCE alone, the longest of Terry Brown's two touchdowns likely would have qualified as remember-it-for-a-lifetime material. Another variable clinched it. Though a defense is supposed to include only 11 players, Brown, a 5-10, 195-pound senior, yesterday needed to power his way through 12 while posting a vital, 95-yard touchdown run. And the extra guy was wearing his team's colors. Say hello to Joe Kenney. His job in the five-man officiating crew, which worked Samuel Fels' 22-20 Public Silver victory over Jules Mastbaum Tech at Northeast's Charlie Martin Memorial Stadium, was umpire.

From: Michael Harrington Donovan scores in stoppage time! The greatest moment in the history of U.S. soccer!!! Wooo . . . have to catch my breath. Talk among yourselves. Amazing stuff by Donovan. Right up there with some of the great American sports moments of all time. Going out in a 0-0 tie would have been painful. But isn't it Thursday? Is it really a great moment in American sports if Gonzo hasn't opined on it? No column for Thursday, Kate. Some basketball writer turned soccer scribe is scheduled to dominate Page 2 until the World Cup is over.

As Roger Ross Williams says, laughing about it in hindsight, he holds two records in the annals of the Academy Awards. One - and this is the important one - is that he's the first African American to win a directing Oscar, for his documentary short, "Music by Prudence. " And two, he is the first Oscar winner to be Kanyed when he stepped up to accept his award. Sure, there have been random Oscar-speech hijackings over the academy's 82 years - but they were before the verb to Kanye entered the lexicon, inspired by Kanye West's obnoxious interruption of Taylor Swift's Video Music Awards acceptance spiel last fall.

IMAGINE IT'S a century ago, and automobiles - once rare sights on the roads - are becoming commonplace. Communities are facing the challenge of creating new policies governing traffic and licensing of cars. They have to work together to do it and there is no road map to follow. Just as quickly, businesses are starting up to provide gasoline, which itself must be transported. The need for repairs spawns a need for mechanics, and training. And so on. Now, in what may be the twilight of the American car industry, we face a similarly critical moment, says Mark Alan Hughes, Philadelphia's first-ever sustainability director.

With the final seconds ticking off the clock, Martin Brodeur saw the shot leave the stick of Chicago forward Troy Brouwer, kicked out his right pad and watched the puck head to the corner. Within seconds, the buzzer sounded and Brodeur stood alone as the NHL's winningest goaltender with 552 career victories. Childhood idol and Hall of Famer Patrick Roy was now behind him. "It was an exciting night," Brodeur said after making 30 saves in the Devils' 3-2 win over the visiting Blackhawks last night.

LOS ANGELES - Out on the field, the Dodgers were finishing up their prep work. Some Phillies had already trickled out onto the field, kibitzing with acquaintances from the other team in that odd baseball routine. The late-afternoon sun had already cast streaks of darkness over the dimensions of Dodgers Stadium, providing a little cover for the solitary figure sitting alone on a bench at the top of the visitors' dugout. "I like being by myself a lot of times," Charlie Manuel had said just minutes before, when he met with the media for the first time since his mother's passing.

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the United States produced decorated porcelain that rivaled the best products of Europe. There were potteries in Brooklyn and East Liverpool, Ohio. But Trenton was the hub of artistic production for many of the best wares. Dozens of firms such as Ott & Brewer, Greenwood Pottery, and Ceramic Art Co. employed both native-born workers and immigrant craftsmen who contributed their Old World skills. They produced tableware, sculptures in marblelike parian, and thin-walled Belleek vases.