Chiefs

Cherokee was looking for a dream ending to its field hockey season. Yesterday, in the Group 4 state final, another team found it first. The Chiefs fell, 2-1, in sudden-death overtime to North Jersey II champion Morris Knolls at the College of New Jersey. Golden Eagles defender Heather Redlich ended Cherokee's season when she scored the game-winner with 3 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first overtime. "It's a bad way to end it," Cherokee coach Sharon Tinucci said. "It's not fun to lose in overtime.

The situations are the same, yet different for Seneca's football team. For the second year in a row, the Golden Eagles have a chance to play giant-slayer, with an opportunity to knock off The Inquirer's No. 1-ranked South Jersey team, Cherokee. Last year, Seneca played the role perfectly, beating an undefeated Cherokee team, 14-7, on Thanksgiving to finish with an 8-3 record. Once again, Cherokee is 10-0, ranked No. 1, and headed to the South Jersey Group 4 final, in which the Chiefs will host Oakcrest on Dec. 4. That's where the similarities end. Seneca was a Group 3 playoff qualifier last year, but it enters Thursday's 11 a.m. game at Cherokee with a 4-5 record.

The Kansas City Chiefs tried to bury themselves with mistakes, but the Los Angeles Raiders let them up one too many times. That was enough, and the Chiefs escaped with a 24-21 victory. "Everything that was going wrong for us did go wrong," Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer said. "Just another exciting night at Arrowhead Stadium. " No sooner had an offensive pass-interference penalty appeared to doom Kansas City than quarterback Steve DeBerg hit Tim Barnett with a 6-yard touchdown pass with 47 seconds left for the winning points.

Coming into the weekend, Kansas City found itself all alone atop the AFC West for the first time since Oct. 25, 1981. Sure hope it was nice while it lasted. The Denver Broncos (5-2) saw to that by beating the visiting Chiefs yesterday, 19-16. It was the ninth straight time the Chiefs (5-3), who had won four in a row, have lost at Mile High Stadium. And Kansas City coach Marty Schottenheimer is 1-7 against the Broncos, 0-5 at Denver. Before yesterday, Denver quarterback John Elway had thrown more interceptions against the Chiefs (24)

The Kansas City Chiefs said yesterday they will install a grass field at Arrowhead Stadium - perhaps in time for the 1994 season. The Chiefs join the Kansas City Royals in switching to grass on their neighboring fields at the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex. The Royals plan to play on grass at Kauffman Stadium in 1995. The Chiefs said they hope to have grass installed for 1994, but if that is not feasible it will be installed in the spring and summer of 1995. A nine-year study by Dr. John W. Powell, of the University of Iowa, in which he catalogued virtually every NFL injury, concluded there was a "statistically significant difference" between the Astroturf injury rates for knee sprains and knee injuries on grass.

In front of a packed house in a playoff-type atmosphere Friday night at William H. Foltz Stadium in Marlton, a Cherokee sophomore running back, an alert Chiefs defense, and a couple of key injuries for Shawnee resulted in a more one-sided game than expected. Host Cherokee, ranked No. 1 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, ran away with a 29-15 victory over No. 4 Shawnee in a West Jersey Football League interdivisional game that was supposed to be close. The win boosted Cherokee's overall record to 6-0, giving the defending South Jersey Group 4 champion good reason to be optimistic as the playoff cutoff date approaches.

There was a time when the Mount St. Joseph's girls' soccer team was just about left for dead. Not too long ago, actually. The Chiefs had lost in the semifinals of the Catholic Academies League playoffs to upstart Merion Mercy, and an invitation to the PIAA District 1 tournament was not a certainty. But the Chiefs got a bid, and they put on quite a show. They knocked off two of the top seeds in the tournament, Strath Haven and Great Valley. But when it came down to league rival Villa Joseph Marie in the district final, the eighth-seeded Chiefs just ran out of gas. Denise Serafin got the Chiefs on the board first, but Jems senior Erin Schlussel scored twice in the fourth quarter and Villa took a 3-1 decision in front of a spirited crowd at the United German Hungarian Club in Oakford Monday night.

Wes Hopkins, the comebacking former Eagles free safety, flew to Kansas City yesterday and worked out for the Chiefs' coaching staff. Negotiations between Hopkins's agent, Harry Himes, and Kansas City could get under way as early as today. "Wes informed me that the workout went very well," Himes said. "He is looking forward to exploring the opportunity of playing for this championship- caliber team. " Hopkins, 31, feels he has fully recovered from offseason microfracture surgery on his left knee, and has been exploring job possibilities with NFL teams other than the Eagles.

Gunther Cunningham, who screams at players one minute and hugs them the next but apparently always commands their respect, is Kansas City's choice to replace Marty Schottenheimer as coach. As the Chiefs' defensive coordinator for four years, the intense, personable Cunningham became popular with everyone in the organization and twice molded a unit that led the NFL in fewest points allowed. "I am euphoric at finally getting this opportunity," said Cunningham, who was born in Germany and moved to the United States at age 12 when his mother married an American serviceman.

After an jolt in the first four minutes of the season opener, the Cherokee girls' basketball team stressed getting off to a good start the next time out. That came yesterday when the Chiefs started well and finished even better for a 52-39 win over Eastern in an Olympic Conference American Division game. Defending American Division champion Cherokee is 1-1 overall and 1-0 in the American Division. This game contrasted greatly from the Chiefs' opener, a 68-49 loss to talented Timber Creek on Friday.

HARRISBURG - The top staff aide to Gov. Corbett is leaving the administration for a new job. Corbett said Thursday he would nominate his chief of staff, William F. Ward, to fill a vacancy on Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. Ward will be replaced by Stephen Aichele, a lawyer from Chester County who currently works as Corbett's chief counsel. The governor made his announcement in a prepared statement that gave no hint of the political turmoil that was said to have preceded the moves.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the nation's top military leaders pleaded Wednesday for Senate approval of a long-spurned high-seas treaty, arguing that the pact would boost U.S. national security and create jobs. In a rare joint appearance before Congress, Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, made the case for the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was concluded in 1982 and which has been in force since 1994.

WASHINGTON - Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan says his officers' contact with prostitutes at a Colombian hotel last month produced no breach of national security plans for President Obama's visit to the South American country. "At the time the misconduct occurred, none of the individuals involved ... had received any specific protective information, sensitive security documents, firearms, radios, or other security-related equipment in their hotel rooms," Sullivan said in testimony prepared for his first public accounting Wednesday of the humiliating scandal that tarnished the historic agency.

TEHRAN, Iran - The head of the U.N. nuclear agency pushed Monday for a breakthrough pact with Iran to resume inspections into suspected secret atomic weapons work and possibly set in motion further deal making when envoys from Tehran and world powers gather later this week in Baghdad. The mission by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano raised speculation about greater flexibility by Iranian officials as they struggle to balance the blows from Western sanctions and their insistence never to abandon the country's nuclear program.

VIENNA - The U.N. nuclear agency chief will fly to Tehran over the weekend to sign a deal meant to allow his organization to resume a long-stalled search for evidence that Iran worked on developing nuclear arms, the agency and diplomats said Friday. The trip Sunday by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano comes just four days ahead of a key meeting between six world powers and Iran where the six hope to wrest concessions from Tehran meant to reduce concerns that it wants such arms.

CAIRO - Egypt's military ruler said Wednesday he hopes that a "great leader" will emerge from the country's presidential election, and said it will be a free and fair vote that will reflect the will of the people. The remarks by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi appeared intended to assuage fears among many Egyptians that the ruling military council may be pushing a preferred candidate of its own, and reassure them that the pervasive rigging that was routine under ousted president Hosni Mubarak will not take place.

The Camden City Board of Education is set to vote Tuesday on a buyout package for Superintendent Bessie LaFra Young, who has drawn sharp criticism for having called out sick for the equivalent of more than a school year of time since being hired five years ago. Young, a former top administrator in the Philadelphia School District who has a year left in her contract, will be stepping down June 30 from her $244,083 job at the helm of the long-struggling...

Joseph Neubauer, best known as benefactor to some of the region's top cultural organizations, stepped down Tuesday as chief executive of Aramark Corp. after 29 years as its leader. Aramark, one of Philadelphia's largest companies, with a global workforce of 250,000, has hired Eric J. Foss, 53, a former PepsiCo Inc. executive, to succeed Neubauer as president and chief executive. The move marks the end of an era for the food-services and facilities-management company, which has known just five chief executives since 1936.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned troops Friday that it takes just seconds for misconduct to make headlines and said that enemy insurgents can use recent military scandals to fuel their fight. Speaking to soldiers at Fort Benning, Ga., where he began his military career as an Army lieutenant nearly 50 years ago, the defense chief delivered a personal plea, urging troops to honor their military values. "These days, it takes only seconds - seconds - for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline," Panetta said.

Brittany Scott struck out six in pitching a perfect game, and her sacrifice fly drove in a run in the third inning, carrying Buena to a 2-0 victory at Sacred Heart on Thursday in Cape-Atlantic League softball. Kaitlyn Cooper added a solo home run in the fifth for the first-place Chiefs (13-0 overall, 10-0 conference), who opened a two-game lead over Sacred Heart (14-3, 8-2) in the National Conference Division I standings. In other Cape-Atlantic action: Karisma Pantaleon and Nicole Chillari combined for five RBIs, and Jenna Montana shut down Cape May Tech on six hits in pitching host Bridgeton to a 9-0 win. Brittany Robertson went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and a pair of runs scored, and Tori Sittineri tossed a three-hit shutout as Middle Township pummeled Pleasantville, 23-0, in three innings.