Great Game

Clearview's Alex Hochberg pitched once in a varsity game as a sophomore. It didn't go too well. "First batter hit a triple," Hochberg said. "Next batter hit a single. Next batter hit a home run. " Hochberg returned to the varsity mound on Monday afternoon and shut down Paul VI in the first round of the Grand Slam Classic at Washington Lake Park in Sewell. The junior righthander allowed four hits and one run in six innings, leading Clearview to a 3-1 victory in a well-played season opener for both teams.

There are no stands surrounding the grass field at Shawnee High School. The 400 or so in attendance Tuesday afternoon were mostly sitting on the ground or standing, several deep in some spots, craning their necks to see the nation's most storied girls' lacrosse rivalry. Emotions always run high when Shawnee plays Moorestown in girls' lacrosse. The intensity on the field is different, something separate even from what you'd feel in a postseason game. But that still doesn't quite explain what the annual matchup means to the players.

Talk about timely. Senior midfielder Carl Walrath scored two goals in the final 36 seconds Wednesday night to rally undefeated Haverford School to a 5-4 victory over Malvern Prep in the first Inter-Academic Invitational championship game at Cabrini College. With the Fords' dream of finishing the lacrosse season unbeaten, and their top ranking in the country in jeopardy, Walrath scored his first goal of the game to tie the score, 4-4. Then with nine seconds on the clock, Walrath scored again to thwart Malvern's bid for a huge upset in the season finale for both teams.

Phil-Mont Christian Academy continued to make a shambles of the Keystone Conference, coasting to an 83-30 victory over Perkiomen School on Monday. The Falcons preceded the victory with a 102-52 thrashing of Cedar Grove last Tuesday in their league opener. "To be honest, the first two games were against the weaker teams in the league," Phil-Mont coach Chip Struck said. "These games should not be typical of the rest of the season. " The Falcons received blockbuster games Monday from 6-foot, 6-inch senior Carlin Warley, who scored 26 points and had 10 rebounds, and 6-5 junior Jim Petty, who scored a game-high 27 points.

IN THE CALM before the Game 7 storm last night at the Wells Fargo Center, Broad Street Bully gazed out at the ice and wondered, "Will the crowd be roaring, 'Booosh!' or 'Booo!'?" By the second period, he realized that it would be "Booosh!" all the way. Brian Boucher made 26 saves on 28 shots last night as the Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals. "The floodgates finally opened," said relieved and happy lifelong die-hard Mike Greenspun, 50, of Cherry Hill.

Bartram running back Michael Alexander remembered last year's Public League football game with Germantown very well. He scored a touchdown to give the Braves a 20-0 halftime lead, but the Bears came back with 28 points in the fourth quarter to win the game. "We wanted to make sure that didn't happen again," Alexander said last night after he scored two touchdowns to help lead Bartram over Germantown, 46-8, at Benjamin Johnson Memorial Field. It was the third straight win for unbeaten Bartram, marking the best start for Damond Warren since returning to his alma mater to coach three years ago. The Braves jumped out to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter as Alexander contributed one TD. This time they never let up. "It was just the lights, the band, the whole atmosphere - like Friday Night Lights," Alexander said.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - A Philadelphia star on DePaul's team moved the third-seeded Blue Demons to the Sweet 16 in the Philadelphia Regional of the NCAA women's basketball tournament Monday night. In the process, Keisha Hampton broke the hearts of Penn State, sinking two out of three foul shots with 4.9 seconds left to seal a 75-73 victory at the Bryce Jordan Center. Hampton, a graduate of Engineering and Sciences High, finished DePaul's comeback from a 14-point deficit and scored a game-high 26 points.

Two foul shots by Gary Duda in the final moments of the game brought victory to Malvern Prep's Friars over host St. John Neumann 69-68 in nonleague action yesterday afternoon. Malvern (11-2), fresh off a win in the finals of the Cardinal O'Hara Tournament last week, trailed for most of the game but finally got the lead with four minutes to go. The Friars stretched the lead to 5 points when Duda canned 3 of 4 foul shots after a double technical was called on the Neumann bench. Neumann would not die, however.

Pottsgrove trailed by two runs and was down to its last out in Wednesday afternoon's Pioneer Athletic Conference softball game against Perkiomen Valley when freshman Gabbi Ermish came to the plate. Ermish had just given up two runs in the previous half-inning and needed to get on base to keep the Falcons' hopes alive. She singled, as did the next two batters, before Lexi Kehl ripped a bases-clearing triple to give Pottsgrove a 9-8 victory over the host Vikings. Ermish retired the side in order in the seventh inning to record the win. Kehl's bases-loaded triple capped a great game for the junior, who went 3 for 5 and drove in four runs.

When Bishop Egan played Cardinal Dougherty on Jan. 3, Dougherty rallied from a 15-point first-half deficit for an 18-point victory, 82-64. So, when Egan went into the fourth period of Friday night's home game with a 25-point - 83-58 - over the Cardinals, Eagles head coach Dave Schafer apparently didn't feel safe enough to get his regulars completely out of the game. "It was a great game to watch, but as a coach, I was pulling my hair out," he said after Egan set a school scoring record in a 103-94 win. "We were sending guys in and out in the last quarter, trying to keep everybody fresh.

There are no stands surrounding the grass field at Shawnee High School. The 400 or so in attendance Tuesday afternoon were mostly sitting on the ground or standing, several deep in some spots, craning their necks to see the nation's most storied girls' lacrosse rivalry. Emotions always run high when Shawnee plays Moorestown in girls' lacrosse. The intensity on the field is different, something separate even from what you'd feel in a postseason game. But that still doesn't quite explain what the annual matchup means to the players.

Pottsgrove trailed by two runs and was down to its last out in Wednesday afternoon's Pioneer Athletic Conference softball game against Perkiomen Valley when freshman Gabbi Ermish came to the plate. Ermish had just given up two runs in the previous half-inning and needed to get on base to keep the Falcons' hopes alive. She singled, as did the next two batters, before Lexi Kehl ripped a bases-clearing triple to give Pottsgrove a 9-8 victory over the host Vikings. Ermish retired the side in order in the seventh inning to record the win. Kehl's bases-loaded triple capped a great game for the junior, who went 3 for 5 and drove in four runs.

Clearview's Alex Hochberg pitched once in a varsity game as a sophomore. It didn't go too well. "First batter hit a triple," Hochberg said. "Next batter hit a single. Next batter hit a home run. " Hochberg returned to the varsity mound on Monday afternoon and shut down Paul VI in the first round of the Grand Slam Classic at Washington Lake Park in Sewell. The junior righthander allowed four hits and one run in six innings, leading Clearview to a 3-1 victory in a well-played season opener for both teams.

DAYTON, Ohio - Thanks, but all the pretty words weren't helping Khalif Wyatt. Indiana coach Tom Crean praised the Temple senior's spectacular performance. Victor Oladipo, the lottery-pick-to-be tasked with guarding him, called Wyatt a "great player. " His own coach and teammates piled on the compliments. Words. They weren't going to send Wyatt to the Sweet 16. They couldn't change the fact that his incredible 62-point weekend marked the end of his college career. "It really doesn't do anything for me, not right now at least," Wyatt said Sunday afternoon.

Some baseball guys don't like to think too much at the plate. They see the ball. They hit the ball. Washington Township's Vinnie Nocella takes a different approach. He likes being the team's designated hitter because it gives him time in the dugout to analyze his at-bats. "I love thinking about what just happened, thinking about what he threw me and thinking about what I'm going to do the next time I get up," Nocella said Saturday after leading Washington Township to a 7-3 victory over Eastern in the first round of the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic.

CHICAGO - Perhaps it was just the last gasp of a team that didn't want to leave the season with a loss on its home floor. Tuesday night's 77-69 win by the Chicago Bulls to avoid elimination by the 76ers could have been nothing more than that. The Sixers better hope so, and they better hope their offense returns from the land of the missing when the series continues Thursday in the Wells Fargo Center. It wasn't as if the Bulls were terrific in narrowing the Sixers' lead to three games to two. They were the same crippled team that lost three straight to the Sixers to get themselves into this predicament.

NEWARK, NJ - New Jersey Devils coach Peter DeBoer says the key to Thursday's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal with the visiting Flyers is consistency. The Devils are coming off Tuesday's 4-1 win at the Wells Fargo Center that tied this best-of-seven series at one game apiece. The Flyers led, 1-0, after two periods, mainly due to the outstanding goaltending of Ilya Bryzgalov, but the Devils persisted and punched in four third-period goals, one an empty-netter. So DeBoer stressed after Thursday morning's skate at the Prudential Center the need to follow up Tuesday's performance with a similar effort.

PITTSBURGH - With less than 13 minutes to play in Game 2 and white towels waving furiously from the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game at the Consol Energy Center, Philadelphia's favorite mythical character, Rocky Balboa, was featured on the scoreboard that hangs over center ice. "It ain't about how hard you hit," Balboa said. "It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. " For this Flyers team, there is no punch too powerful. On Friday night, the Flyers repeatedly absorbed Pittsburgh's biggest blow.

It was a diving stop that saved the game for the Lenape girls' soccer team. The opposing coach, in vivid detail, explained how improbable it was that Allison Johnson, with at least two players blocking her sight, zeroed in on the ball and leaped across what seemed like the entire net. It's the save that everyone will point to after the Indians, ranked No. 1 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, topped No. 2 Paul VI, 1-0, Wednesday night at...

ATLANTA - It was all there, the breathtaking athleticism and the confounding lack of experience. The Eagles defense made spectacular plays and lost this football game. Nnamdi Asomugha and Asante Samuel showed what this cornerback depth is all about with two terrific and timely interceptions. But when Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan needed to complete a pass, he was able to find Jamar Chaney and Kurt Coleman trying to cover Tony Gonzalez and Roddy White. Jason Babin and Cullen Jenkins burst through the line of scrimmage and showed what Jim Washburn's defensive line technique is all about.