Redskins

Suburban One National powers Abington and Neshaminy met on a collision course Friday at Abington, and the host Ghosts survived with a gut-check 18-15 victory. Both teams entered the rare mid-afternoon game tied for fourth in the rankings of The Inquirer, and both teams played with an intensity and desire that showed that those rankings were well-deserved. The victory improved Abington to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the SOL with wins over Pennridge (48-14) and Neshaminy. The loss dropped the Redskins to 3-1 overall, and gave them a 1-1 league mark that includes a win over Norristown (10-7)

A school usually will have a hard time winning many games when more students show up in band uniforms than in football uniforms. Such is the case with hard-luck Harry S Truman (0-10, 0-8), which hasn't won a game since 1988. Friday night at Neshaminy was no different, as the Tigers fell, 35-2, with only 42 players on the sideline for the Suburban One National Patriot Division game. The Redskins (5-5 overall, 2-5 league) won with a balanced attack: The rushing and passing games each provided 148 yards.

They had saved their best for C.B. West, while attaining the No. 1 spot in Southeastern Pennsylvania. But the newcomers from Neshaminy forgot about the Wicked Witch of the East Thursday night, and the Redskins had to struggle to overcome a 14-point deficit to defeat Central Bucks East (2-2), 17-14. "It's incredible how many times a team comes off a big win and the very next game, mistakes happen," Neshaminy coach John Chaump said. "You just know the breaks aren't going to go your way. " But the one break Neshaminy needed, it got when East's junior quarterback Mike Morelli left the game at the start of the fourth quarter with severe leg cramps after being decked by three Redskins on an incompletion.

Redskins receiver Pierre Garcon and safety Brandon Meriweather appear set to play Sunday against the Eagles. Coach Mike Shanahan said after practice on Friday that both will play, barring any setbacks over the weekend. Their returns will give the Redskins a badly needed big-play receiver and an even more badly needed starting-caliber safety. Garcon tore a ligament in the second toe of his right foot in the season opener and has been struggling with the pain ever since. He returned to play in two more games before missing the last four.

Sportsweek, along with the rest of the Daily News, takes a Thanksgiving break and will not publish tomorrow, so we offer the NFL picks, in much abbreviated form, to its devoted followers. OK, the two of you can sit down now. Tomorrow's games: Redskins 26, Cowboys 21 - Nothing like a little two-game losing streak to liven things up in Big D. Chiefs 21, Lions 12 - Wayne Fontes couldn't be more doomed if he were wearing feathers. Sunday games: Steelers 20, Ravens 17 - Think those crestfallen Browns fans have had a change of heart?

Two carries, two fumbles. That was Eagles running back Anthony Toney's opening game at Washington. Two carries, two fumbles. That they led to only three Redskins points was a credit to the Eagles' defense. That they led to a seat on the bench for the rest of the afternoon for Toney was the harsh reality. The Eagles lost that day, the only loss rung up by the real Eagles this year. But despite three straight wins, that opener at Washington revealed a pattern of slow starts that continues to this day. And those slow starts are just one of several things that must be rectified if the 3-4 Eagles are going to give the 6-1 Redskins a run tomorrow at the Vet (Channel 10, 1 p.m.)

Neshaminy coach Dick Bedesem had seen that look before, and it annoyed him tremendously. The look was plain among his Redskins starters before they took the field against defending state champion Central Bucks West. "We were totally intimidated by West," Bedesem said after the Bucks had routed the Skins by 36-20 Saturday afternoon in a Suburban One National Conference game. "Not to the point where we were actually scared to be on the field with them, but intimidated to the point where our kids never thought we could win the game.

The Washington Redskins watched their reign as Super Bowl champions slip away in the swampy gloom of RFK Stadium. The Redskins lost to Cleveland, 17-13, yesterday as halfback Earnest Byner squirted through the arms of two Washington defenders on a 27-yard touchdown run with 1:49 left in the game. It was a play that pretty much summed up the 'Skins' season. "We made a mistake and they took advantage," coach Joe Gibbs said. "It seems like I've been saying that all year. "But this (loss)

Sometimes politicians make mistakes. During his run for president, John Kerry tried to order a Pat's cheesesteak with Swiss. He may as well have asked for a knife and a fork to go with it - then jammed one of the utensils into the campaign's jugular. It would have been less painful than the abuse he took in Philly. Gov. Rendell's gaffe was bigger. In an anti-tea party interview that somehow veered off and touched on Donovan McNabb's trade to Washington, Rendell told Politico.com that next season he'll "still root for the Eagles, but I'm going to root for the Redskins in the playoffs because they're going to be in it and we're not. " A message left for Rendell at his office was not returned.

The Neshaminy field hockey tradition is long and storied. It includes a multitude of league, district and state titles. Marlea Partlon and Jessie Carboni are charged this season with keeping that tradition alive. The cocaptains of this season's Redskins team, Partlon and Carboni, along with goalie Amy Schrader, are the only returning starters from a 1996 squad that made it to the final eight in the District 1 tournament. "We don't think of it as pressure," Carboni said of the program's history.