It was a day of discovery for two area girls lacrosse teams yesterday at Fallston High School.

In ninth-ranked Liberty's 10-6 win over the host No. 12 Cougars, Lions coach Courtney Vaughn discovered that her team, playing its first game after losing two scrimmages to rainouts, still closely resembles last year's Carroll County and region championship squad.

Fallston coach Gina Hormes, meanwhile, discovered that her team is a long way from where she ultimately wants it to be.

Liberty (1-0) outscored Fallston, 20-10, breaking a 2-2 tie by scoring eight of the next nine goals to pull away. The Cougars (1-2) scored three straight goals in the final 1: 17, after the Lions had cleared their bench.

"We were hurting ourselves early, but as soon as we started catching it we were OK," said Vaughn. "We really did need another scrimmage, and I was kind of worried about that. Neither team could catch and throw today."

Attacker Michelle Allen, who led Liberty with two goals and two assists, said it was just nice finally to play a game.

"When you practice for almost a month straight, you can't wait to play your first game," said Allen, a sophomore. "It felt good to get out here."

Meagan Voight also had two goals and an assist and Jessica Roguski and Trish Young each added two goals for the Lions. Allen said the key was patience.

"Early, we were kind of rushing our attack, but then we started settling down and looking for open shots," said Allen. "We also started getting the double on the ball on defense, which pressured them a lot."

After opening the season with a decisive win over Hammond, Fallston -- which finished 14-2 a year ago -- has now dropped two straight games to Top 15 opponents, including a 13-3 loss to No. 3-ranked Bryn Mawr.

Following yesterday's game, Hormes offered no excuses.

"It was just overall ugly play by Fallston," said Hormes. "Dropping the ball, turning the ball over, forcing it. It was two equal teams playing, but 75 percent of that game was a whole other team that I haven't seen and that looked like it didn't even know what was going on out there."

Hormes did credit her defense for holding the score down.

Mary Amasia led Fallston with three goals and Becky Rausa added two goals and an assist.

Baseball

Starters Andy Kostic of visiting Arundel and Severna Park's Josh Banks gutted it out, but in the end, Arundel closer Dave Stallings put a lid on a slugfest.

Stallings came on with runners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh and got the last three outs to preserve an 11-8 victory for the No. 2 Wildcats (3-1) over the top-ranked Falcons (1-1).

Kostic and Banks had identical totals of 109 pitches with 71 of them for strikes, but Stallings needed only three pitches to get the job done.

The two teams combined for 25 hits, including two homers each by Arundel's John McCurdy and Ryan Erhard (2-for-4, four RBIs). Arundel's Norris Roy went 3-for-4.

Severna Park trailed 7-0 before staging a four-run third, featuring a three-run homer by Joe Wiedman (3-for-4, three RBIs).

Pub Date: 3/30/99