A clash of North Shore high school football powers will take place on the opening weekend of the high school football season this fall when the two-time defending Cape Ann League champions from Masconomet Regional travel to St. John's Prep to face the area's only Division 1 program.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - It is one of Peter Giunta's most prized possessions as a football coach and it sits comfortably at his northern New Jersey home.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - You know the old saying "died and gone to heaven"?

PEABODY - Coming off its worst loss of the season, the Peabody High hockey team felt an urgency to get back on track. But it knew the job wasn't going to be easy against a Beverly team that had beaten the Tanners last month.

BEVERLY - Playing football at the college level never really crossed the minds of Beverly High teammates Brian Kureta and Greg Pierce.

BOYS HOCKEY

BEVERLY - One thing about the Beverly High boys basketball team has become abundantly clear: no matter how dire the situation, it doesn't back down against anybody.

After offering Swampscott High football star Brian Palangi a full scholarship, Northeastern University head coach Rocky Hager asked him to take a few days and consider it.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Jared Lorenzen, at 6-foot-4, 285 pounds, has often been mistaken for an offensive lineman.

MIAMI - Ray Allen arrived at halftime, a white sweat jacket over his flu-riddled head, and took a glimpse toward the scoreboard.

The Quarantiello File

BOSTON - Best known for his defense, Glen Metropolit gave the Boston Bruins a boost on the offensive end against Nashville.

The Blue Line Report

Danny Mello's favorite sport at Peabody High is baseball. Everybody knows it, including Tanners basketball coach Chris Mastrangelo.

Basketball

This isn't a case of David vs. Goliath in girls basketball circles.

BOYS BASKETBALL

GLOUCESTER - It was just about the best compliment an opposing coach could have ever given Andrew Fulford.

SALEM - Salem State athletic trainer Bill Bulloch has been around the college for three decades and is well qualified to grade a quality hockey performance. He thought the 4-1 Vikings victory over the 14th-ranked team in Division 3 college hockey, Babson, on Saturday night was something like a trip down memory lane, back to the program's glory days of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

WILMINGTON - Where do you start?

ATLANTA (AP) - Marc Savard made Atlanta feel like home all over again.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Even Stan Van Gundy wasn't sure what Hedo Turkoglu was doing.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - It's usually on Mondays. Bill Belichick, the head chef on Route 1 in Foxboro, brings out enough pies for 10 football teams.

Unbeaten. Untied. And enough humble pie to make you forget about both.

PEABODY - In addition to cramming for school exams all week the Swampscott girls basketball team was also preparing for a huge test on the court.

MARBLEHEAD - The Salem High boys basketball team's seven-game winning streak came to a halt last night. Not surprisingly, it took a great defensive team to slow them down.

If you were lucky enough to score tickets to the big game in Glendale, The Salem News wants to know.

Lindsey Watkins could be the Unsung Hero, MVP or the Coaches Award recipient when it comes time for the Salem State women's basketball program to present its year-end trophies. She truly does it all for the Vikings.

The Florida Collegiate Summer Baseball League came calling for Chris Judd, and the Curry College pitcher/second baseman from Peabody readily accepted the invitation to play for the Orlando Suns.

BOSTON - Kendrick Perkins scored on a putback with 16.6 seconds left, and Kevin Garnett poked the ball away from Sebastian Telfair as time expired yesterday night to give the Boston Celtics an 87-86 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Masconomet's Jamie White and Swampscott's Marissa Gambale may have different styles on the defensive end of a basketball court, but they strike a similar type of fear in opposing guards.

BEVERLY - Brian Wylie has been named the new Director of Athletics at Endicott College, the school announced yesterday.

Elite runner Jen Toomey of Salem wasn't trying to set the world on fire when she competed in the 800 meters at a low-key race at Harvard recently.

On Hockey

If you were lucky enough to score tickets to the big game in Glendale, The Salem News wants to know.

MELBOURNE, Australia - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had been compared to a young Muhammad Ali only because of an uncanny likeness to the boxing great.

LYNN - Deadlocked after two periods, the Bishop Fenwick hockey team needed a lift in the third period of last night's game.

DANVERS - Former St. John's Prep star Ryan Malo, last year's Division 1 state wrestler of the year, recently withdrew from Boston University, leaving a full wrestling scholarship behind.

There must have been times during the last 40 years of coaching soccer when Rick Storer felt like Marco Polo; he was always returning.

BOSTON - Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers looked at the boxscore and shook his head at the shooting percentages Toronto had just compiled.

New York City has Donald Trump, Central Park, 42nd Street, happy hours, 24-hour-a-day nightclubs, Broadway, Gisele Bundchen and the Statue of Liberty.

The most visible symbol of all the trouble Megan Berry has been through in her athletic career is a knee brace.

It's exam week at most area high schools, when students take their mid-year finals before beginning the second semester on Monday.

DANVERS - Turnovers. St. John's Prep boys basketball head coach Dan Letarte cringed when he heard the word.

The Beck File

NEW YORK - Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was photographed yesterday with what appears to be walking cast on his right foot.

BOYS TRACK

Salem High has such a rich basketball tradition that fans aren't surprised the team is 7-3 at the halfway point. But it's safe to say that the Witches have never had a season like this.

PEABODY - Craig Forrest had been struggling lately in net for Bishop Fenwick, but he stopped every puck Swampscott shot at him to lead the Crusaders to a 6-0 victory yesterday morning at Peabody's McVann-O'Keefe Rink.