The bulk of the fall team championships are still to be decided at this point, but the best title story of the season may have been written last night at South River, where the Severna Park field hockey team claimed its 17th Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association trophy.

The Falcons, who along with the Mount Hebron girls lacrosse team -- which has won 15 titles and 11 consecutive -- might be the most dynastic program in the state, yet they had to go further to protect their reign than in previous seasons.

For one thing, the Falcons lost three regular-season games this year, which hasn't happened since dinosaurs roamed the earth, leading to talk that the program had been passed by Broadneck and South River, which finished the regular season atop the area poll.

So, all Severna Park did during the tournament was avenge their losses against Broadneck and South River, both on the road, then knock off No.7 Westminster before beating defending Class 4A champion Quince Orchard 2-0 last night. The Falcons won the 3A title last year.

No wonder legendary coach Lil Shelton told The Sun's Katherine Dunn last night, "I told everybody, we're the comeback kids. I think we got counted out, because everybody in the county said: 'They've lost three games. They're not going to do anything.' Then we got it together and said: 'Yes, we are.' "

Indeed they did.

By the way, the MPSSAA announced this morning that the 1A championship game between Pocomoke and Poolesville and the 3A match between Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Fallston will be played tonight as scheduled at 5 and 7 p.m., respectively, at Broadneck, where the artificial turf field was damaged over the weekend by a fire set by vandals.