By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 30, 2005; Page D07

They role-played this scenario in their backyard for almost five years: Brothers Daniel and Ben Hostetler and their cousin, Josh Hostetler, would pretend to be the starting attackmen for a high school lacrosse team.

"We'd be out throwing the ball around together for like five hours," Ben said. "The way we played the game in our heads, the three of us scored basically all of our team's goals."

Now, it's more than make-believe.

Ben (a senior), Josh (a junior) and Daniel (a sophomore) all start at attack for River Hill High School in Howard County. In the Hawks' only game so far this season, a 13-9 win over Arundel, the trio combined to score eight goals.

Coaches expect the Hostetlers to continue to account for much of the Hawks' offense, and their long-practiced ability to play to each other's strengths has River Hill optimistic it can improve on last season's 9-7 record and contend for a county title.

"Those three guys play together naturally," Hawks Coach Keith Gonsouland said. "They create shots for each other. When all of them are playing their best, we're going to be pretty tough to stop. They're a well-oiled machine."

All three have established themselves as individual offensive threats, too. Ben led River Hill with 50 goals and 28 assists last season; Daniel and Josh scored 15 and eight goals, respectively.

River Hill's offense works best when Ben engineers the attack from behind the goal and passes to a dodging Daniel on the left or a cutting Josh on the right.

"It's like we know where each other is going to be at certain times," Daniel said. "We got good because basically all we do is play sports against each other, so now it's kind of nice to actually be on the same team."