By SCOTT FRENCH
Senior Editor

NO ENTRY: Atlanta extended its lead to six points with a pair of road shutouts, outbattling Philadelphia, 1-0, in an ugly encounter Wednesday and settling for a scoreless tie in Saturday's showdown at second-place Boston.

Briana Scurry got credit for both, her sixth and seventh of the season (and 19th and 20th of her WUSA career), as the Beat extended its unbeaten streak to four games and improved to 5-1-2 in its past eight matches.

The Beat, which has surrendered only 13 goals in 17 games, has shut out eighth opponents this year.

Scurry stopped six shots in Philly but needed to make only two saves in Boston, where Breakers goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc and midfielder Kristine Lilly provided heroics.

LeBlanc made seven stops, four of them superb (three of those on wicked Homare Sawa shots), to keep the Beat out of the net. Lilly, guarding the right post on a corner kick, cleared Cindy Parlow's header off the line in first-half stoppage time.

''When a goalkeeper makes saves like the way she did,'' Atlanta coach Tom Stone waxed, ''there is not a lot that we can be disappointed in. Give Karina credit. à I think a few of those would have been goals against most keepers in this league. [Scurry] is the only other keeper that would make that save.''

Boston is unbeaten in five games and is 4-1-3 in past eight matches.

BEST GOAL: Canadian rookie Christine Latham scored a stunner in San Diego's 2-1 victory Wednesday over Washington. Jenni Branam's goal kick was flicked on by Julie Fleeting, and Latham volleyed the ball off one big bounce from 22 yards off, a dipping shot that clipped the bottom of the crossbar en route to the net.

''A little bit of luck, mixed in with a little bit of timing, mixed in with a little bit of ability,'' Latham described it.

It was the fourth goal in as many games for the University of Nebraska product, one of two San Diego rookie-of-the-year candidates (with midfielder Aly Wagner).

BEST SAVE: Another Spirit rookie, Jenni Branam, nailed down the win over Washington with a terrific 89th-minute stop of Meredith Beard's dipping blast, getting horizontal to tip the shot over the bar.

The result knocked the Freedom — the WUSA's best team the first third of the season — to .500 and left it with one win in eight games.

NOT NO. 2: The victory over Washington put the Spirit in position to vault into second place, but a poor first half Saturday at Carolina — summed up by Nel Fettig's goal, a close-range tap-in after Brooke O'Hanley's corner kick ricocheted off the face of the crossbar and San Diego captain Julie Foudy's leg — left the Californians tied for third with Washington, two points behind second-place Boston.

''I basically just teed it up for [Fettig] nice and sweet,'' Foudy said following the 1-0 loss. ''It was my fault entirely, and I pretty much put it on her foot.''

BOUNCE BACK I: The Freedom, listless in the San Diego loss, was a different team three days later, dominating New York, 2-0. Abby Wambach had her third multigoal game of the season and her second in Washington's past two home games.

Mia Hamm assisted Wambach's second goal, her league-leading ninth assist of the season, and jumped ahead in the WUSA scoring race with 23 points. She was awarded another assist — on another Wambach goal — after league statisticians Elias Sports Bureau studied tape of the Freedom's July 9 victory over Philadelphia.

Wambach, who has nine goals, is tied with Philly's Marinette Pichon and Boston's Maren Meinert and Dagny Mellgren for second among WUSA scorers, one point behind Hamm.

BOUNCE BACK II: The brightest spot for New York in the loss was the return of Kristy Whelchel to the field. The midfielder, out since tearing an ACL during the offseason, came on for Shannon Boxx in the 86th minute.

Whelchel is one of seven players who have missed action this season with torn ACLs. The others: Power teammate Sara Whalen, San Diego's Shannon MacMillan, Carolina's Hege Riise and Danielle Fotopoulos, San Jose's Pretinha and Philadelphia's Deliah Arrington.

OTHER SOURCES: Katia and Katie Barnes, who had three goals between them through San Jose's first 15 games, stepped up in the CyberRays' first match since Pretinha tore knee ligaments, tallying in Sunday's 2-1 victory over Philadelphia.

Katia, the 2001 WUSA scoring champion, who won the ESPY for women's soccer on Wednesday night, netted her third goal of the season just before halftime, and Barnes fired home her second for the 61st-minute winner.

The win pushed seventh-place San Jose back into the playoff chase, just three points out of third, and Katia and Barnes will have to find the net more consistently if the CyberRays want to play on after Aug. 10.

Pretinha, San Jose's top scorer and its best player this season, is out for the rest of the campaign after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in Brazil's loss to the U.S. women's national team July 13 in New Orleans.

TIGHT RACE: The distance from second to seventh in six points. Boston has 26 points (and five games remaining), Washington has 24 (five), San Diego has 24 (four), New York has 23 (four), Carolina has 21 (five) and San Jose has 20 (five).

Carolina, with two games against last-place Philadelphia, has the most favorable schedule. New York, which faces two games against Atlanta, faces the toughest path.

FORGET IT: Philly is, mathematically, still alive in the playoff chase, but it won't be for long. One more loss or tie — Saturday against Carolina perhaps — and the Charge's Founders Cup hopes, or what remains of them, will be finished.

The losses to Atlanta and San Jose stretched Philadelphia's losing streak to four games, matching the skid with which the Charge started the season, and left them with 10 losses, only the sixth team with double-digit defeats in league history. The others: Boston (10), Carolina (12) and Washington (12) in 2001, San Diego (11) and New York (17) in 2002.

The Charge is 0-5-2 in its past seven games.

WUSA SUMMARIES WEEK 16: Five shutouts, four one-goal games

July 16 at Villanova, Pa.
PHILADELPHIA (3-9-4, 13 points) 0 ATLANTA (9-3-4, 31 points) 1.
Goal: Pohlers 31.
Att.: 6,587.

July 16 at San Diego
SAN DIEGO (6-4-6, 24 points) 2 WASHINGTON (6-6-3, 21 points) 1.
Goals: Latham (Fleeting, Branam) 23, Fleeting (Daniela) 35; Minnert 78.
Att.: 6,733.

July 19 at Boston
BOSTON (7-4-5, 26 points) 0 ATLANTA (9-3-5, 32 points) 0.
Att.: 7,212.

July 19 at Washington
WASHINGTON (7-6-3, 24 points) 2 NEW YORK (7-8-2, 23 points) 0.
Goals: Wambach 6, Wambach (Hamm) 80.
Att.: 21,892.

July 19 at Cary, N.C.
CAROLINA (6-7-3, 21 points) 1 SAN DIEGO (6-5-6, 24 points) 0.
Goal: Fettig 25.
Att.: 5,024.

July 20 at San Jose
SAN JOSE (6-8-2, 20 points) 2 PHILADELPHIA (3-10-4, 13 points) 1.
Goals: Katia (Sanchez, Venturini-Hoch) 41, Barnes (Sissi, Bell) 61; Hoffmann 4.
Att.: 5,243.