ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEITH POMPEY STAFF WRITER
For the first 83 minutes, the Roanoke RiverDawgs seemed to have their first United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues playoff game in the bag.
Roanoke was running circles around the Nashville (Tenn.) Metros in front of a franchise-high crowd of 1,010 on Friday night at Victory Stadium.
Suddenly the tables turned.
Nashville scored two unanswered goals, grabbing a 2-1 victory in sudden death overtime.
As a result, the Metros (8-7 Premier League) will face the Orlando Lions on Aug.9 in the Eastern Conference finals in Jackson, Miss. Meanwhile, the RiverDawgs (10-5) can only think about the game that slipped threw their fingers, and feet.
``Right now, I feel a little peaked,'' said Ian Spooner, a RiverDawg forward. ``We could have won this game. We had our chances. And [the Metros] put it away. But we had more chances than them.''
Spooner's right.
During regulation, Roanoke had 12 shots on goal compared to Nashville's nine. And on at least six occasions, the RiverDawgs had Metro goalie Jonathan Busch beat. But they missed the goal completely.
``We had a handful of missed opportunities,'' said Ed McMichael, Roanoke's coach. ``We really had a couple in the first half. We kept getting the ball deep in their territory and came out with nothing.''
Roanoke's first missed opportunity came early in the game. Spooner streaked past Busch only to have the ball sail wide left. Waughn Hughes had another open shot, but the ball sailed over the net. Next, teammate Nathan Fairchild's shot went wide right with 10 minutes left in the half.
In the second half, Roanoke started to look like a completely different team. Four minutes after intermission, Spooner's goal gave the RiverDawgs a 1-0 lead. Roanoke wouldn't let the ball get out of Nashville's territory.
With seven minutes left in regulation, however, Nashville's Ken Hoey tied the score at 1-1. Nashville scored the winning goal on its only shot in overtime as Doug Schenkel headed the ball into the net.
``That first goal, I got kind of shielded,'' said Aaron Ewert, Roanoke's goalie. ``I had to react on the last minute and it was too late. On the second goal, there was nothing I could do. It was a quick reaction. He was only three yards away from from me. He got it by me.''
But despite the loss, McMichael said he was proud of his team's overall performance this season.
``This is a blue collar team,`` he said. ``They have really worked hard this season. No one expected us to get this far. This has been a great season. We are 100 percent better than we were last year.``
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB