THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407310244
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEITH NAMM, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The top-seeded Charleston Battery ended the Hampton Roads Hurricanes' season with a rainy 4-1 victory Saturday night in the USISL Atlantic Division semifinals.
The fourth-seeded Hurricanes fell behind, 1-0, at halftime and trailed, 3-0, before Byron Mitchell scored their only goal at the 44:55 mark.
Charleston will play second-seeded Charlotte, a 2-0 winner over third-seeded Raleigh Saturday night, in next weekend's Atlantic Division finals. That series will start at Charlotte on Friday and conclude next Saturday in Charleston.
The Hurricanes, who lost two close matches to the Battery in the regular season, were outshot, 23-12, with 1,753 watching at Stoney Field. Hampton Roads starting keeper, Tim Figureido and backup Scott Budnick, who played the last 8:05, combined for 11 saves.
``I want to give Charleston credit,'' Hurricanes coach Sonny Travis said. ``Their defense played a very strong match; they were winning a lot of air balls and tackles. Charleston was taking the quick shot and following up on rebounds. They were very hungry in the box.
``Offensively, we had a very poor showing tonight. We had been scoring a lot of goals and tonight we didn't get it done.''
Andrew Coggins scored two unassisted goals for Charleston, including the first goal 23:55 into the match.
Mitchell's goal came on a header off a Blake Rogers corner kick 14:55 into the second half. It was the first goal scored against Charleston since June 18, when the Hurricanes lost to the Battery, 4-3, in a shootout after the teams played to a 1-1 tie through overtime.
Mitchell's goal was answered a minute later by a Richard Hughes score off an assist from Shane Weems. After gathering in Weems' through pass, Hughes was in alone on Figureido and his move wide to his right gave him an open net.
``We're a bigger, physically strong team, and they're a quick, technical team,'' Battery coach Tim Hankinson said. ``The weather tonight complemented the team with the stronger legs.''
One of Figureido's best saves wound up setting up Charleston's third goal 11:28 into the second half. His sprawling tip of a right-side blast by Paul Young floated straight up in the air, and Coggins pushed it into the net from just outside the left post. by CNB