THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409130154
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, COMPASS SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
WITH THE ADDITION of transfer Matt Neely, the Tidewater Conference scoring champion last year for Catholic, no one hesitated to name Hampton Roads Academy as the favorite to win the championship in boys soccer this year.
That was before the Norfolk Collegiate game.
The Oaks held Neely scoreless and won the game 2-1.
Now everyone is thinking the conference title might be up for grabs.
``I don't think anyone in the league expected that,'' said Hampton Roads Academy coach Kelly Alford. ``They really took advantage of the situations that they had. I think they are going to surprise more than a few people this year.''
Of the 15 people returning to Alford's team, only four were starters last year.
``We have a lot of young kids,'' Alford said. ``But they saw a lot of playing time last year too.''
Alford hopes to finish in the top four.
Along with Neely, the Navigators have junior Griff Behncke in the midfield. A now-healthy keeper, Jimmy Mormon, who was injured during camp this summer, will returns in goal.
As for surprising Norfolk Collegiate, only three starters are back from last season's squad, which won the regular-season title. But coach Jim Snodgrass has five non-starters who saw a lot of playing time last season returning, as well as eight players up from the junior varsity.
Senior goalkeeper Jeff Oelrich and senior defender Jeff Scott are the keys to Collegiate's success. It was Scott who kept Neely in check during the HRA game.
Juniors Byran Harrell and Trey Cooper will lead the attack, but possibly the most important addition is co-coach Willie Kee, a former assistant coach at Virginia Wesleyan and Christopher Newport University and the brother of Hampton Roads Hurricane player Alex Kee.
``I think he injects a lot of youth and enthusiasm that we needed,'' said Snodgrass, who has been coaching since 1971.
``I've been very impressed with our young players,'' Snodgrass said. ``We're better than expected. I expected to get hammered by Hampton Roads, so I don't know what our limitations are.''
Last season the Oaks entered the tournament possibly looking ahead to a championship battle with Norfolk Christian when they ran into an upstart eighth-place Cape Henry team and lost 1-0 in the first round.
Norfolk Christian graduated eight seniors, but the Ambassadors have nine seniors coming back as well as a solid flock of juniors.
Senior co-captains Josh Crouse and Mark Elliott lead the way for Christian. Crouse already has a tournament MVP award under his belt from the Shenandoah Valley Labor Day Invitational. Elliott spent the summer honing his skills in Russia.
Joe Dudley is the keeper, and, with Peter Nichols and Randy Stilwell on defense, the Ambassadors earned five shutout victories to win the Shenandoah tourney.
``We move the ball well,'' coach Rich Rose said. ``I think the question is depth. Last year we had strength and depth. This season the bottom half of the roster is younger.
``This is a very cohesive unit. I don't know if we have any individual stars, but these guys really like each other and they work well as a team.''
Tradition warrants that Norfolk Academy be considered a frontrunner, but injuries plagued the Bulldogs during the preseason. With only half of the team really able to perform, Kevin Sims still remains a little cautious about what to expect.
``The preseason was very discouraging,'' Sims said. ``We have a fairly older team and they are experienced, so I am relatively optimistic.''
All-Prep League and All-Tidewater center Herb Eilberg and Bryan Konikoff, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, lead the senior brigade.
Ben Kottke, who missed the preseason with an injury, will be at midfield and Adam MacBeth returns for his third year in goal.
Senior sweeper Brad Croteau is among the hurt who should return in the next week or so.
``Most of the injuries have been of the three to five day variety, but there have been so many it's been difficult to work with,'' Sims said.
The Bulldogs have had the same record, 15-5-2, for three years running, so Sims decided to open the season a little differently this year to hopefully break that mold.
Sims took the Bulldogs on the road to Cape Fear, N.C., last weekend.
``We've never been to a tournament like this and we usually struggled out of the gate,'' Sims said. ``Other teams seemed to do better when they start out in one of these tournaments.''
Another reason behind the move was the fact that being in the Prep League and the TCIS, Norfolk Academy doesn't play any games that don't count.
``Because these will be non-league games, we can experiment a little bit,'' Sims said.
The balance of power between the two leagues seems to be shifting towards the TCIS.
``The Tidewater Conference is the strongest private school conference in the state right now,'' Snodgrass said. ``It used to be the Prep League, but now, when you put the better teams in each league up against one another, the TCIS is doing very well.
``We beat everybody outside the conference last year.''
As the coaches tried to handicap the conference it became obvious there are few soft touches.
``I thought Hampton Roads would be up there,'' Rose said. ``Now obviously Collegiate is up there, too.''
The upset of Collegiate in the tournament last season gave Cape Henry confidence that coach Ed Faubert expects to carry into this season.
``We knew we weren't a bad team,'' Faubert said. ``We were a good team waiting for something good to happen.''
Cape Henry remains a very young team with sophomores and juniors dominating the starting line.
Tri-captains Vikram Singh (defender), Chris Barrett and Sean Luoma at midfield will be called upon to lead the team, while Mark Laboccetta and Brian Kelley battle for the top goalie spot.
``I expect to be somewhere in the middle of the pack,'' Faubert said. ``Of course, we are looking to peak at tournament time.''
If last season is any indication, they already have that strategy down.
Everyone is on the lookout for this season's Cape Henry. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Ryan Land, a senior at Norfolk Collegiate, leaps for the ball during
a recent contest.
by CNB