THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505180848
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM STAFF REPORTS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
With the season on the line, Cox elected to go with a never-tested sophomore keeper and the Falcons seniors made sure his experience was a good one with a 3-0 victory over Salem that advanced Cox into Friday's Beach championship against First Colonial and into next week's Eastern Region playoffs.
``Salem plays the ball high a lot and he's an athlete,'' coach Jim Snodgrass said of sophomore Colin Kibler, whose only game experience was as the unbeaten junior varsity's leading scorer.
``Colin's a varsity (caliber) athlete and we needed someone to go up there and stop their shots. He's a young, aggressive athlete and he did a great job.''
With just over three minutes played, Matt Wilbricht found a free ball in front of the goal and drilled a shot to the left post to put fourth-ranked Cox (10-2-3) up early.
With 16:21 left in the half, Matt Whalen blasted a goal into the top right corner of the net.
``I felt more comfortable after that,'' said Kibler, who finished with three quality saves.
No. 2 Salem (12-4-1) had a shot at changing the emotion of the game in the first minute, when Brandon Hughes was awarded a free kick close to the Cox goal. His shot went in, but the official said a Sun Devils player had fouled Kibler in the box and negated the goal.
Whalen finished up the scoring in the second half, breaking through the left side of the Salem defense and bouncing a ball off the right post and into the goal. ``When we have to win, we win,'' he said.
In Beach girls soccer:
No. 4 Kempsville dominated play to take a 3-0 decision over third-ranked Salem (7-7-1).
The Chiefs (10-3-1) got a first-half goal from Nicole Frey, who let one fly from the right side from about 30 yards. Allison Hetchkopf and Adrian Nichols scored in the second half.
The Chiefs advance to the region tournament, but will first face Cox in the Beach championship Friday. The second-ranked Falcons advanced in an marathon Tuesday night against rival First Colonial.
With the game tied at 1 after regulation, on goals by Kirsty Hale of Cox and Tara Refo of First Colonial, the teams played two five-minute overtimes and two five-minute sudden death overtimes before heading to penalty kicks.
After penalty shots, the teams were tied, 3-3, so the affair went to sudden-death penalty kicks. There, the Falcons' Liz Coon converted.
- LEE TOLLIVER ILLUSTRATION: L. TODD SPENCER
Cox's Matt Whalen goes up for the ball. The senior tallied twice as
Cox made the region playoffs. ``When we have to win, we win,'' he
said.
by CNB