THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 3, 1995 TAG: 9506030440
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Few people in attendance at the Center for Effective Learning last Saturday thought the home team would pull out the win.
A two-goal deficit to the Raleigh Flyers, the top team in the Atlantic Division, combined with only six minutes left on the game clock, spelled what looked like a certain defeat for the Hampton Roads Mariners.
``I'm sure a lot of people in the stands thought the game was out of reach when we went down, 2-0,'' said forward Wayne Pratt.
For the Mariners players, who have shown a definite talent for finding a way to win, there was never any doubt.
A goal off a free kick by Darren Eales cut the lead in half, and Pratt connected on a live shootout kick after the Flyers' seventh foul of the half to tie the game at 2-2. The Mariners went on to win on penalty kicks, outshooting Raleigh, 4-2.
The Mariners host the Myrtle Beach Boyz tonight at 7:30 p.m.
``Individually, everyone feels we're a talented enough team to come back from any situation,'' Pratt said. ``We all believe in each other.''
So much so that the team turned around and did the same thing the next day. Hampton Roads traveled through a downpour to play the Washington Mustangs on Sunday, giving up a goal before rallying for a 2-1 victory.
``They're trying to make an old man out of me,'' coach Sonny Travis said of his team's late-game heroics. ``That's their main objective at this point.''
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE: Eales, who narrowly missed out on the Walter Byers Award for the nation's top student athlete, has been named a recipient of the 1995 NACDA/Disney Scholar-Athlete award.
Eales, one of five winners of the $5,000 grant for post-graduate study, was an Academic All-American at Brown University with a 4.0 in economics. He plans to use the scholarship to pursue a master's degree in journalism at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Eales will pick up the award in Las Vegas on June 20. by CNB