THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604140263
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REA FARMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Stilian Shishkov fired up the Mariners Saturday night. Shishkov powered two goals, each followed by a handspring, to pace Hampton Roads to a 3-1 victory over the Baltimore Bays at First Colonial High.
The Mariners (1-0) were down 1-0 early, but dominated the second half. Hampton Roads wore down the Bays to take the season-opening United Sustems of Independent Soccer Leagues (USISL) victory.
Shishkov, of Bulgaria, assisted Mike Guerrero's scoring blast, then scored twice in the final 16 minutes.
``The goals were coming from the whole team,'' Shishkov said. ``It doesn't matter that I scored the goals. It was a good game.''
Shishkov scorched a shot from outside the box, then chipped in a bounce off the post.
``I knew I was in the danger zone, because the keeper could not see me for the defenders,'' Shishkov said of his first goal. ``I put the ball back on the left side. I was fortunate, the ball went in. Playing soccer you need a little bit of luck.''
The Mariners appeared unaffected by the absence of starters Mark Waite and Tony Velkov, out with injuries, and Darren Eales, who has not been cleared to play.
``They're three very good players,'' coach Shawn McDonald said. ``You have to be a good enough team to deal with that. I never looked at that as a problem. We have enough good numbers. We've been working hard, so we should be able to beat a team with the depth we have.''
Danny Creech, Casey Sweeney and Mike Oehlman all arrived in Hampton Roads less than 72 hours ago, but each saw playing time to fill the gaps.
``The team did change a little bit, but being professionals, I guess we have to deal with things like this,'' Shishkov said.
The Mariners controlled the ball most of the first half, but the Bays scored first. Baltimore's Terry Locklear deflected a corner kick to Derrick Marcano. He caught keeper Nathan Olansen out of position and lifted in a shot for a 1-0 lead at 6:49 of the first half.
``I thought we did a good job of pressing the whole game,'' McDonald said. ``The scary part is that seomtimes you still don't get the goals.''
Hampton Roads got its first goal at 12:28 as Mike Guerrero streaked down the right side and regained control of a deflected pass from Shishkov.
``I was making a run, then the ball was touched by one of their players,'' Guerrero said. ``I thought I was going to get the ball back like in a regular run, so I continued on. It was deflected off a defender and the ball happened to bounce my way.''
McDonald said Guerrero's impact on the game exceeded his tying goal.
``Guerrero played a great game,'' McDonald said. ``He hustled all over the field. Even though he didn't score a lot of goals, he caused a lot of problems.''
The Mariners travel to Wilmington Friday and return to First Colonial Saturday night for a 7:30 game against Washington. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
The Mariners' Stilian Shishkov, left, battles for ball control with
Baltimore's Scott Krosnewski...
by CNB