THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605180462
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
The Beach District championships Friday turned out to a good evening for Kempsville soccer.
At a fog-bound Ocean Lakes, the Chiefs boys earned the chance to advance to Monday's Eastern Region quarterfinals with a 2-0 victory over Salem, while the girls avenged their only loss to a local team with a 1-0 win over Cox.
Since the Cox girls had already won a trip to the region tournament with a regular-season title, Kempsville had advanced earlier in the week just by making it to the finals and the game had no bearing in the seedings.
But for the boys, the district's second seed was on the line.
For much of the first half, Kempsville (13-2-1) probably wondered if it was going to make it that far.
The Chiefs had shots by Joe Buchholz hit the right left post and then the cross bar and had another by Mike Greene hit the left post.
``I was thinking that everything was going wrong,'' Greene said.
But the freshman midfielder followed up his miss, controlled the rebound and put his team up 1-0 with 6:12 left in the half.
``We have three in a row go off the post, but then mine came right back at me and I was able to put it in,'' Greene said. ``Then I'm thinking, this is great.''
Salem (10-6-1) had mounted only a limited attack and Kempsville continued to control in the second. The Chiefs got the insurance goal 14 minutes into play when Phillip Robillard took a corner kick from Tyler Nickle and beat Sun Devils keeper Matt O'Neal with a header.
``I was getting a little nervous,'' Kempsville coach Kevin Denson said. ``But we were possessing the ball pretty well. We were knocking the ball around great. This is probably the best we've played all year.''
The girls game was merely for respect and Kempsville (11-3-1) clearly earned it.
The Chiefs scored the winner 10 minutes into the second half when Katie Johnson headed in a nicely-placed free kick by Monica Frey.
Ironically, the scoring play was identical to the one Cox (15-3) used to defeat Kempsville in the regular season.
``It was a nice kick,'' said Johnson. ``We wanted to avenge that loss really bad.''
Kempsville's keeper in the second half was Kelly Sisley and the senior secured the victory with three incredible saves as Cox mounted a furious attack.
``What else could we do,'' Cox coach Terri Sawyer said. ``(Sisley) played out of her mind out there. Those shots were rippers and she played them right.''
Kempsville also got a game-saving play from defender Sally Harrison. Falcons midfielder Natalie Stumpf had sent a free ball at the goal that had bounced over Sisley's head. But Harrison flew into the goal mouth and cleared it just inches before it crossed the line. by CNB