THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606150455
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REA FARMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 43 lines
The Hampton Roads Mariners relied on a string of players with little playing time this season Friday night.
Facing Premier League power Lexington, Hampton Roads sat starters Paul Cann, Byron Mitchell and Scott Lawler. The ploy backfired as the Bluegrass Bandits stormed to a 2-1 exhibition game victory.
The Mariners (7-2, 3-1 Select) opened a stretch of three games in six days against Lexington. They play a second exhibition game, against Wilmington, tonight at 7:30 at First Colonial.
Playing back-to-back games which do not effect records or standings gave coach Shawn McDonald the luxury of resting key players. Cann, Mitchell and Lawler not only did not play, but they did not even dress for the game. Sweeper Tony Velkov was absent with an Achilles injury. The combined loss of Velkov and Mitchell dismantled the defense.
"We have back-to back games and a big game on Wednesday,'' McDonald said. "You have to be careful about burning your players out."
Lexington (8-1) also played shorthanded, bringing only 15 players to the field and substituting quickly. They took an early lead and never trailed the Mariners.
"I think both teams were off their game,'' Lexington player-coach Dexter Sandy said. "We went up 2-1 and still had problems with some guys. So we had to change our strategy a little bit.''
Lexington dropped into a defensive stance and held off the Mariners' late charge. Hampton Roads has been a second-half team all season, scoring quickly and often. The players challenged strongly in the closing minutes, but could not overpower Lexington keeper Kevin DeLange. The Mariners outshot the Bluegrass Bandits 31-10 and DeLange corraled 19 saves.
"He was fantastic," Sandy said. "If we had another goalkeeper tonight, I don't think we would have won."
Tyrone Marshall smashed a 35-foot blast over Mariners' keeper Michael Payne at 27:55 of the first half for a 1-0 lead.
The Mariners appeared to be in typical second half form when Ryan Leib evened the score just 1:18 into the half. However, the Bluegrass Bandits retook the lead for good less than two minutes later. Roger Guiseppi launched a shot just past a diving Payne to put the game away. by CNB