THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150584
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENVILLE, S.C. LENGTH: 54 lines
On a night when home cooking nearly led to a bitter end to their season, the Hampton Roads Mariners emerged with the first playoff victory in the history of the 3-year-old franchise.
Matt Olson shut out South Carolina in the shootout, and Nate Houser scored the only goal Hampton Roads needed to give the Mariners a 3-2 victory over South Carolina and send the Mariners into the second round of the USISL Select League playoffs.
The Mariners advance to a three-game playoff against the Carolina Dynamo. Carolina hosts the first game Saturday in High Point, N.C. The Mariners then host the second game Tuesday at the Old Dominion University soccer stadium. A third ``mini'' game, if necessary, will follow immediately after Tuesday's game at ODU.
The contest ended on an ugly note after an apparent tying goal by South Carolina's Marlon Burgess in the final shot of the shootout was disallowed. Referee Dan Burak ruled that Burgess did not get off the shot in the allotted five seconds.
South Carolina coach Pete Petersen had to be restrained by police as he charged after Burak, who was also pelted by debris from some in the crowd of 800 at Furman University's Stone Stadium.
Ironically, it was Burak who kept South Carolina in the game with a bizarre series of calls, most of which favored the Shamrocks (17-7).
Hampton Roads (18-6) led 2-1 with 20 seconds left in regulation and Olsen preparing for a goal kick. At that point, the game appeared all but over. One long boot was all that was needed to run out the clock.
But then Burak added 30 seconds to the clock, ostensibly because the Mariners weren't in enough of a hurry to get the ball back in play. The ref previously had added 1:40 to the clock with four minutes to go.
Mariners coach Shawn McDonald vehemently protested both additions, which Burak said were necessary because of three substitutions and an injury timeout by the Mariners.
``They're saying it's their discretion to add time at the end of the game if they feel it took too long'' for substitutions and injury timeouts, McDonald said. ``I've never ever seen that before. Never.''
The last addition gave the Shamrocks two quality shots in the waning seconds. The first was blunted by Olsen, setting up a corner kick with 12 seconds to go. Striker Pearse Tormey then sent a crossing pass to David Minihan, who headed it into the net.
Neither team scored in a 15-minute overtime, and that suited McDonald. His three second-half substitutions robbed the team of scoring punch, and the remaining players were spent.
``What we've found in shootouts is that it comes down to good goalkeeping and who wants it more,'' McDonald. ``We've got the goaltender and we wanted it.''
Olsen was hardly tested in blocking the first four South Carolina shots in the five-shot shootout. Houser scored on the Mariners' third attempt. by CNB