DATE: Thursday, May 22, 1997                TAG: 9705220718

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   46 lines

COX, KEMPSVILLE REACH REGION SOCCER FINAL BEACH RIVALS EARNED BERTHS IN THE GROUP AAA STATE TOURNEY.

The first minutes of each Eastern Region boys soccer semifinal at Kellam were telling signs of what was to come - domination by the Beach District entries over those from the Eastern.

Cox and Kempsville were so overwhelming in winning both games that the opponents combined for only five shots.

The Falcons (15-2) scored a 2-0 victory over Maury, while Kempsville (18-0-1) took a 4-0 decision over Churchland.

The Beach rivals earned berths to Tuesday's Group AAA quarterfinals, where they will face the Central Region representatives.

But first, they have to face off in Friday's 7:30 p.m. region final at Salem to determine which team travels and which stays home.

The Falcons' only losses have been to Kempsville, but both were close contests.

Wednesday's semifinals were anything but.

Dave Kozak beat Maury keeper Jeff Claymen 19 minutes into the game after taking a feed from Matt Mihalick to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead.

Cox got the insurance goal with four minutes left in the game when Pat Kilkenny neatly headed in Neal Smith's feed from the left corner.

``We seemed to be dominating and our ball control was so much better,'' Kozak said. ``But we need to make more of those chances pay off.''

Had Kempsville made more of its 33-0 shooting edge pay off, the score would have been well into double figures.

The Chiefs led 3-0 after a first half that saw Churchland (13-2-2) fail to control the ball once in its offensive end of the field.

``We came out to psychologically take them out of the game and we did that after the first shot,'' said Joey Moriarty, who scored the first goal and then another in the second half. ``I took that first shot from about the 6 and pounded it so hard that it would have gone through (Truckers keeper Thomas Talmadge) if he had gotten in the way.''

Andrew Blackmore made it 2-0 in the first half when he sent in Adam Schultz's corner kick, and Joe Buchholz scored late in the first half on a feed from Mike Greene.

It was more of the same in the second half, as Kempsville easily worked the ball around and frustrated the Truckers.

``It's been a while since I can remember a game where the other team hasn't even gotten off a shot,'' Kempsville coach Kevin Denson said.

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