DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 1997            TAG: 9711180438

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   62 lines

ALL-BEACH AAA FIELD HOCKEY FINAL A STEP CLOSER TO REALITY COX AND KELLAM ADVANCE TO THIS MORNING'S STATE SEMIFINALS; FINALS THIS AFTERNOON.

Cox and Kellam pushed one step closer to a sixth-straight all-Beach Group AAA field hockey championship with quarterfinal victories Monday at Cox.

In their way are today's 9:30 a.m. semifinal opponents - the Falcons facing Central Region champion Thomas Dale in one and the Knights taking on perennial state representative Lake Braddock of the Northern Region in the other. The championship game is at 2 p.m.

The last time a final wasn't all-Beach was in 1991, when Cox beat Lake Braddock 1-0.

The tournament was moved to this week because of bad weather and dangerous playing conditions last weekend.

The Knights (16-5-1) continued their Cinderella run through the team's first postseason with a 4-1 victory over Northwest Region champion Stafford.

Kellam scored quickly, with Jennifer Howard controlling Amanda Snow's penalty corner feed less than two minutes into play.

The Indians (16-3) looked to make a game of it late in the first half when Crystal Carper went the length of the field before stopping just inside the scoring circle and blasting a shot past Kellam keeper Tiffany Blaine.

But the Knights stole back the momentum for good with 29 seconds left in the half when Wendy Garrett found a free ball just in front of the cage for a 2-1 lead.

The second half was all Kellam, with Howard making it 3-1 midway through the period and Kim Houck rounding out the scoring with a penalty stroke five minutes later.

``We didn't play well until the second half,'' said Howard. ``We started playing together and picked up the intensity.''

The Falcons (18-2) weren't as intense as coach Nancy Fowlkes would have liked her team to have been, but they still came away with a 4-0 victory over Northwest runnerup North Stafford that probably shouldn't have been that close.

Cox took a 2-0 halftime lead on Rachael Taylor's goal off a Taylor Rountree assist, and Katie Kubic's penalty stroke. Caroline Weirich made it 3-0 early in the second half when she set up at the left post and redirected a Kubic blast from high on the circle. Kirsten Van Hooser rounded out the scoring midway through the half.

``We weren't up to par,'' Fowlkes said. ``We were tentative and weren't running on all cylinders.

``Luckily a few people picked up the game.''

Cox still finished with a 14-1 shooting advantage.

Lake Braddock (19-0-1) easily advanced with a 5-0 victory over Central runnerup James River. The Bruins got a pair of goals from Candance Williams and one each from Shannon Ward, Nicole Nahlik and Sara Meriwether.

Thomas Dale (12-2-2) survived the most exciting game of the day, beating Northern runnerup West Potomac 1-0 in double overtime.

With 9:50 left in the second extra period, Leah Wiley broke past the defense and sent a pass ahead to Beth Jaeckle, who easily beat Potomac keeper Elizabeth Allen. ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Kellam's Andrea Julin, left, celebrates a goal with teammate Amanda

Snow during Monday's 4-1 Group AAA quarterfinal field hockey victory

over Stafford. The Knights face Lake Braddock this morning at Cox.

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