THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411190613
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIENNA, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Cox and Bayside made the Group AAA state field hockey championship an all-Beach affair for the fourth time in five years with semifinal victories Friday at Oakton High.
While the two were the anticipated participants for the final, getting to today's 11 a.m. title game wasn't nearly as easy as expected.
Both squads had their hands full with Friday's opponents, although each managed to pull out 2-1 victories - Cox beating McLean and Bayside defeating Centreville.
In today's matchup, Cox (20-0) will be shooting for its sixth-straight championship and ninth overall - two numbers that would put the Falcons at the top of the national record book.
Should Cox win, the Falcons would be tied with Stowe, Vt., for most state titles. And they would set the high school record for consecutive state titles.
But before Cox could even think about such numbers, it had to get by a pesky McLean team that had the Falcons in an unfamiliar position at halftime.
Cox found itself down, 1-0, 6:30 into the game when Highlanders forward Katie Smith broke loose and nailed a running shot past keeper Kim Iman.
It was only the third time all season that Cox had been scored on.
``We had to watch our confidence at that point,'' said Kim Miller, the state's career scoring leader with 95 goals. ``When our confidence is down, we play down.''
The Falcons must have lost some confidence temporarily, because McLean (17-1-2) controlled much of the action the remainder of the half and for the first five minutes of the second half.
It didn't help when Kirsty Hale was stopped on a penalty stroke minutes into the half.
``She did a great job the entire game,'' Hale said of Highlanders keeper Jennifer Robb - daughter of U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb.
Cox finally got on the board with 22 minutes left when Hale and Miller took two point-blank shots at Robb and Miller tapped in the loose ball for the tie.
``I just kept hitting at it and it finally went in,'' Miller said. ``That's when we got our confidence back.''
Cox took the lead five minutes later on a penalty-corner play, when Hale took the feed in from Catherine McCallum and dished to Miller, who blasted a shot off a defender's stick and high into the net.
McLean threatened on three-straight penalty corners late in the game, but failed to get off a shot.
Miller's two goals gave her 48 for the year, moving her into a tie for eighth on the national list for goals in a season. Hale - her output now at 42 - is four shy of breaking into the top 10.
Coach Nancy Fowlkes said she felt her team was too preoccupied with winning.
``I was still in real good spirits after (McLean) scored, and I believed we would prevail,'' she said. ``But instead of playing like a team with best-in-state status, we played like a team that wanted to win.
``We could have played a lot smarter.''
As it did in its quarterfinal victory, Bayside (19-4) scored quickly.
After the opening tap, Quan Nim broke free, rushed the Centreville goal, and tapped a shot past keeper Amanda Crowe only 20 seconds into the action.
Unfortunately, Bayside failed to grab the momentum and the Wildcats (13-5-1) were able to take control of the contest.
``They didn't steal it from us, we let down because we scored and you can't do that,'' Nim said.
Centreville had a chance to tie it early in the second half, but Emily Harwood's penalty stroke was right at keeper Jen Walter.
About 10 minutes after the stroke, Dawn Bell took a penalty corner feed from Kay Anderson and passed to Crystal Pickett, who blasted a shot past Crowe for a 2-0 lead.
With 11 minutes left, Walter was called for trapping a shot and Beth Lancaster narrowed the margin to 2-1 with a penalty stroke low and to the left of Walter.
But Bayside held the remainder of the game and actually got another penalty stroke of its own. Unfortunately, Bell failed to convert.
While Bayside's four losses this season have all come at the hands of Cox, the Marlins are excited about today's matchup.
``It's nice that the Beach has once again established its dominance,'' Bayside coach Patti Bullock said. ``And everything's even again. Those games are history, and (Saturday) is for the state title.'' by CNB