THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270568
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMI FRANKENBERRY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Before the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools' soccer season began, most of the talk was about returning champion Hampton Roads Academy and the two teams expected to challenge them - Norfolk Academy and Norfolk Collegiate.
But Nansemond-Suffolk Academy has changed that.
The Saints pulled off their second upset in a week, beating Norfolk Collegiate, 3-1, Tuesday in a non-district match.
Last week, Nansemond-Suffolk (6-3) defeated Norfolk Academy, 2-0, to open district play.
``We're working on it,'' said Saints coach Tom Gill of surprising the rest of the conference. ``Today was really a strong showing. We're doing things that no one, including myself, expected.''
Jay Habel scored two goals and Gabe Valencia added one to lead the Saints over Norfolk Collegiate (7-1).
Valencia scored the only goal of the first half six minutes in when he took a pass from Nick Garbarino and lofted it into the right corner of the net.
The Saints took a two-goal lead early in the second half after Jonathan Duman's shot was knocked over the goal by Oaks keeper William Karangelan, giving Nansemond-Suffolk a corner kick.
Valencia sent the ball to Habel, who booted it past a diving Karangelan.
Marc Gauthier scored for Norfolk Collegiate before Habel's second goal at the 23:46 mark.
``They really played more intense (in the second half),'' Habel said. ``We just had to turn it up on offense.''
Most of the Oaks' scoring chances late in the second half were knocked away or smothered by Saints goalie Saunders Roesser, who had eight saves.
Roesser's sliding save of Byron Harrell's shot with less than a minute left sealed it for Nansemond-Suffolk. by CNB