THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210478
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: 49 lines
Boosted by last week's victory over top-ranked Cox, the Kempsville girls soccer team continued its stellar play in a 2-0 win over Maury on a balmy Monday evening at Darling Stadium in the first round of the Eastern Region tournament.
The Chiefs (13-3-2) eliminated the Commodores (10-4-1) for the second consecutive year. Kempsville next plays Peninsula District champion Tabb, a 4-0 winner over Oscar Smith.
``That Cox win gave us a little bit of extra enthusiasm, confidence,'' said the Chiefs' Kristin Cholewa. ``We can play with the big people.''
Kempsville put on a passing clinic, dominating possession and outshooting Maury 22-4. Cholewa got things started offensively for the Chiefs in the 26th minute. Jessica Rafal crossed a pass to Kelly Lawver, who trapped it, and Cholewa drove it into the net.
``I didn't know if Lauren (Rafal) was shooting or not and I just went ahead and stopped it,'' Cholewa said. ``I saw the goalie down so I hit it to the side corner of the post.''
Junior defender Johannah Thompson said the Chiefs came into the game thinking shutout by shutting down Commodores speedster Shwante Snead, who also runs sprints for the Maury track team.
``That was our goal, to keep her in front of us instead of letting her fastbreak behind us,'' Thompson said.
The Chiefs' leading scorer, Lauren Rafal, tallied her 15th goal of the season a minute before the whistle that ended the first half. Rafal took a close shot off the assist by Allison Hechtkopf, hitting it near the post and high.
Rafal thought she had another goal late in the second half after she rebounded her own penalty kick, but the ball failed to touch another Kempsville player before Rafal shot it.
``It bounced off the post and I wasn't aware of the rule that it had to play off another player,'' she said.
Kempsville coach Ed Hackett rotated players often as both teams weathered the sauna-like conditions. Thompson said the long bus ride to the Peninsula helped in that regard.
``It gave us time to drink lots of water,'' she said.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Tabb (13-4) got on the board in the opening seconds off a booming kick from midfield by stopper Erin Byrne and Southeastern District runner-up Oscar Smith (8-6-4) never recovered.
``That score in the first few minutes brought us down,'' said senior back Diana Golt. ``They were extremely fast.''
Tabb recorded its 14th straight shutout, not allowing an Oscar Smith shot on goal in the second half. by CNB