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back to the Tampa Bay High School Soccer home page.By CHRIS ROTAR
©1998 St. Petersburg Times
LAKE CITY -- Sometimes the machine loses the majority of its parts and sputters along, failing to live up to expectations.
Then there are times when you forget that the machine is missing anything at all -- it functions that well. So it was with the Clearwater Central Catholic boys soccer team since the state playoffs began.
A season that started minus 11 players (nine starters) from the team that won back-to-back state championships ended Monday in a 1-0 shootout loss to Melbourne Central Catholic. The CCC name, featured eight times on state championship trophies, couldn't overcome a hungry and, yes, fully stocked opponent.
Jim Harte, who has coached the Marauders to five titles, had a feeling it would end sort of like this. Only he couldn't have envisioned this group of overachievers missing four consecutive penalty kicks.
"I remember sitting on the bench, not last season, but the season before," Harte said. "I was sitting on the bench next to (then sophomore defender) Kyle Dulin. I said to Kyle, "We're going to do well this year, we're going to do well next year, but the fun year is going to be the year after that.'
"Because in that year, we're going to lose all of these seniors and everybody is going to think we're going to get crushed. But we're going to take our lumps and spin back out of it. And when we win that time, that's going to really be sweet."
It ended eerily close to that. Playing a grueling schedule, CCC hovered around .500 for much of the season, finishing 16-11-2.
The sweet finale, however, belonged to MCC.
The Hustlers (25-2-5) fell 4-1 to CCC in last year's state semifinals. They exacted some sort of revenge in the regular season, beating the Marauders 2-1. But that was nothing like the chance to unseat the champions when it mattered.
"Oh yeah, we've been talking about it all season," said senior keeper Martin Garcia, who started in last year's loss.
Garcia looked experienced and determined on the most crucial kick of the shootout. After the Marauders went to his right four straight times (making only the first), he guessed they would go to his left.
CCC's Taylor Famigletti did. Garcia saved it.
"I was expecting it there," said Garcia, who helped the Hustlers withstand Berkeley Prep in a semifinal shootout on Friday.
Unlike in its 4-0 semifinal victory over Pensacola Catholic, a match it led 3-0 at halftime, the Marauders were unable to mount much of an offensive attack early. They took just three shots on goal in the first half.
The Marauders had a goal disallowed in the 15th minute when Toby Linthicum's header deep in the box was called back. MCC, meanwhile, shot either high or wide on several scoring chances.
CCC nearly struck on several occasions in the second half. Then in overtime. Then in the second overtime.
In the shootout, CCC keeper Tom Malinosky made his team's first kick, then strode forward and took his place in goal. MCC missed its first kick, made its second. Malinosky then saved the Hustlers' third kick before Robert Stuhlmiller made the decisive fourth.
"It was a tough way for CCC to lose and it was a tough way for Berkeley to lose," said first-year MCC coach Robin Chan. "But right now that's the way the games have ended."
By CHRIS ROTAR
©1998 St. Petersburg Times
LAKE CITY -- A season that began for what seemed like an eternity ago carried with it the burden of high expectations for defending state champion Jesuit.
That's why a cold and wet and dirty Tigers coach Bob Bauman couldn't have been more relieved following his team's 4-1 victory over Osceola in Monday's championship game of the Class 4A boys state soccer tournament.
"This has been the longest season in the history of Florida high school soccer," said Bauman, speaking literally and figuratively of a campaign that began in November. "Our guys stayed focused all year long."
Before Bauman was given a sports-drink shower and tackled to the ground in celebration, his team was given fits by the Warriors.
"I told (the players) before the game that win or lose, if they played hard for 80 minutes I'd be proud of 'em," Osceola coach Tim Rachford said. "Unfortunately, people are going to look at the score and see 4-1 and not know that this was a close game."
The Tigers went up 1-0 in the first half on sophomore forward Rob Daly's goal. Senior midfielder Chris Petorak put Jesuit (29-1-3) up 2-0 with his 57th-minute header.
That goal seemed to energize Osceola (15-3-3), which sustained all of its losses this season at the hands of the Tigers.
Just a minute after Petorak's goal, Osceola junior forward Mike Servis made it 2-1 with his rocket shot from the top of the 18-yard box.
"We're in the state finals, we weren't about to let it turn into a blowout," Servis said. "We were going to play 100 percent the whole game and let it turn out the way it turned out."
For Servis, who scored in five straight playoff matches, the goal punctuated his return from a first-half injury. With the match still scoreless in the seventh minute, Servis collided with Jesuit midfielder Jody Keller. Servis, who said he hurt the outside of his knee, had to be helped off the field, but missed just 6 minutes.
"I'm not staying out of any game," Servis said.
The Tigers answered shortly after Servis' goal on a great individual effort by junior forward Shea Helmle. After turning his defender around deep in the corner of the box, Helmle curled a left-footed shot inside the far post.
After the match, Helmle and his teammates, and their coach, could all let out a collective sigh.
"Everybody was gunning for us this year, everybody had nothing to lose," Helmle said. "It was a great relief."
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