Warriors face familiar final foe

By CHRIS ROTAR

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 1998

LAKE CITY -- For someone who scored three goals against the state's second-ranked team in the regional final, Mike Servis did a remarkable job of hiding Saturday.

It wasn't that Orlando Bishop Moore was not aware of Osceola's junior forward, who had a hat trick in his previous match against Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons. There was just little the Hornets could do to stop Servis in Osceola's 2-0 victory.

Servis had just one goal, but it left a lasting impression.

"We were told he was the main man, and we tried to cover him, tried to shut him down," Bishop Moore coach Mark Keymont said. "We put our best defender on him, and (Servis) just did a great job of finishing the ball."

The Warriors (15-2-3) struggled somewhat at the outset. That quickly changed when Servis found a road to the goal in the 25th minute.

Chris Huber, who added a second-half goal, slipped a perfectly-timed pass to a sprinting Servis in the upper corner of the box. With his defender well-beaten, Servis went low to the far post as Hornet goalkeeper Tommy O'Reardon approached.

"(Huber) just played it through and the defender didn't know I was coming behind him," said Servis, who has goals in four consecutive playoff matches and 32 for the season. "I just tucked it into the corner."

Rather than camping out at one end and making himself an easy target, Servis continuously changed his angle of attack.

"I keep moving around and the other team gets confused on who should mark me," he said. "I keep floating around and they don't know when I'm going to get the ball."

Bishop Moore, which eliminated Osceola from last year's playoffs, had plenty of chances in the first half. The Hornets had 10 shots in the half, but Osceola goalkeeper Trevor Wiley turned away everything in sight.

The momentum from Servis' goal seemed to carry over into the second half. The Hornets (14-11-4) did not attempt a shot in the half until the 56th minute.

"We just kept the pressure on them," Osceola coach Tim Rachford said. "I thought if we could have gotten an early goal in the second half that would have really been it."

Servis threatened to make it 2-0 when he broke free on a run in the 69th minute, but he chipped the ball high over O'Reardon and hit the crossbar.

Bishop Moore's best chance came on Mike Ross' header that trickled over the crossbar in the 72nd minute.

Huber put it away in the 76th minute when he dribbled past a couple of defenders and scored with his left foot.

Note: Osceola will face top-ranked Jesuit in the final on Monday, March 23. The two teams have met twice before, since they are from the same district. Jesuit dominated the first time and won 4-0. In the second game, Osceola took a 1-0 halftime lead before falling 5-1.

Press here to go back to the State soccer finals recap.