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All-Stars out to keep streak alive

CLEARWATER -- Hillsborough County's string of state championships since 1996 ended last week when the Durant girls were knocked out of the semifinals by Satellite. On Saturday, however, Hillsborough has a chance to keep another streak alive. The county's All-Stars have beaten their Pinellas counterparts three consecutive times in the Senior Soccer Challenge.

This year's Challenge will be played at Clearwater Central Catholic, whose boys won a state title in Class A last week, as did the Palm Harbor University boys in Class 3A.

The Hillsborough boys are led by Bloomingdale sweeper Ryan Smith and marking back Zak Novitske, who anchored the defense for the 18-2 Bulls. Gaither goalie Jared Swindle and center midfielder Jared Rose bring state championship experience to the squad, as do Jesuit's Scott Golden and Sean Sullivan.

Don Jones (Tampa Bay Tech) and Alex Arhain (Blake) will finally get to play with teammates of their caliber and could shine with big games.

"Those guys stand out, whatever team they play on," Hillsborough coach Allen Ware said. "They both have nice touch and field vision. They're phenomenal individual as well as team players."

Ware said he's worried his team might be a little heavy on the offensive end.

"We have so many attacking players, we're wondering who's going to play defense?" Ware said.

The Hillsborough girls are led by Durant's Beth Outlaw, who had a breakout season at center midfield with 24 goals and 27 assists. Outlaw helped the Cougars finish the regular season undefeated before the playoff loss. "It's a compliment to be on the (Hillsborough) team, and I'm happy to be in the game; but I definitely would rather have won last week," she said.

Outlaw is joined by Wharton's Michelle Buskey, King's Jessica Bell and Gaither goalie Michelle Kmiotek. The team also features the Snaider twins, Megan and Lauren, who helped lead Bloomingdale back to the regional final for the second consecutive year.

"We've got great talent, so we should do well," Outlaw said. "We definitely want to win. For the past few years, Hillsborough has won it. So, we want to do well again."

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