Raiders, Strictly Soccer win invitational titles

By NANCY MORGAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 30, 2000

When the dust had settled and the nearly 150 soccer teams had scattered from the 16th annual Countryside Easter Invitational soccer tournament in Clearwater, the St. Pete Raiders and Strictly Soccer organizations had each earned a team championship.

The St. Pete Raiders won four games to capture the under-12 girls title, and Strictly Soccer won five in the under-10 boys. In all, eight of the 19 championships were won by local teams. Host Countryside Lightning won the under-10, -14, -16 and -18 girls titles as well as the under-16 boys; the Clearwater Chargers under-14 boys won their division.

"We played up a division and met the challenge," said Jim Zach, coach of the Raiders squad. "Even with a stomach virus sweeping through the team and our playing short in the final game, the girls gave it their all."

To reach the final, the Raiders beat Countryside 3-1, the Chargers 2-1 and Tarpon Springs 3-0. In the final against the West Pasco Thunder, guest player Alexandria "Ali" Skonieczny of Sarasota scored the first goal, Chelsea Hatcher, assisted by Kelly Brinkman, scored the second on a breakaway, and center defender Tabitha Schofield, who had been moved to midfielder to give the short-handed Raiders a break, scored the third goal.

Other midfielders contributing were Natalie Zach, Rissa Wray, Charmelene Navales and Danielle Celmer. Janee Boykins was in goal and was assisted by sweeper Maritza Najarian and defenders Taylor Tremaine, Kelli Augustine and stopper Julianne Escoto.

"We've had a great season and finished with 38 wins, five losses and a tie," said Zach. "We won our division with no losses and finished second in the Region C competition. I've seen these girls grow and develop so much in the two years I've coached them."

The Strictly Soccer under-10 boys relied on scoring from Anthony Harris, who had five goals in the tournament; Sebastian Thuriere with six, and Santiago Alexis and Chris Castellano with three each. In five games, Strictly Soccer outscored opponents 26-3.

"We have a long history with Countryside, who we played in the final," said Hans Burt, who coaches the team with Laurant Thuriere and Gary McMath. "They won our division, we finished second; we had just four losses, all to Countryside; we defeated Countryside in the Dunedin tournament, and we lost in the Region C semifinals to Countryside."

This time, Castellano scored the first goal for Strictly Soccer in the first half on a high looping shot. After Countryside tied the score, Alexis drilled a shot for the go-ahead goal midway in the second half.

Key defenders were goalie Zach McMath, sweeper Devin Perkins, Daniel Guzman and Alexis. Matt Foster played both offense and defense, and James DeConnick contributed off the bench on defense. Rounding out the team are Ravel Alexis, Brian Kron and Zach Addison.

Strictly Soccer's under-10 girls team reached the semifinals with wins over the Chargers (3-1), Countryside (2-1) and Azalea (3-0). In the semifinal with Palm Harbor, Strictly Soccer was eliminated 2-1 as Brittni Shriver scored the eighth of her nine goals in the tournament.

GIRLS GYMNASTICS: Natalie Husseung and Christine Girard from Tampa Bay Turners in St. Petersburg and Whitney Eberhardt, Alyssa Wright, Amanda Ozack, Elizabeth Hermann and Kaitlyn Thorwarth from LaFleur's Gymnastics of Largo wrapped up their seasons in the Level 8 Regional Championships in Greenville, S.C., this month.

Girard finished eighth all-around with a third-place on floor exercise and an 11th-place on vault; Husseung was 12th on the uneven bars. Eberhardt was the all-around champion in the junior division and also won on vault, was second on the balance beam and third on bars. Ozack was third all-around and third on beam, fourth on bars and fifth on vault, while Hermann finished second on vault, third on bars and 12th on beam.

POWER KIDS: In an AAU tumbling and tramopline invitational this month in West Palm Beach, Sunburst Power Kids captured six first-place awards and six seconds.

Winning in tumbling were Sarah Ficca, Ann Gunter and Emily Silvis. Silvis, Ficca and Jessica Orr won in trampoline.

To learn more about the Sunburst Power Kids, contact Julia Warga at 584-9260.

MEN'S GYMNASTICS: Three area gymnasts leave next week for the Junior Olympics National Championships in Austin, Texas. Colin Christ in Class 3 and Alex Khoury and Jason Pierce in Class 2 qualified at this month's regional competition.

SPORTS CHALLENGE: This is the last week to enter the Adidas Forever Sports Challenge for youths ages 13-15. Submit a 500- to 750-word essay describing the qualities needed to be an Olympian. Winners, announced after the May 8 deadline, will be flown to Sydney, Australia, for a week during the 2000 Summer Games. Visit http://www.adidas.com or call (800) 229-4758, ext. 275, for information.

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