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Hurricanes Offense On Fire

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By CHRIS ERRINGTON, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 14, 2007

Bishop McLaughlin's 2007 season could have opened in a bit of disarray when Athletic Director Michael Zelenka was forced to assume coaching duties just prior to its start. Thanks to a dominant defense and explosive offense, the Hurricanes haven't missed a beat.

A year after finishing 7-6-3, junior goalie Molli Gard hasn't allowed a goal, Bishop McLaughlin's high-speed offense has produced 16 of its own and the Hurricanes have made Zelenka's job easy by starting the season 3-0.

"We've just got a bunch of girls who are tenacious and very unselfish," Zelenka said. "Defensively, it's a bit of everything for us. Mollie's a great goalie and is very athletic, but she's getting a lot of help from our defense, especially Shaila Tamayo and Jessie Bexley. As a coach, it's very reassuring to know they're back there. Offensively the girls like to spread the ball around and don't care who scores, so they're constantly setting each other up.

"There's always things you can work on, but right now we're playing pretty well."

The Hurricanes, who opened the season with an 8-0 victory against South Sumter before topping Seffner Christian 3-0 and Northside Christian 5-0, are off until Saturday, when they play host to Lakeland Santa Fe Catholic at 2 p.m.

SISTERLY LOVE: Talk about brotherly love. When it comes to Land O' Lakes' girls soccer team, it's more sisterly love. The Gators sport three sets of sisters, each having one sister on varsity and the other on junior varsity.

According to Coach Vicky King, thanks to youth soccer separating teams by age groups each year, there's really no advantage or disadvantage to having the girls playing high school soccer together once they all reach the varsity team - even when she's had three sisters on past teams.

Currently, sophomore Nicolle Forcier (varsity) and freshman Jayme (junior varsity), senior Kaitlyn Hodgins (V) and freshman Nicole (JV), and junior Sabrina Reswick (V) and freshman Samantha (JV) all play for the Gators, whose varsity team has struggled to a 2-3 start.

"I never have any trouble telling them apart, because once they start playing for you, you really get to know them," King said of sisters who have played for her in the past.

Land O' Lakes returns to action Friday when it plays at Wiregrass Ranch (0-4-1).

DYNAMIC DUO: Don't look now, but Hudson's dynamic offensive duo of junior Lindsay Zullo and sophomore Alicia Schuering have the Cobras sitting only behind undefeated Pasco (2-0) and 4-1 Nature Coast Tech atop the Class 4A-District 8 standings. Zullo leads the district with seven goals, while Schuering is second with four as Hudson has averaged just less than four goals per game. The offensive outburst has keyed a three-game winning streak following a season-opening 4-0 loss to Mitchell. During the streak, the Cobras have been dominant, blasting Sunlake 8-0, topping Nature Coast 2-1 and blanking Ridgewood 5-0.

Hudson was home to Gulf on Tuesday and travels to Pasco tonight in a battle of two of the district's top teams.

Chris Errington can be reached at cperrington@hotmail.com.

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