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More than half of Prince George's County's public school girls' soccer teams will take the field Friday to begin the playoffs, hoping to win their respective regional tournaments. For some, the goal is more realistic than others.

Since the 4A South Region is comprised entirely of county squads, one of them is guaranteed a berth in the state semifinals. Defending 4A South champion Bowie High (11-1) will head into the tournament as the top seed, while Roosevelt (10-1) will be waiting on the other end of the bracket.

Bowie opened the season with a

4-1 setback at Arundel High, but since then the Bulldogs have won 11 in a row, including a 2-1 victory at Roosevelt on Oct. 13 when senior midfielder Kristi Hepner (13 goals, 13 assists) converted a penalty kick with less a minute remaining. Hepner had an assist on a goal by fellow senior Mary Randolph (16 goals, 12 assists) during a second half played without junior Maddie Simms (23 goals, 13 assists), who was hit with a red card in the first half.

First-year Bowie coach Aaron Hankey and his team will begin their playoff run with a quarterfinal game at 3 p.m. Tuesday against the winner of Friday's Oxon Hill-High Point game.

"They've been working real hard on conditioning all season," Hankey said of his players. "The last few weeks we've been working on set plays. We had a lot of corner kicks this season, but we didn't get a lot of goals off corners. We're working on making sure the girls get a head or a foot or a leg on the ball and redirect it into the net."

Roosevelt's loss to Bowie was the Raiders' only defeat in County 4A League play. Senior Janice Johnson, a Potomac High transfer and accomplished club soccer player, and sophomore Becky Sowers have powered the Raiders' offense, and sweeper Kelsey Kanyuck has protected the trio of keepers that Roosevelt coach Marty Pfister has used this fall. The Raiders get the playoffs started Tuesday against the winner of Friday's Northwestern-DuVal contest, but are looking forward to a potential rematch against Bowie.

"We have a few things we've been working on, so we hope we can put a bit more pressure on them this time around," Pfister said.

Charles H. Flowers (9-2) emerged as one of the Cinderella teams this fall, despite losses to Bowie and Roosevelt. The Jaguars will play Tuesday against the winner of Friday's Parkdale-Laurel game. Parkdale went overtime last month to beat Laurel. Panthers' senior midfielder Zulia Menjivar is one of the county's premier players, evidenced by her hat trick against Laurel and five-goal explosion against Suitland two weeks later.

Henry A. Wise (8-3) earned a first-round bye and will play Tuesday against the winner of Friday's Suitland-Bladensburg game. The Pumas have speed and scoring punch from Christen Blair and Tracee Morgan.

High Point (6-6) will host Oxon Hill (7-4) in undoubtedly the best opening-round contest on Friday. The Eagles are led by sophomore Kayla Cyr, and the Clippers have one of the league's more dynamic players in senior Cameron Mitchell. The winner, however, will travel to top-seeded Bowie on Tuesday.

Two County 3A/2A/1A teams earned top seeds in their respective brackets. Forestville will travel to Owings Mills on Tuesday for a 1A South Region quarterfinal. Gwynn Park is the top seed in the 2A South Region. The Yellow Jackets were slated to play Bowie in the county title game Wednesday evening after The Star went to press, after hearing late last week that they had been bumped from that game in favor of Forestville.

Gwynn Park was forced to forfeit an 8-0 win against Surrattsville for using an ineligible player. That temporarily made Forestville the winner of the County 3A/2A/1A League. But Forestville reported its overall record to the county, and participants in the county title game are determined only by county league records. Both teams were 7-1 in the County 3A/2A/1A League, and Gwynn Park beat Forestville 2-0 in their only meeting. That gave the Yellow Jackets the county title game berth. Gwynn Park will open the 2A South playoffs at home on Tuesday against the winner of Friday's Long Reach-Southern game.

Gwynn Park coach Olufolajimi Gbadamosi and his team had been eying a rematch against Bowie all season.

"We were looking forward to playing Bowie and getting a measuring stick of just how far we have come," he said. "We lost to them 6-0 last year, but we've improved. Our girls have put in a lot of hard work this year."

Frederick Douglass will travel to Hammond on Friday, with the winner slated to face Marriotts Ridge on Tuesday. Central will travel to Oakland Mills on Friday, with the winner going to Glenelg on Tuesday. Surrattsville will travel to Western Tech in Baltimore on Tuesday for a 1A South quarterfinal, while Friendly will host Largo in a 3A South quarterfinal on Tuesday.

E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.