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The fall season is more than three months away, but Saturday is arguably the most important day of the year for Montgomery County soccer players.

The annual Maryland State Cup attracts college scouts from far and wide, and as has become customary, a plethora of local clubs will feature. In all, 10 Montgomery County-based teams will compete at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, with winners qualifying for the U.S. Youth Soccer Region I Championships in early July.

At 8:30 a.m. on Field 8, the Bethesda Freedom 95 square off with SAC United (Columbia) in the U-14 girls final. It has been almost a year and a half since the Freedom won the U-13 State Cup; their current age group is the youngest to play in the summer tournament.

Head coach Dave Greene — who helmed the Class 4A state champion Whitman boys last fall — has been here before. A team he coached three years ago, the Bethesda Extreme, won its third State Cup in a row in its final year of competition.

That team featured no fewer than 15 Division I college players, including current High Point (N.C.) University captain Sara Rager (Paint Branch, 2007) and Stanford (Calif.) starting goalkeeper Kira Maker (Wootton, 2007).

Yet as Greene put it: "This is one of the best teams I've ever coached." Several Freedom 95 players made an impact as high school freshmen, including Wootton's Toni Urovsky (2 goals, 3 assists) and Good Counsel's Midge Purce (19, 8), an All-Gazette first-teamer .

"A lot of players have been on this team since they were, like, 9 years old," said Greene. "The team is very small, a mirror image of every team I've coached, really. But they're very technically skilled, very enjoyable to watch."

Two other county teams play in the morning. At 11:30 on Field 11, AC Bethesda takes on the perennial powerhouse Baltimore Bays in the U-15 boys final. While the Bethesda Soccer Club team will be underdogs, its talent includes Patrick Tshiani and Crispin Muessle, both of whom played for Churchill as freshmen.

At 9 a.m., the only all-county matchup kicks off on Field 9. The U-14 Olney Rangers are one of the best teams in the nation at their age group, having just won the Region I Premier League against opponents from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Potomac Fire counter with special talent of their own, including U-14 National Team back Carter Manley and Bethesda native Gedion Zelalem, a center midfielder playing two years ahead of his actual age.

"Gedion's a very special talent; he's one of those kids that doesn't come along very often," said head coach Jeff Rohrman, who coached the University of Wisconsin men's team from 2002-08. "He spent a lot of time playing in Germany as a young kid and his job is to put himself in environments where he's pushed every day. For a younger team, as we are, these guys are exceptionally talented."

Several U-19 teams play State Cup semifinals Saturday, including the Bethesda Sharks girls and the MSC Ice, Real Maryland and Olney Alliance Premier boys.

The latest championship game of the day (3 p.m., Field 9) pits SAC United against the Potomac Cougars U-17 boys. The Cougars include Northwest striker Joseph Clarke, Damascus midfielder Eric Diehl and Clarksburg midfielder Nick Civetti.

Thirty minutes before that, the decorated Bethesda Dragons U-17 girls — with All-Gazette first-teamers Alex Doll (B-CC), Vic Gersh (B-CC), Crystal Koczot (Good Counsel), Kat Barth (Whitman) and Colleen Dinn (Holy Cross) — face FC Frederick on Field 8.

At 1 p.m. on Field 9, the Pachuca Internationals U-18 boys defend their State Cup title against the Freestate Dragons.

The Internationals had several Division I talents star in their 4-1 victory over the Freestate Elite last year. Two, Nick Van Hollen (Georgetown University) and Patrick Mehlert (American), came from B-CC. Three players gained scholarships to St. John's (N.Y.): Erik Opsahl (Blair), Jamie Thomas (Blair) and Matt Harlow (Wootton).

"On any given day, we can beat any team in the country that we face," said head coach Pete Mehlert.