The lacrosse playoffs haven’t begun, but the Yorktown Patriots were in postseason form with a couple of recent big victories over a four-day span against two perennial powers and former girls state champions.
The first win was a 16-15 overtime triumph over the visiting Western Albemarle Warriors of Crozet. The Warriors won the past two Virginia High School League Class 4 state championships and had a three-season 43-match winning streak snapped with the loss.
Big win number two was an 18-13 seesaw road victory over the Madison Warhawks, a previous VHSL Class 6 state champ. Yorktown is the defending Class 6 state winner.
“The games were full of adjustments and we got scoring from multiple different players,” especially against Madison, Yorktown coach Jenny Keimig told ARLnow.
Those two triumphs — coupled with recent victories over the Marshall Statesmen, 18-0, and McLean Highlanders, 20-6 — kept Yorktown undefeated at 12-0, and extended the Patriots’ two-season winning streak to 32.
Yorktown’s balanced and diversified scoring attack on an offense that includes many different players continues to be a key to the team’s success.
Seven players scored goals against Madison. Sophomore attack Virginia Beall changed positions in the game and led the way with five goals and an assist.
Iris Taphorn, Corinne Rigoli and Olivia Burgeson each scored three goals. Rigoli also won five draw controls.
Mairin Almy had two goals and 10 draw controls, Helene Lydon had a goal and five assists, Lilah Dalley had one goal and four draw controls, Mila Perez had two assists, and Reese Clark had two ground balls and caused two turnovers.
In goal, Victoria Carcillo made five saves.
Madison led 6-5 at the end of the first quarter. Yorktown was up 8-7 at halftime and 13-10 after three periods. There were four ties in the game, the last at 7, then Yorktown pulled away a bit to lead 12-7.
It’s possible Yorktown and Madison could meet several more times in the postseason.
Against Western Albemarle on Yorktown’s senior night, Burgeson scored the tying goal in the fourth quarter to even the match at 15, then scored the game-winner in sudden-death overtime. She had three goals total.
Almy had five goals and won nine draw controls, Lydon scored three goals and had two assists, Dalley had two goals and an assist, Perez had a goal and one assist, Clark gathered four ground balls and caused three turnovers, and Carcillo made six saves.
“It was a great, hard-fought win,” Keimig said.
In addition to its last two state championships, Western Albemarle finished second in the Class 4 state tournament in 2019, 2021 and 2022. The tournament was not played in 2020 because of the pandemic.
