With a region soccer championship on the line, the stakes were the highest ever in the most recent meeting between the Washington-Liberty Generals and Yorktown Patriots.
Playing on their home field, the Patriots built a 2-0 halftime lead, then hung on to win the 6D North Region tournament final, 2-1, on June 5.
The girls high-school teams have competed dozens of times in their histories, but never for such a significant title.
The victory was Yorktown’s third over W-L (14-5) this season, also winning by 5-3 scores during a regular-season clash then 2-1 in the Liberty District tournament title match. The victory in the region final extended Yorktown’s win streak to nine and brought its record to 15-3.
The region crown was Yorktown’s third under head coach Hannah Davis, the others coming in 2019 and 2022. She was confident from the start of this season the Patriots had the potential to win the region.
“I knew this was a special team, and they started playing together from the start,” Davis told ARLnow. “We have faced some injuries and adversity, but they have showed up every day. Now it’s all about having fun, and they are continuing to have fun.”
Davis said Yorktown upped its level of play following its defeat to Langley on April 22. Since then, the Patriots have won nine straight, with six shutouts.
“After the Langley loss, we could have gone two ways, but we decided to leave that in the past and not let the loss bother us,” Davis said.
In the region finals, Yorktown led 2-0 on goals by senior Reese Montgomery and junior Claire Scott. Both came on long passes, one from goalie Elena Schultz and the other by senior Meredith Strazzella.
“We made mistakes on defense there and Yorktown took advantage of that,” said Washington-Liberty coach Mike Woods, a graduate of the school.
The Generals made many adjustments at halftime to create more scoring chances, one moving first-team all-region senior Danicka Miller into the offensive zone.
The move paid off when senior Ella Kaplan scored to cut the led to 2-1 with 22:46 left to play off an assist from junior Zia Brennan. The Generals followed with a number of other scoring opportunities.
“We started attacking more in the second half,” Woods said.
Yorktown was 3-0 in the region tournament and W-L 2-1.
Yorktown blanked Chantilly, 5-0, in the first round. In its 1-0 semifinal victory over Oakton, senior Quincy Greene scored the Patriots’ goal, with Montgomery assisting.
Montgomery, Greene, senior Avery Stell and sophomore Mackenzie Reddan with two scored the goals against Chantilly. Assists went to Reddan, Stell, junior Bridget Meehan and junior Maren Williams.
Washington-Liberty topped Centreville, 1-0, in the first round for its 11th shutout, then beat host Madison, 2-1, in the semifinals.
Anna Jungman scored against Centreville, Brennan and senior Scarlett Smith did so against Madison.
By reaching the region final, both Yorktown and W-L earned berths to play in the Class 6 state tournament. While Yorktown has won multiple state titles, the state berth is W-L’s first in program history.
“It’s been a good first season and we are still getting better,” Woods said about his initial campaign as the Generals’ coach.
Smith also was chosen first-team all-region for W-L and senior forward Frances Shapiro made second team. All three also were first-team all-district selections.
Chosen second-team all-district for W-L were Kaplan, seniors Emma Abramson and goalie Charlotte Kulikowsky and junior Hayden Lee. Making honorable mention were senior Alina Sagatov and junior Sullivan Allen.
From Yorktown, Montgomery was chosen as the district’s Player of the Year and made first team. Also on the first team were Greene, Reddan and junior Elyse Markowski. Chosen second team were Stell and Williams. Strazzella made honorable mention.
Davis was chosen as the district’s Coach of the Year.
Montgomery, Greene, Reddan and Markowski were first-team all-region selections.
