The three-game winning streak for the Yorktown Patriots came to an end Friday night (Oct. 10) in high-school football action.
Host Yorktown (4-3) fell to the West Springfield Spartans, 31-7, the squad’s third consecutive loss to the Patriot District team.
In this year’s setback, Yorktown broke from its winning formula against Liberty District rivals in its three previous three games that gave the Patriots a 3-0 record in the league. Yorktown did not turn the ball over during that span, capitalized on opponents’ mistakes and would bend but not break on defense.
That wasn’t the case against West Springfield, which gained 370 total yards — 284 of them on the ground — and 18 first downs.
West Springfield runningback Dillan Wickham ran for 204 of those yards and three touchdowns. The Spartans (5-2, 4-0) had four rushing TDs in addition to a field goal.
“We had trouble stopping their running game, and they exploited us and capitalized,” Yorktown coach Alec Hick told ARLnow.
West Springfield led 17-0 at halftime and was in front 31-0 before Yorktown scored a late-game TD.
The Patriots’ touchdown came on a 38-yard pass from Samson Schneider to Sammy Keiser, who had six catches for 91 yards. Schneider was 15 of 29 passing for 197 yards, and was intercepted once.
Alex Hans caught four passes for 60 yards and Brady Owens four for 42. The Patriots had just nine yards rushing.
West Springfield took control early. After receiving the opening kickoff, the Spartans put together a 79-yard multi-play touchdown drive to take a 7-0 first-quarter lead.
Yorktown responded with a march of its own, which ended at the West Springfield 15-yard line with a lost fumble. The Patriots struggled to mount any other drives until scoring their TD with just 3:34 left in the game.
“We were driving right back, but the wind went out of our sails with that lost fumble,” Hicks said. “We had not made errors like that in our past few games.”
Yorktown’s defense came up with just one turnover when Collin Damato recovered a second-half fumble. Players with tackles for losses or no gains for Yorktown were Bobby Shea, Henry Midberry, Teddy Sennott, Andrew Cole, Landon Foose, George Cocker and Sevan Raine, who made a strong tackle on the game’s opening kickoff.
“That was a big hit, the way we wanted to start the game,” Hicks said.
Yorktown plays the host Wakefield Warriors (3-3, 0-2) in a district all-Arlington showdown in its next game at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17. Yorktown and the Washington-Liberty Generals (6-1) are tied for first in the district with 3-0 records.
“We will work in practice to get better, like we did after our first two losses,” Hicks said.
