The Washington-Liberty Generals were productive enough on offense to win their first-round playoff game of the 6D North Region football tournament.
Defense, though, was another matter — and became the reason W-L lost the Friday night (Nov. 14) high-school contest to the host Westfield Bulldogs, 56-28.
The loss ended the Generals’ 2025 season with a 7-4 record.
Westfield gained 462 total yards, including 309 rushing, had some long kickoff returns and scored eight offensive touchdowns. Seven of those TDs were rushing.
“On defense, we could not stop anything or make any plays,” Washington-Liberty coach Josh Shapiro told ARLnow. “We didn’t tackle well. Our defense got exposed.”
The Generals never led in the game, but matched Westfield’s scoring early when the score was tied at 14 in the second quarter. Westfield (8-3) then led 35-14 in the third quarter, putting the game out of reach.
On offense, W-L amassed 347 total yards, most in the air. Senior quarterback Tyler Flint-Steinig was 22 of 34 passing for 237 yards and threw three touchdown passes, but was intercepted twice. Taj Jules completed one pass for 36 yards.
On the ground for W-L, 1,000-yard rusher Brayden Black was held to just 41 yards, but among his yardage was a touchdown run.
Black had a much more productive game running the ball in a regular-season contest against Westfield that the Generals won — also on the road.
“To their credit, they made adjustments to stop our running game this time, but we still found ways to move the ball and our offense played great,” Shapiro said of the Bulldogs.
In the playoff contest, Flint-Steinig threw scoring passes to Luke Jones, Trevor Fullen and Jasper Dennis. Fullen had six catches for 99 yards, David Toepel five for 73, Jones five for 69 and Dennis three for 27.
Flint-Steinig completed passes to eight different receivers. Black, Grant Johnson, Gavin England and Colby Arenson each had one catch apiece.
Jamal Sullivan had a 19-yard run and Steinig had 12 yards rushing.
Toepel had 36 yards in kick returns and Dennis 27. Landon Jones booted four extra points.
On defense for W-L, Black, Henry Fonseca-Cruz, Lando Reed, Miles Whitaker and Jeremiah Saunders were tackling leaders.
Shapiro was concerned how the Generals would perform in the playoff game after losing badly, 42-7, to the visiting Langley Saxons in their final regular season game.
“Our players didn’t quit and played hard,” Shapiro said. “They could have called it a day after the Langley game, but they didn’t.”
NOTE: The playoff berth was the fourth straight for Washington-Liberty, which lost in last year’s region-championship game and finished with a program-best single-season overall record of 12-1 in 2024. The Generals have had three straight winning seasons.
