As has been the case for many years under head coach Hannah Davis, the Yorktown Patriots have started a girls soccer season strong.
Through five high-school contests this spring, the Patriots own a perfect 5-0 mark, including shutouts in their first three games. The latest victories were 2-1 over the host Robinson Rams on April 6, then 4-1 against the Chantilly Chargers the next night.
“We pride ourselves on our defense, and it has been really solid so far. We have good defenders and Elena [Schultz] has been strong in goal,” Davis said.
Yorktown has been a perennial standout in recent seasons, winning district, region and state championships. The Patriots won Liberty District and 6D North Region tournament titles last spring.
In each season this decade, Yorktown has had a winning record after its first five games, also including a 5-0 mark in 2021.
“We are happy with where we are right now, and things are coming together well and very fast,” Davis told ARLnow. “Robinson was a big test for us.”
Robinson is a perennially strong contender, and also entered the game undefeated at 3-0. Yorktown had defeated the Rams twice last spring, 2-0, in a first-round Virginia High School League Class 6 state tournament match and, before that, 2-1 during the regular season.
Yorktown’s first three contests this spring resulted in dominating shutout victories: 5-0 over West Potomac, 7-0 against South Lakes and 3-0 versus Oakton.
Nine players scored goals in the first three games: seniors Caitlin Wright, Lilly Thornblad, Claire Beasley, Elyse Markowski, Claire Scott, Anna Larbalestier and Bridie Meehan and juniors Mackenzie Reddan and Lily Stout.
Many of those players also recorded assists, in addition to seniors Bella Davis and Callie Conran, sophomores Sammy Cancellare and Matilda Van Voorthuizen, and freshman Leah Riddlemoser.
“We have more players this season who can find the back of the net, instead of just counting on one or two players to do most of the scoring,” Davis said. “All of our forwards have scored.”
Schultz had the three shutout victories, making a total of nine saves, four against Edison. She was busy with multiple saves in the win over Robinson, which scored on a second-half penalty shot.
Robinson was just off-target on a trio of other close shots, with one hitting the crossbar and another going wide on a wide-open shot from in front of the goal.
Yorktown scored one goal in each half, both on fast-break attacks with accurate crossing passes. Beasley scored the first on a pass from Meehan with Cancellare netting the second goal, assisted by Van Voorthuizen. The second goal came with 15:27 left in the game.
In the victory against Chantilly in another non-district match, Beasley, Larbalestier, Reddan and Thornblad scored the goals. Assists went to Reddan, Beasley, Larbalestier and Davis. Schultz made three saves to improve to 5-0 in goal.
The Patriots are an experienced team with a roster that includes 13 seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and one freshman.
“Compared to other seasons it seems like things are coming together quicker this year,” Davis said. “We work on things in practice, then they instantly do that in games.”
Yorktown has yet to play a district match, with that schedule set to begin Tuesday, April 21 with a 7:15 p.m. road contest against the Wakefield Warriors in an all-Arlington clash.
The Patriots lost just one district match last spring.
Before facing Wakefield, Yorktown has three more non-district contests on its schedule.
