Three high-school football teams from Arlington will play first-round playoff games in postseason tournaments Friday (Nov.15) with 7 p.m. kickoffs.
The Washington-Liberty Generals and Yorktown Patriots will meet in a 6D North Region contest. Washington-Liberty (10-0) will host the showdown.
The other Arlington squad in the playoff hunt is the Bishop O’Connell Knights, playing on the road in Maryland against the St. Mary’s Ryken Knights in a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Metro Division semifinal game.
Both contests are rematches of regular-season meetings that resulted in blowouts, with host W-L winning, 46-14, and St. Mary’s Ryken triumphing, 38-7.
Liberty District champion Washington-Liberty is the No. 2 seed and Yorktown (6-4) the seventh seed. Ryken (8-2) is the top seed and defending champion in the Metro Division. O’Connell (2-8) is seeded fourth.
Ryken brings a five-game winning streak into the contest and has won 10 straight against Metro Division opponents. In the regular-season meeting, O’Connell struggled with Ryken’s size up front on both sides of the ball as the game progressed.
“That kind of size wore us down after a while,” O’Connell coach Todd Sabatino said. “They have a lot of speed at the skill positions, as well. They are a tough opponent.”
O’Connell missed the playoffs last season and hasn’t won a Metro Division postseason game since 2018, when the Knights lost in the championship game to Ryken.
In Washington-Liberty’s regular season rout of Yorktown, the Generals built a big lead early and cruised to victory.
Yorktown coach Bruce Hanson knows his Patriots have to get off to a better start in the playoff game. They moved the ball with success in the second half — but only after the game was out of reach.
“They will be motivated and ready for the rematch,” Washington-Liberty coach Josh Shapiro predicted.
The winner of the game between Arlington rivals will play a semifinal against the winner of the first-round contest between the No. 3 seed Langley Saxons (8-2) and sixth-seed Marshall Statesmen (6-4). All four are Liberty District teams that met in regular-season action.
Yorktown and Washington-Liberty last met in a first-round region playoff game in 2010, with W-L winning 28-7.
