The Bishop O’Connell Knights bounced back from a major defeat in regional action to win the four-team Northern Virginia Independent Schools State Invitational girls soccer tournament.
With a 2-0 home victory over the third-seed St. Paul VI Catholic Panthers in the Thursday (Oct. 6) title game, the top-seeded Knights (14-2-1) won the crown for the second straight year and fourth time in five seasons.
The high-school tournament began in 2017, and O’Connell has won twice as many championships — four — as any other team. The Knights finished second in 2023 and have played in five straight championship games.
The squad was the top seed in the competition this year for the first time, also winning the title on their home field for the first time.
“Our players were hungry all week to win this tournament, and they had that hungry type of attitude,” O’Connell coach Alberto Starace told ARLnow. “Our defense really played great again, as it has all season.”
O’Connell’s goals in the title match began with junior Mackenzie Barbato’s 30-yard shot over the goalie’s head in the first half. Junior Ryana Dill made it 2-0 off an assist from senior Alex Llaudes in the second.
Knights’ freshman goalie Elina Krumenacker made a number of aggressive saves, including a diving kick save just four minutes into the match. Llaudes, senior Molly Kinsella and sophomore Molly Clark were among O’Connell players who took other shots on goal.
“It was an amazing season, and it’s really something to finish by winning the state,” Llaudes said. “We had to come out strong against Paul VI, because they are a good team.”
The Knights were 2-0 in the state tourney, routing the fourth-seed Bishop Ireton Cardinals 9-1 in the semifinals behind a hat trick of goals from Dill. Other goals were scored by Kinsella with two and Moira Kinsella, Brooke Fleming, Ashley An, Molly Clark and Reese Baskin with one each.
Hayden McCarty was among others who took shots on goal for O’Connell, which led 4-0 at halftime.
While O’Connell has enjoyed big success in the state tournament in recent years, the Knights haven’t had the same results in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) tourney that precedes it.
This season, top-seeded O’Connell was upset by St. John’s, 3-1, in the WCAC semifinals, finishing 1-1 in the competition after routing St. Mary’s Ryken, 9-0, in the first round.
In the WCAC semifinals this year, St. John’s scored goals on the Cadets’ only three shots in the match, coming on a free kick, a corner kick and after a bad defensive clear. The Knights took eight shots, with Molly Kinsella scoring the goal.
“We made some mistakes and we couldn’t get the ball in the net enough,” Starace said. “St. John’s came out and played strong, then won the tournament. Our players really wanted to finish strong and win the state after that loss.”
“The WCAC tournament didn’t go our way, but this was the best way to end my career by winning states,” Llaudes said.
O’Connell last won the WCAC tournament 19 years ago, losing in the title match multiple times since then.
In other WCAC news, Dill was chosen as the conference Player of the Year. She scored 13 goals this season.
Also on the first team with Dill were Clark (12 goals), Llaudes, Moira Kinsella (11 goals), Molly Kinsella and Rachael Zonavetch, also a team captain.
Chosen second team were Alex Carter and Meeghan Zonavetch. Making honorable mention were Barbato, Krumenacker and Eliana Moseley.
NOTES: O’Connell had 11 shutouts this season and scored 71 goals. Its only loss to a WCAC opponent was to St. John’s in the tournament semifinals. O’Connell defeated St. John’s and Paul VI in regular season WCAC matches.
Starace has been O’Connell’s coach for 40 seasons and has 556 wins with the Knights. His teams have played in 24 WCAC tournament finals, with 10 championships. He also won 129 games as the head coach at public Madison High School in Vienna years ago, giving him 685 career victories as a high-school coach. He was inducted into the Arlington Sports Hall of Fame in October.
