Add more first-time accomplishments earned by the Bishop O’Connell Knights field-hockey team this season.
They have become an annual thing since Megan Sullivan took over as head coach four seasons ago.
Sports
Arlington high schools have a much less busy week of fall sports action ahead, but there are postseason tournaments still in progress for some teams.
There will be two football playoff games Friday night (Nov. 15) involving three Arlington teams, plus the semifinals of the Class 6 state girls field hockey tournament for the Yorktown Patriots.
With the Player of the Year and multiple other honorees, the Bishop O’Connell Knights were well-represented on this fall’s all-conference girls high-school soccer teams.
Sophomore forward Audrey McKeen, who scored a single-season team record 37 goals this fall, was chosen as the Player of the Year in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. She helped lead O’Connell to a 16-2-3 record, a Northern Virginia Independent Schools State Invitational championship (third in four seasons) and a second in the WCAC tournament.
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.
After a disappointing runner-up finish in conference-tournament action, the Bishop O’Connell Knights bounced back.
The girls high-school team and second seed ended its season by winning the four-team Northern Virginia Independent Schools State Invitational with a 2-0 record.
Arlington resident Craig Esherick last month became a Hall of Famer at his high school alma mater, Springbrook High School in Silver Spring.
During an Oct. 19 dinner ceremony at Argyle Country Club, the former Georgetown University head men’s basketball coach (and former player) and longtime local resident was one of nine inductees, selected for his prowess in boys basketball at Springbrook.
It was a busy afternoon, with Bishop O’Connell High School girls teams playing in three different state-tournament contests at home last Tuesday (Nov. 5).
In the end, O’Connell teams won all three — soccer, field hockey and volleyball — to advance in the Division I private-school state competitions.
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In spite of lopsided losses in two of three final regular-season football games, the Yorktown Patriots have still qualified for the region playoffs.
Yorktown (6-4) will be the seventh seed in the eight-team field of the 6D North Region tournament. The Patriots will face the No. 2 seed, undefeated and host Washington-Liberty Generals (10-0) in a first-round game.
From game one, the Washington-Liberty Generals were highly motivated to pull off an undefeated regular-season record this fall.
On Saturday (Nov. 9), it was a case of mission accomplished.
A young Bishop O’Connell Knights boys team placed fifth in this season’s Division I state private-school cross-country championships.
With three freshmen among the high-school team’s top six finishers, the Knights scored 161 points, trailing winner Potomac School (with 63) on the 5,000-meter Panorama Farms course near Charlottesville on Thursday (Nov. 7).
They fell short of repeating as girls region cross-country champions, but the Yorktown Patriots ran well enough to finish runner-up and earn a berth into the upcoming state meet.
With 61 points, the Langley Saxons won the 6D North Region high-school event Nov. 6 on the 2.98-mile Burke Lake Park course. Runner-up Yorktown scored 88.
With the state tournament now ahead, the Yorktown Patriots are very much in the running to finish on a high note and repeat as Class 6 girls field-hockey champions.
Like a year ago, Yorktown (15-4) enters the Virginia High School League’s state tournament as the runner-up in the 6D North Region tourney. The host Patriots lost to the defending champion Oakton Cougars, 1-0, in the Nov. 6 region final.