Yorktown Girls Win National District Title

The Yorktown girls soccer team stunned crosstown rival Washington-Lee 4-0 in the National District title game, serving the Lady Generals their first loss in six games.  After being held goalless in a 2-0 loss against Washington-Lee earlier in the year, the Patriots were finally able to crack the high line trap of the Generals, connecting twice late in the first half.  The Generals dominated the majority of the second half, but weren’t able to cash in a goal, and Yorktown made them pay, icing the game with two late goals.

The play went back and forth early on as Washington-Lee looked to possess and methodically get numbers up in attack, while their counterparts looked to use the long ball. The Patriots got behind the solid back four of Washington-Lee a few times early on, but great hustle from Nikki Nicholas and Vashty Delgado, as well as a tremendous sliding save from keeper Maggie Burgos kept Yorktown off the board.

But the Patriots persistence paid off in the 17th minute when freshman phenom Kendall Logan got loose on the left flank, using her speed to get to goal before beating the keeper to the near post.

"We wanted to play early balls," Yorktown coach Vicky Brunt explained.  "We are really fast out wide so we want to exploit their tight flat back four with our speed."

The Patriots would do just that with six minutes remaining in the half, as a cross from the wide flank fell right to the feet of Innis Hitt, and although Burgos came out quickly to stop the initial shot, she could only watch as Hitt tapped the rebound into an empty net. 

The beginning of the second half was a completely different story.  Washington-Lee came out with a sense of urgency and dominated the game.  They generated great chances on the left flank due to the great play of Raleigh Mills and the ever-present threat of Emma Cooper and Emilia Sens up top.  Senior Izzy Seimon-Carmone had a great shot on goal but the fingertip save of Yorktown goalie Sophie Frank was enough to push the driven shot off the crossbar.

"I am not worried about us creating opportunities," General head coach Ann Cernicek said afterward. "We took good shots, and we were focused on offense.  I'm not disappointed with how we attacked, just disappointed none of our shots went in."

Part of the reason for this was the great teams defense of Yorktown and the solid play of Frank in goal.

"Sophie has been our most improved player this year," Brunt said of her sophomore netminder. "We pushed her into this role at the beginning of the year, and she has taken over ever since."

While the defense was able to withstand the extended flurry of shots from Washington-Lee, the Yorktown offense capitalized when play shifted to their end later in the half.  When a 50/50 ball fell to the foot of Megan Flynn just inside the box, the freshman midfielder wasted no time, blasting it into the back of the net and sealing the fate of the Generals.  Yorktown kept the foot on the gas and senior midfield Alejandra Espinoza was able to tap one in with time ticking away to give Yorktown the convincing 4-0 victory going into the regional tournament.

"It doesn't really matter who play next," Brunt said of the challenges that lay ahead.  "We're looking ahead to every game and were going to get back to work, focus on us, and hopefully continue to take care of business."

"It was an unfortunate time to get our third loss of the year," Cernicek said of her team. "Good teams bounce back and learn from games like this, and this year we have the ability to go deeper in the region the we ever have before."