Last season, the Yorktown girls soccer team had its streak of National District championships snapped with a loss on its home field to rival Washington-Lee in the tournament final.
On Friday, May 20, Yorktown had a chance to return the favor, traveling to W-L to face the Generals for the district tournament title. Patriots head coach Vicky Brunt wanted more than to just beat W-L — she wanted style points.
A balanced scoring attack and shutout defense gave Yorktown a lopsided victory and the district title — and Brunt said it could have been worse.
No. 2 Yorktown defeated No. 1 W-L 4-0 in a game ripe with disputed officiating. Brunt wasn't pleased with several rulings, including multiple offside calls. Even with Yorktown's frustration, the Patriots scored two goals in each half and controlled the action.
"I thought, really, our biggest opponent tonight was the refereeing," Brunt said. "I think that we did a lot of what we needed to do and could have been even more potent, but we got stopped a lot. But I don't want to harp on that. We got the job done. ... [The Patriots] were picking themselves off the ground, they were getting cards for picking themselves off the ground. I'm so proud of them right now. It was great. We made mistakes but we did what we needed to do and we let it really show.
"I told them, 'If we manage to win this game, I really want to win it. I don't want it to be that tight game all the way through.'"
W-L finished 6-0-1 in regular season district competition, including a 2-0 win against Yorktown on March 30, but the Generals faltered on Friday against the Patriots. Kendall Logan got Yorktown on the board with a goal in the 19th minute. Brunt gave the freshman midfielder a rare start and Logan came through, due in part to her speed and hustle.
"I'm so excited because, being a freshman, I wasn't expecting, at all, this whole experience," Logan said. "It's been great. I really, really wanted to beat W-L, especially, since we lost last time. I'm so excited to win and score. ... It's a good start for my next three years. I'm really excited."
Sophomore midfielder Innis Hitt scored in the 34th minute, giving Yorktown a 2-0 halftime lead. Freshman midfielder Meghan Flynn scored in the 61st minute and senior midfielder Alejandra Espinoza added a goal in the 79th minute.
Sophomore Sophie Frank got the shutout in goal.
"I think everyone always gets really hyped up for W-L because its our rival," junior forward Isabel Arnold said. "but we just focused on the fact that we wanted to take back what we lost last year."
The matchup featured a plethora of all-district performers. Washington-Lee defender Molly Raney was named co-District Player of the Year, and Generals head coach Ann Cernicek was named Coach of the Year.
Yorktown's Arnold and W-L's Emilia Sens and Izzy Siemon-Carome were named first-team forwards. W-L's Karina Irizarry and Enisa Turko and Yorktown's Hitt were named first-team midfielders. Raney and Yorktown's Rachel Brook were first-team defenders and Yorktown's Frank was a first-team wild card.