Virginia AAA Boys' Soccer
Yorktown Defends Title
Stone Bridge's Michael Herndon is hounded by Thomas Jefferson's Brian Rudd, right, and Jeff Pontell, rear.
(By Tracy A. Woodward -- The Washington Post)
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Saturday, May 16, 2009
The setting was a familiar one for Yorktown: The Virginia AAA National District tournament final, on its home field.
But the path to the game had been drastically different for the two-time defending district champions.
This year, the powerhouse Patriots had been humbled early in the season with lopsided losses to district opponents. They limped into the final week of the season with a 4-6-3 record.
But with the postseason approaching, the Patriots suddenly rediscovered the magic that had made them so effective in the past few years. And last night, Yorktown won its fifth consecutive game to capture its third straight district title with a 2-1 victory over second-seeded Edison (10-4-1).
"We lost to Wakefield, we lost to Edison, basically we got creamed by every team," in the regular season, said senior Sergio Mejia, who scored the game-winner. "But now we just came back and won the title."
The fifth-seeded Patriots (9-6-3) rallied from a 1-0 deficit with a goal on each side of halftime -- the first from All-Met midfielder Alex Herrera, who played through a high-ankle sprain -- and the second from Mejia on the end of a relentless string of attacks with just less than 30 minutes remaining in the game.
Right Spot, Right Time
Robinson junior striker Alex Makumbi was locked in.
A loose ball lay just feet from him after a teammate's shot was saved by Centreville's goalkeeper and left spinning on the grass in front of an open goal.
Makumbi broke free from his defender, beat everyone to the loose ball and buried a chip shot underneath the crossbar in the 60th minute for the game-winner in last night's 1-0 Virginia AAA Concorde District championship victory over the Wildcats at Westfield.
The victory helped No. 4 Robinson (11-1-2) rectify its lone loss of the season -- 1-0 at home on March 30.
Centreville (6-5-3) limped into the playoffs with two straight ties before blasting Chantilly, 5-2, and Westfield, 3-1, to advance to last night's district final.
Kleess Is the Difference
In the Patriot District final, South County got a goal in the final 90 seconds from senior Max Kleess to end seventh-seeded Hayfield's underdog run through the district tournament with a 2-1 victory.
The Hawks (6-9-1) took the lead 16 minutes into the match, but South County equalized with seven minutes remaining in the game when senior Mojtaba Amin headed a free kick from senior Willie Roque in on the back post. And Kleess's finish gave the Stallions (12-1-1) the tournament title.
The Power of Three
In the Liberty District, fifth-seeded Jefferson took the tournament title for the third season in a row, downing second-seeded and fifth-ranked Stone Bridge, 1-0.
The scrappy Colonials (8-2-5) had hung around games all season long, finishing the regular season with five ties. And Jefferson again found a way to get it done against the favored Bulldogs (12-2-1), the second ranked team they defeated this week en route to the championship.
