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Sports

Hayfield Girls Lacrosse Comes Up Short in District Title Game

Yorktown too strong to overcome

Some things never change. After losing 15 seniors and having a new head coach, it would seem likely that Yorktown’s reign as the dominant girls’ lacrosse program in the National District would be over with. Year in and year out, the one consistent variable in the district was the precision and execution that the Yorktown team fielded every season.

The expectations of a championship remained the same and for the sixth year in a row, the Patriots locked up a district title, beating Hayfield 16-8 on Friday.

“We definitely have a target on our back every single year,” Yorktown head coach Crystal Morgan said. “Everyone wants to knock us off and it’s more of a challenge for me being a new varsity head coach this year and I had to continue the tradition.”

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After Hayfield scored the opening goal of the game, the momentum was all in Yorktown’s favor. The Patriots scored six unanswered goals featuring impressive play by sophomore midfielder Jennie Basile and junior midfielder Ella Richardson to break out to an early 6-1 lead.

Basile scored five goals during the game and was unstoppable offensively anytime she got her stick around the net.

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“She’s a ridiculous player,” Morgan said. “She’s amazing and has always been a very consistent player for us. She’s only a sophomore and is incredible at getting the draw control and that’s huge in lacrosse with getting possessions.”

Throughout the game, the Patriots maintained a distinct time of possession advantage which propelled the well balanced unit to live up to the program’s expectations.

“After they scored the first goal, I think we knew we wanted this,” Yorktown senior captain Michelle Casteel said. “This is our year, especially for the seniors.”

Yorktown maintained its edge throughout the second half after taking a 7-3 halftime lead. The Patriots scored the first two goals of the second half by junior midfielder Maddy Ernesto and Beni Yuzawa for a 9-3 advantage.

Hayfield senior mid Sarah Gunter, who was named National District Player of the Year provided a short spark for the Hawks when she broke free on an attack for a goal with 22:29 in the half to cut Yorktown’s lead to 9-4.

Despite maintaining their aggressiveness, Yorktown’s large lead was to be too difficult for Hayfield to muster enough of a change on the scoreboard.

“I think it was real hard because we got frustrated,” Hayfield senior Sarah Gunter said. “We came in hoping that this was the year for us. It just came real down for us.”

The Patriots would later dominate the remainder of the game and went on an unstoppable 6-0 run for a period of 12 minutes to lead 15-4. Sophomore mid Tori Haling scored two goals during the run and Jennie Basile had two as well. Senior attacker Hannah Madison was fluent in distributing the ball for assists and attacker Michelle Casteel closed out the run with a goal in the front of the crease with 6:45 remaining in the game for a huge lead.

*Despite the loss, Hayfield has still qualified for the Regional Tournament. They begin Regional play on Tuesday.

*Note - It was originally reported that the loss brought Hayfield's season to an end. That is not the case and a correction has been made.

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