The Wakefield Warriors and Yorktown Patriots had their seasons end the night of Nov. 12 with first-round losses in the 6D North Region high-school football playoffs.
Number-six seed Wakefield (5-5) lost on the road to the No. 3-seed Westfield Bulldogs, 17-0. Yorktown (7-4) was the fourth seed and fell at home to the fifth-seeded South Lakes Seahawks, 36-21. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Liberty District champion Yorktown.
Three turnovers were costly for each team. Wakefield and Westfield were scoreless at halftime. In the second half, three Wakefield interceptions were converted into 17 points by the Westfield offense – two touchdowns and one field goal.
Two lost fumbles inside the South Lakes 20-yard line ended potential Yorktown scores.
“It hurts and was disappointing to lose because we believed that was a game we could have won and we wanted to win,” Yorktown coach Bruce Hanson said. “South Lakes had some good players on defense, and overall they were better than we thought.”
South Lakes scored a touchdown and two-point conversion on the game’s first possession to take an 8-0 lead.
“They moved it right down the field on us running the ball,” Hanson said. “They scored too easy, and that wasn’t a good start.
Yorktown answered by scoring the next two TDs to move in front, 14-8, in the second quarter.
South Lakes then scored two touchdowns in the final 1:48 of the first half to lead 22-14 at halftime, then went in front 29-14 early in the third.
Trailing 29-21 late in the game and on the South Lakes four-yard line, Yorktown lost a fumble with 1:12 to play. The Seahawks then scored on a long run with nine seconds to play to ice the win.
South Lakes had 422 total yards, of which 332 were rushing.
For Yorktown, quarterback James Yoest was 8 of 14 passing for 164 yards and he threw three touchdown passes. Two were for 52 and 66 yards to Mason Cunningham and the other a seven-yarder to Xandar Starks, who added 48 yards rushing.
Cunningham had a big game, with four catches for 160 yards and had three kick returns for 131. Fang had two kickoff returns for 74 and he rushed for 24. Tyler Randles ran for 19 yards. Thomas Edmeades booted an extra point and Yoest threw a two-point conversion pass.
“We made the playoffs and won a district and county championship, so it was a good season,” Hanson said.
Following an interception, a Westfield 34-yard field goal gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead with 6:14 left in the third quarter. A second interception led to a 10-0 Westfield lead early in the fourth, then a third set up the team’s final TD with 2:05 to play in the game.
For Wakefield, Michael Guruli had 74 yards rushing and Alan Peck and Dennis Froyze 13 each. Wakefield quarterback Jack McAvoy passed for 98 yards with Caine Poythress having four catches for 25 yards, Carl Thomas three for 39, Brandon Cohen three for nine and Guruli two for 13.
NOTE: Wakefield has qualified for the playoffs for three straight years.
* The season ended for the Bishop O’Connell Knights (5-6) with a 54-0 loss to the host Carroll Lions in a semifinal game of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Metro Division playoffs Nov. 13.
O’Connell was the No. 4 seed and Carroll was the top seed. Carroll also defeated O’Connell by the same score during the regular season.
In the playoff game the Knights were without multi-position starter Job Grant, who is the team’s starting quarterback.