What was a championship regular season ended early in the playoffs with a first-round home loss for the Washington-Liberty Generals in the 6D North Region football tournament.
Liberty District and Arlington County champion and No. 3 seed Washington-Liberty (9-2) was defeated by the sixth-seed Westfield Bulldogs, 30-7, the night of Nov. 10 in the eight-team high-school competition. The nine wins were the Generals' most in a season since 1975 and the district title their first since 2013.
"It was a great season for us, but a rough night because Westfield outplayed us," W-L coach Josh Shapiro said. "We were kind of out of sync on offense, were limited with Anthony [Louis] out and we dropped a touchdown pass."
Louis was the Generals' leading rusher, but had only two carries for five yards. He was limited with a shoulder injury.
With him out, Washington-Liberty had to throw more and struggled in that department, as well. The team gained only 134 yards in the air and threw an interception that set up a Bulldogs' field goal.
Westfield led 14-0 in the first quarter and 24-7 at halftime. The Generals' only touchdown, a short run by Louis, was set up by Ben Hughes' long second-quarter return after he stripped a Westfield runner of the ball.
The Bulldogs returned the ensuing kickoff for a TD to quickly regain their two-touchdown lead at 21-7.
"Westfield made a lot of plays," Shapiro said. "We thought we had a sack on third down early in the game. But they ended up converting instead and eventually scored to go up 7-0."
Washington-Liberty quarterback Jon Bhojwani was 10 of 27 passing for 104 yards and Joseph Cordaro was 1 of 1 for 30. Jackson Nowinski caught four passes for 60 yards and Jon Malatesta three for 54. Sean Guffey had 12 yards rushing. Marcelo Carrasquillo kicked an extra point.
Despite his injury, Louis did have 40 yards in kick returns.
On defense for W-L, tackling leaders were Hughes, Guffey, Louis, Zach Meehan, Connor Hurren, Ian Crowley, Will Clarke, Roman Falvo, Bryce Johnson and Timothy Tinker.
The Generals also lost a first-round playoff game last season.
