By taking a risk, the reward was a first region championship for the Oakton Cougars.
The undefeated Cougars (21-0) won the 6D North Region girls field hockey tournament with a 3-0 record and rallied to nip the two-time defending champion Yorktown Patriots, 2-1, in the Nov. 1 title match at Oakton High School.
The risk came in that championship match when Oakton was trailing 1-0 in the fourth quarter. After a timeout, the Cougars changed to a more aggressive attacking strategy on offense. They responded with two goals in a six-minute span to win the region title, adding to a Concorde District tournament crown the Cougars also won on their home field a few days earlier.
“I asked them during the timeout if they were ready to make the switch. It was time to do something,” Oakton coach Erin Keenan said. “We pushed more attackers up higher trying to score goals. Once we did, then they wanted to keep it up, but then we had to fall back and play defense.”
Yorktown led 1-0 at halftime on a second-quarter goal. The lead stood until Oakton scored similar goals on rebounded shots, coming after Yorktown goalie Sarah Kinzer made saves, during that six-minute span of the fourth quarter to move ahead 2-1.
With 7:39 left in the match, Riley Sweeney scored off an assist from Avery DeKoven, who took the initial shot, to tie the match at 1. With 1:52 remaining and overtime looming, Sami Tyler knocked in another DeKoven shot when the ball had settled inches from the goal line after a Kinzer save for the game-winner.
Oakton then survived Yorktown’s quality scoring chance in the final 40 seconds on a hard shot taken off of a penalty-corner situation.
Emma Carr was the winning goalie for Oakton, making a couple of big saves.
Entering the region final, Oakton was unscored on in four playoff matches.
“Winning the district and region were big goals of ours before the season,” Keenan said. “We reminded ourselves of that before this tournament.”
The Cougars won their first two matches of the region tournament by shutouts, 5-0 over the Wakefield Warriors in its opener, then 1-0 against the Madison Warhawks in the semifinals. Both matches were at Oakton.
Tyler scored two goals against Wakefield and DeKoven, Audrey Krisko and Grace Dowling netted the others. Assists went to Dekoven, Marisa Rubano, Emma Gustafson and Anna Sheehan. Carr made three saves.
Tyler scored the goal and Lindsey Calder had the assist against Madison. Carr made four saves.
Oakton advances to the Virginia High School League’s eight-team Class 6 state tournament, won by the Fairfax Lions last season with Yorktown finishing second.
The Cougars will host a first-round match on Nov. 7.
Four different teams from Northern Virginia have won the last four Class 6 state titles. The Cougars’ district and neighborhood rival Madison did so in 2020 with an undefeated record and not allowing a goal. The Cougars have given up only eight goals this fall.
NOTE: Chosen first-team all-region this season from Oakton were Player of the Year Esther Eum, DeKoven and Rubano. Making second team was Elizabeth Segar. Keenan was the Coach of the Year.
