Arlington — The Washington-Lee field hockey team last season captured its first National District championship in seven years, but didn’t get the satisfaction of beating rival Yorktown along the way. In fact, the Generals hadn’t beaten the Patriots since 2009.

While the 2012 district championship game is still a month away, W-L recently earned a piece of regular season joy it had missed each of the last two seasons.

W-L midfielder Sonia Lunn produced the game’s lone goal with 15:48 remaining in the first half as the Generals defeated the Patriots, 1-0, on Sept. 20 at Washington-Lee High School. Yorktown possessed the ball for most of the second half but failed to score.

“This is the first time we beat Yorktown in a while,” Lunn said. “We came out like this is our year.”

Lunn’s goal was the first W-L scored against Yorktown since 2009. The Patriots defeated the Generals, 1-0, each of the last two seasons.

“I thought they played really well,” W-L head coach Beth Prange said about the Generals. “They played their hearts out.”

Yorktown head coach Stephanie DuVall said she was pleased with the way the Patriots played in the second half. Normally, DuVall said, the Patriots play defensively when they fall behind. On this night, Yorktown was the aggressor in the second half but couldn’t put one in the goal.

“I think that they really played their hardest in the second half,” she said. “The first half was a little slow for us, but they did put it out there, especially at the end of the second half. I commend them on picking it up after halftime.”

Yorktown midfielder Jennie Basile said facing W-L helped motivate the Patriots to attack when trailing.

“[During an] inter-county rivalry [game],” she said, “[the] true colors of aggression come out.”

“This is the first time we beat Yorktown in a while. We came out like this is our year.”

— W-L midfielder Sonia Lunn

The following night, W-L lost to Edison, 2-1, dropping its record to 7-6, including 3-1 in the district. Yorktown defeated Stuart, 3-0, on Sept. 24, improving its record to 6-6, including 2-1 in the district. Meaghan Galvin scored two goals against Stuart and Carolanne Wilson finished with one. Basile had two assists.

W-L will host Wakefield at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27. Yorktown will host Mount Vernon, which won back-to-back district titles in 2009 and 2010, and finished runner-up last year.