School Without Walls girls end Jackson-Reed’s DCIAA soccer dominance

The School Without Walls girls’ soccer team entered Monday’s D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association championship game with a hard-to-explain belief that this night would be different.

The Penguins were facing Jackson-Reed, the big, bad world-beaters of the DCIAA. The Tigers had won 13 straight league titles, and in recent seasons Walls was the only conference opponent to even approach their orbit. Since 2017, the Penguins were not only the lone DCIAA team to defeat Jackson-Reed (just once), they were the only league opponent to score on the Tigers. Still, Jackson-Reed had defeated Walls in the past four championship games.

But as they warmed up Monday night at Dunbar, a strange feeling of confidence persisted among the Penguins.

“It just felt like something was in the air,” senior Tillie Freed said. “We knew we had what it took to come out and beat them today. As soon as we walked on the field, it just felt different.”

That feeling proved prescient: Freed’s first-half goal was the difference as School Without Walls stunned Jackson-Reed, 1-0, to end the Tigers’ reign.

“As a senior, this was my last chance to walk out of here with a win,” she said. “At the final whistle, it was just such relief.”

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Freed, who switched from a midfield position to forward after the Penguins’ 3-1 loss to Jackson-Reed on Oct. 18, found some space on the left side and received a pinpoint pass from junior Eve Rebora. With a step on her defender, she raced into the box and beat the goalkeeper.

After the goal, the Penguins (13-2-0) found themselves in unfamiliar territory: protecting a lead against Jackson-Reed (11-5-3). The Tigers, playing with increasing urgency in the second half, generated quality chances, but Penguins goalkeeper Campbell Tiller delivered a sterling performance.

“We got at them early like we hoped to,” said Walls midfielder Kylie Emanuel, the DCIAA player of the year. “Coming out of halftime with a lead changed the feel of the game completely.”

Jackson-Reed boys win on PKs

In the second game of the championship doubleheader, the Jackson-Reed boys found a late equalizer and then outlasted Bell on penalty kicks to claim the program’s second straight league title.

The match ended tied at 1 before Jackson-Reed prevailed, 5-4, on penalty kicks. Tigers goalkeeper Chris Covin was mobbed by his teammates after the Griffins missed their sixth and final attempt.

“We didn’t want to go home empty-handed, and I think that was obvious on the field tonight,” Covin said.

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Bell (9-2-2) took the upper hand in the 58th minute on a goal by junior Daniel Granados. But the Tigers (12-1-4) kept pushing, and with five minutes remaining they broke through. Senior forward Daniel Serrano Mancia wove through two defenders in the box and blasted a shot past the keeper, tying the match and swinging momentum in Jackson-Reed’s favor.

“I saw a lot of resilience tonight,” Tigers Coach Jean-Claude Nkongolo said. “We felt like we weren’t really playing our game early on, but we kept fighting.”