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Kurtis Grant surveyed the 18th fairway stretching below him Wednesday afternoon, his right leg crossed casually around his left as he sipped a 23-ounce can of Arizona-brand Arnold Palmer Lite Half & Half Iced Tea.

The South Lakes junior typically takes about 30 seconds to guzzle the drink before his round. But in homage to “The King” — and to stay better hydrated — Grant cracked open his favorite beverage at the turn of Wednesday’s Virginia 6A North region golf championship and nursed it throughout the back nine.

“I usually don’t finish very well,” Grant said. “That was different today.”

Grant carded four birdies and zero bogeys on Hidden Creek Country Club’s second half en route to a 4-under-par 67. That followed a 68 on Tuesday, giving him individual medalist honors by eight shots on the testy Reston course.

Grant’s refreshment may have helped, but the real driving force behind his seamless navigation of the narrow layout was something even more drawn out: preparation. Continue reading South Lakes golfer Kurtis Grant stays crisp to capture the Virginia 6A North region crown →

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At first it seemed like a risky decision. On fourth and six, with his team nursing a narrow fourth-quarter lead, Friendship Collegiate quarterback Chris Ferguson was staring down a wide receiver streaking into the end zone.

The junior signal caller wasn’t aiming for the first down. He was aiming for the kill shot.

“I saw that the corners was pressed,” Ferguson said. “Coach [Mike] Hunter always told me, ‘On that play, when the corners press, we have to attack the corners on the corner route.’ ”

Ferguson lofted a pretty spiral to the corner of the end zone, and senior wide receiver Nykeim Johnson secured the touchdown to essentially put the game out of reach for H.D. Woodson. The score propelled Friendship Collegiate to a 19-14 victory in a rare meeting between the two District powers in Northeast Washington on Friday. Continue reading Friendship Collegiate stifles H.D. Woodson to claim Ward 7 supremacy →

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One strike, one reckless rip at the target, was all it took to vindicate Maycol Nunez. After the gut-wrenching defeats in the region and state finals that capped his sophomore year and the gruesome leg injury that sundered his junior year, Washington-Lee’s goal-happy senior savored a delicious blast that wiped away all the pain at Yorktown on Monday night.

Racing down the right channel in the 60th minute, Nunez shook a defender, dribbled across the box and unleashed a rocket with his left foot — the same foot weakened by a vicious, leg-breaking slide tackle last spring — that bore through the air and into the top of the net to give Washington-Lee a two-goal lead in the Virginia 6A North region championship. The inch-perfect strike ended any hopes of a Yorktown comeback and propelled the Generals to a clinical 3-0 victory over their Arlington rivals, marking their first region title since 1972.

“Since last night I was thinking about those losses sophomore year,” said Nunez, who was the All-Met Player of the Year as a sophomore. “I hate losing, especially in the finals. Nobody wants to lose in those big games.”

Nunez spent Sunday night and Monday morning poring over game tape from his team’s previous meeting against Yorktown, a 3-2 upset on Washington-Lee’s home field two weeks ago in the Conference 6 title game. Nunez’s attacking partner, Lucas Mendes, did the same, trying to figure out how the upstart Patriots (11-6-3) handed his squad its first defeat of the season.

“We looked back on that first game and saw we came out flat,” Mendes said. “Me and Maycol didn’t combine well enough in the final third.”

Mendes and Nunez overcame that problem shortly after the opening whistle Monday night. The two seniors played a give-and-go on the left flank that saw Nunez’s leading pass creep just a bit too far for his streaking teammate, but Nunez later pointed to that sequence as the moment he knew things would be different. Continue reading Maycol Nunez, Lucas Mendes lift Washington-Lee to Virginia 6A North boys’ soccer title →