Barrel racing, new shoes, midnight madness, sets of sisters
Poco is a good old mare, a trail horse who turned out to be a nice barrel horse. Hannah Beck, a seventh-grader at Mariner Middle School, rides the clover leaf course around three barrels for time and she is one of the best youth riders in the country and is only 12 competing in the under-18 age group. A good run around three barrels and back home takes from 15 to 17 seconds.
“We have six horses and board two,” said Hannah, the youngest of five children. “I have been riding horses since I was 4 years old. The horse had to learn the barrel pattern, but they learn fast. Horses are very smart.”
Hannah said you have to have strong leg and arm muscles to be a good rider and you can’t be scared. “Some people are scared to even touch a horse because they are so big,” she said.
Hannah said that every BRA race she goes to she wins money - at least enough to win back the $80 entry fee.
MUST BE THE SHOES - Brian Beitzel is a 16-year-old junior on the Cape Henlopen cross country team and last Wednesday he did what he has been doing all season, bettering his time. Brian, running in new shoes, broke them in with a personal record 22:17 beating his previous best of 23.39. Those who run races all summer long know that running low 22s is real running and dropping a PR by 1:22 almost never happens. Way to go, Brian!
MIDNIGHT MADNESS - I am bug-eyed awake just past midnight on Thursday after the Phillies beat Tampa 3-2 in spite of stranding 11 runners and getting nothing from Howard and Rollins. This is living history if you are a fan and it could be the Halley’s Comet rotation before it happens again in 2061.
The Hale-Bopp comet, which we saw in 1996 over the ocean in Rehoboth, will next return to our solar system in 4377 - the year the Cubs are expected to win the series.
SETS OF SISTERS - The Cape field hockey team has three sets of sisters. Last Tuesday night Hannah and Rebecca Pepper each scored in the same game for the first time in the Vikings’ 5-0 win over Lake Forest to go 14-0 on the season. The other sister siblings are Kaci and Jacki Coveleski and Molly and Shannon Desmond. Last Wednesday the Pepper girls ran on their dad’s undefeated cross country team in a quad meet victory over Lake Forest, Milford and St. Thomas More. Rebecca was the first girl to cross the finish line in 20:31. So there you have it: Two days, two undefeated teams and two goals for two sisters and all in less than 21 hours.
RIVALRY GAMES - The Cape versus Sussex Central football game - The Battle of Route 9 - used to be the last game of the regular season and, regardless of season records, it was always intense and emotional. The Golden Knights play Caesar Rodney the week following Cape in what promises to be a crazy good game between two teams with real shots at the state championship in Division I.
So is there a scenario where Cape pulls the upset? Can the Vikings stay away from a running clock deficit to begin the second half?
Major upsets in football happen every weekend, but are less frequent in 48-minute high school games than at the college and pro level. I remember back in 1987 Cape winning at Newark 32-0 in a game it was predicted to lose. That same team, at 4-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state having beaten opponents 129-7, went down to Indian River and got stung. Milford, once beaten by Cape, is at Delmar and can clinch the Southern Division with a win.
SNIPPETS - Eagles in the afternoon versus Falcons and Phillies at night in the World Series game versus Tampa this Sunday in Philadelphia. Hey, wasn’t it Tampa that beat Philly in the NFC championship game, the last game played at Veterans Stadium? I remember the crowd leaving that game: “Attack of the Passive-Aggressive Blue-Collar Drunken Zombies.” I tried to look as crushed as the rest of them, especially when several spotted Ron Jaworski leaving the press box and yelled to him that he sucked too because he never won a Super Bowl.
A good Cape soccer team (7-5-1) with an outside shot of making the state tournament lost at Caesar Rodney last Tuesday night 8-0 which rivals any loss sustained by the football team. The Vikings were set to host Sussex Tech (11-1-2) on Thursday, Oct. 24. The combined records of Henlopen high school soccer teams Sussex Tech, Dover, Caesar Rodney and Indian River is 44-7-6, proving it is a tough place for a good team to make a living.
Cape football opponents Indian River, Delmar, Milford, St. Mark’s, Caesar Rodney and Sussex Central have a combined record through seven games of the season of 37-5. It looks like a nucleus of good teams is beating up on everyone else. Cape, Polytech and Sussex Tech are all 2-5 as is the University of Delaware, all members of the misery don’t want no company club. Dover and Smyrna, Cape’s final football opponents, are each 4-3 and are focused on winning two of the last three games for a winning season.
Delaware State looks to extend its winning streak to three as it visits Morgan State Saturday, Oct. 25, in the 50th meeting between the two schools. The Hornets can move to 4-1 in the MEAC with a victory. Riley Flickinger, the Hornets’ Sebastian Janikowski (Raiders)-looking place kicker, is perfect on points after touchdown this season (16 for 16).
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Sports Editor Emeritus
Email Fredman at fredman@capegazette.com
