Cape lacrosse falls to Sallies in DIAA finals
The Cape boys’ lacrosse squad fell to nationally ranked Salesianum 16-6 in the state tournament finals June 1 at Delaware Military Academy’s Fusco Memorial Field in Wilmington.
It was the fourth straight title for Sallies. Cape defeated Sallies 12-10 in the 2019 championship game.
“I’m so proud of these guys and so proud to be their coach,” said Cape coach Geoff Shupard. “They worked so hard to be here. By the second quarter, we got within three at 7-4, and we were kind of rolling. We put a couple of scores on the board. We then had a turnover and they won the face-off and scored right before the half. You’ve got to keep that momentum going, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that.”
Junior Burke Healy led Cape’s scoring, garnering two goals. Jack Schell, Evan Burris, Anderson Smith and Brenner Short each hit the twine once. Hank Anderson had two assists while Schell and Burris were each credited with an assist.
Sallies jumped out to a 7-2 lead at the end of the first quarter. Cape’s guts and determination brought them back to within three, but they fell behind 10-4 at the half. The third quarter found Sallies taking a 13-5 lead, and they outscored the Vikings 3-1 in the final stanza.
The Vikings took 23 shots in the contest. Cape sophomore goalkeeper Mason Trench made 13 saves.
“Mason played a great game,” Shupard said. “He kept us in the game for that first half. There’s only so much on defense you can take. They played so hard.”
“Obviously proud of the guys,” said senior Mike Guenther. “It’s just sad that you don’t get the result you wanted, but I know that younger generation is going to come back and they just need a couple of reminders to take those extra shots and run a little bit more, and they are going be right back where we are.”
“This group faced a lot of adversity this season,” said Healy. “I feel like we always fought through everything we got. An example of that was how we fought our way back in that Hill [School] game.”
In the Hill School game in April, Cape trailed 17-9 entering the final period. The team fought hard, but ultimately fell 17-16.
“We had a great season,“ Shupard said. “I love these guys.”
