By Andy Walter

BEAR — Cape Henlopen High’s boys’ lacrosse players know they’re capable of competing with Salesianum.

The Vikings keep proving it year after year.

But, right now, Cape Henlopen is stuck in a streak where it just can’t get over the hump against the Sals.

On Saturday afternoon, No. 2 Sallies built a five-goal lead and then held off the fifth-seeded Vikings, 13-11, to capture the DIAA state championship at Caravel.

It was the Sals’ fourth-straight win over Cape Henlopen (14-4), all coming by one or two goals. The 13-11 margin was the exact same as Sallies’ victory over the Vikings during the regular season — which was almost the same as the Sals’ 12-10 win over Cape Henlopen in last year’s title game.

The reward for Sallies (15-4) was the program’s 12th state crown. The last 11 of those titles have come since 2007 under former Dover coach Bob Healy.

“The final score seems to be pretty consistent,” said Cape Henlopen Coach Mark D’Ambrogi. “But hats off to them, they’re a good team.

“We played a good challenging schedule so we’re prepared for this. I don’t think we played poorly, I just think we made a couple mistakes that gave them some extra opportunities. You’ve got to play a really good game to beat them.”

After falling behind 13-8 with 7:49 left in the contest, Cape Henlopen put together one last charge.

Goals from Mikey Frederick (4 goals) and Hank D’Ambrogi (3 goals, 3 assists) got the Vikings within 13-10. And when sophomore Jacob Schell stole a clearing attempt and scored, Cape Henlopen had closed within 13-11 with 4:20 still remaining.

The Vikings’ last big offensive chance came after Cape Henlopen won a tough groundball and called timeout with 2:11 on the clock.

After working the ball around, Cape Henlopen was stopped on its final attempt with 1:06 left. The Vikings were later called for a penalty and the Sals ran off the final 53 seconds without any late-game drama.

“Losing is tough,” said Frederick. “They’re a very good team. We made mistakes, that’s pretty much all there is. I think we had a chance the whole game.”

Senior Caelen Driggs netted a game-high seven goals for Sallies, which got goals from six players.

Both goalies came up with some crucial saves for their teams. Cape Henlopen senior Evan Erhardt made 10 saves while the Sals’ Ryder Sellers had 13.
Sallies was credited with a 43-26 edge in shots.

The contest was tied three times in the first half with the Vikings taking a 7-6 advantage into intermission. Cape Henlopen ran off four straight goals to take a 5-3 lead before a goal from junior Cody Trivits gave them their 7-6 lead.

But Sallies went ahead to stay when Driggs reeled off the first three goals of the second half. Cape Henlopen never got within two goals the rest of the way.

“In the second half, we just came out with a lot of energy,” said Healy. “We started picking up ground balls and hitting our shots. Defensively, we played really well in the second half.

“They’re an excellent team and they’re really well coached,” he said about Cape. “They’re always going to be in the fight. We knew that going in. That’s what it’s like every time we play them.”

This was the third straight season and seventh time since 2008 that Sallies and Cape Henlopen have played in the state finals. The Sals are now 4-3 in those contests.

But there’s no reason to think the two programs won’t square off on this stage again.

“We’ll see them down the road again I’m sure,” said Healy. “They’re a great team.”

“It seems to be the two of us playing in this game a lot,” said Mark D’Ambrogi. “When you’re in it, you want to win it.”

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at 741-8227 or walter@iniusa.org.
Follow on Twitter at @DSNSports.