By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — Making the state semifinals is nothing new for the Cape Henlopen High boys’ lacrosse team.

But the Vikings weren’t here last year. No one even played a game of lacrosse as the 2020 spring season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Vikings returned to the semifinals on Saturday, downing No. 4 seed Delaware Military Academy 21-4 on the road in the quarterfinals. The fifth-seeded Vikings will face top seed Sanford School on Tuesday in the semifinals at a time and place to be announced.

Cape Henlopen has reached the tournament semifinals every year the tournament has been held since 2017.

“It’s fun because this time last year I was itching to play lacrosse because there wasn’t much to do,” said Cape junior Mikey Frederick. “It’s great to be back here with all my friends.”

Twelve different players scored for Cape Henlopen. The game was tied 1-1 before Frederick scored to give the Vikings a lead they would not relinquish.

Cape Henlopen led 5-2 after the first quarter and 14-3 at halftime.

Hank D’Ambrogi led the way with five goals while Gabe Best and Luke Burton each recorded a hat trick.

“We move the ball well and we’re a deep team,” D’Ambrogi said. “We play together all year round and we know each other really well. We’re always comfortable giving each other the ball and I think that’s why we always make the extra pass.”

Best added five assists, D’Ambrogi recorded four and Frederick provided three.

Frederick netted a pair of goals while Blake Gipko, William Bragg, Jacob Schell, Jaden Davis, Joseph Coveleski, Jahden Cannon, Nicholas Jones and Chase Monigle scored a goal apiece.

“We won a bunch of faceoffs and as a result of that we were able to get into a groove shooting the ball,” said Cape coach Mark D’Ambrogi. “They played a different kind of defense with a little bit of zone and man-to-man. It took us a bit to adjust to it but once we did we started getting the ball into gaps and putting the ball into the cage. We try to spread it around and the guys are good at that. They like each other. They trust each other.”