By Andy Walter

WOODSIDE — The numbers, if they ever wanted to put them together, are nothing short of astounding.

But the members of Cape Henlopen High’s field hockey program say they leave the records for somebody else to add up.
Really.

“We don’t know anything about that,” Cape coach Kate Austin said with a laugh. “We just sort of focus on what’s the next step ahead of us.”

For the record, since 2009, the Vikings are 203-11-2 with nine DIAA state championships. Of those 11 losses, only seven have come against Delaware schools.

And of those seven in-state setbacks, five have been to Delmar.

All of which brings us to today’s annual showdown between Cape Henlopen (7-0) and Delmar (8-0). The contest between programs that have combined to capture the last 14 DIAA state titles is slated for 6 p.m. in Lewes.

While the Vikings may not stay on top of all their records, they do know that this year’s senior class has never beaten the Wildcats. Delmar has won five in a row over Cape in the last four seasons.

Of course, it’s been a while since anybody downed the Wildcats. Delmar comes into today’s matchup with an 85-game unbeaten streak since 2016.

The Vikings were the last team to beat the Wildcats.

“They’re a really competitive team, just like us,” Cape senior midfielder Reagan Ciabattoni said about Delmar. “They want it just as bad as us. I think it just makes the game a great game. We have great competition between each other.

“We all mark our books at the beginning of the season — like ‘Delmar game,’” she added. “It’s something we all look forward to and practice for. ... It would be nice to beat them once. We’ve never had the feeling of beating them.”

“We like to focus on every game as they come,” said sophomore midfielder Lulu Rishko. “But we all, in the back of our heads, know that it’s going to be a really good game and good competition.

“We’re coming into it as kind of the underdogs. But I feel like that just makes us work that much harder. We know that we really want to win.”

The Wildcats really haven’t been challenged so far this season, winning their eight games by a combined 82-0.

The Vikings, on the other hand, have won by ‘only’ a 56-4 margin. On Tuesday, they trailed Polytech, 1-0, at halftime before rallying for a 4-1 victory.

Austin said there’s something to be said for being in some relatively close games.

“When you’re scoring 10 goals in a half, sometimes it gets a little easy to just sort of fall asleep in the second half and not stay engaged and not play good hockey,” she said. “So I think when you have tough competition, that really gets you ready for a Delmar, it gets you ready for a conference championship and hopefully a state tournament run. It’s a lot more fun.”

When the DIAA state tournament split into two divisions after the 2016 season, it eliminated the chance of the Vikings and Wildcats meeting again in the tourney.

But, with the Henlopen Conference now holding a conference championship game after the regular season, there is a pretty good chance that Cape Henlopen and Delmar will play a second time this fall. (They were slated to play in the Henlopen title game last year but it was canceled).

Clearly, though, it’s an opportunity both teams will take any time they get the chance.

“We would rather play them every single day,” said Austin. “You have that good competition. We respect them, I think they respect us. We know that we’re two strong programs.

“We match up really evenly in the style that we play. It’s not a team that sits back on defense. It’s not a team that just hits and chases. ... It’s just being able to put together the things that you’ve done and show that, on that day, that you’re the better team and you’re able to execute.”