CAMDEN — It can be difficult to know what to expect from an opponent when you’ve never faced them.

That didn’t stop host Caesar Rodney High in Wednesday night’s DIAA boys’ lacrosse state tournament first-round game against Newark Charter School.

The sixth-seeded Riders rolled to a 16-6 victory over Newark Charter to set up a quarterfinal matchup at No. 3 Archmere Academy in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.

Eleventh-seeded Newark Charter (10-6) was making the program’s first state tourney appearance and it marked the first time they’ve ever faced CR.

“They came out and played a tough game and they were a great opponent,” CR coach Brooks Johnson said. “We’re just working on us, trying to get better and fighting every day at practice.”

Senior midfielder Hunter Christensen led the scoring for the Riders (12-4) with a game-high five goals, pushing CR’s win streak to five games.

“Hunter had a great game, but more importantly he was picking the ball up off the turf and was saving us some extra possessions,” Johnson said. “He had a phenomenal game.”

Eight Riders scored at least one goal, with senior Dane Wilson, freshman Patrick Craig, junior Brendan Wark and sophomore Steven Grossman each netting two.

Senior Ryan Carey, junior Ashton Mazzola and senior Michael Hammon scored one each.

Craig also totaled a game-high six assists. Goalkeeper Jakob Buxton recorded seven saves.

“I can definitely tell we’re starting to get better,” Christenson said. “Ground balls we’ve been working on for the entire season and we’re totally starting to see that we’ve improved on that tremendously.

“Overall our scoring and our offense had an incredible game and our defense made plenty of stops as well.”

Anthony Mangini and Joseph Jones each scored a pair of goals to lead the Patriots.

Newark Charter forced turnovers on each of CR’s first two possessions and took an early 1-0 lead with a goal from Jones at the 9:02 mark of the first quarter.

Christensen then opened the scoring for CR with a goal at the 6:43 mark.

After Newark Charter regained the lead with 5:35 in the first quarter, Wilson won the ensuing face off and weaved through the Patriots’ defense to net the equalizer just eight seconds later.

The Riders netted the last three scores of the opening quarter and outscored Newark Charter 4-1 in the second quarter to take control 8-3 at the halftime break.

The Patriots netted a few goals early in the third quarter before the Riders’ offense went on a scoring barrage and put seven unanswered goals in the back of the net to pull away.

After missing all of last season due to the pandemic, the seniors know this is their last chance and are looking to make the most of it heading into the next round.

“With losing last year we definitely lost some of that experience for some of our sophomores to juniors and juniors to seniors, so this is big for our program and I’m happy for the kids,” said Johnson.

“This season has meant a lot to the seniors,” Christensen said. “Of course it was heartbreaking losing the last season, but that just means we need to come out even harder.”

The Riders lost to Archmere earlier this season 15-4, but Johnson says his team is just focused on getting themselves better every day in practice and making sure they’re well prepared.

“They’re very well coached and they’re going to be very well prepared, but we’re just focused on us,” he said of the next round’s opponent.