The Middletown Cavaliers, fresh of their first baseball Blue Hen Flight A Conference championship, will begin their quest to return to the state championship game by hosting No. 16 Tatnall (14-5) Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Middletown (17-1) enters the 16-team tournament with a team consisting several veteran players who led the Cavaliers to last year’s title game before falling to this year’s No. 2 seed, Salesianum.
“Having returned so many players from last year’s team, we would have been disappointed had we not had a good season,” Middletown coach Scott Smith said. “That being said, our focus is still to take just one game at a time and not look ahead.”
Middletown’s only loss was a 1-0 defeat to No. 11 A.I. duPont.
More Baseball: Dickinson wins Blue Hen Flight B title
Despite losing seven seniors from last year’s team, including five who went on to play Division I college baseball, Dickinson managed to rebuild and reload and win the Blue Hen Conference Flight B title.
Dickinson avenged an earlier loss by defeating the Delaware Military Academy, 11-3, to secure a berth in the state tournament, where the No. 9 Rams (15-5) will travel to No. 8 Sussex Tech (15-5) for a first round game on Tuesday.
DMA coach Larry Wheeler will have to wait until next season to try and become the state’s all-time leader in wins. His 410 wins are one shy of the late Rev. Robert Kenney’s 411 at Salesianum.
Tuesday’s first round schedule:
(16) Tatnall (14-5) at
(1) Middletown (17-1), 2 p.m.
(9) Dickinson (15-5) at
(8) Sussex Tech (15-4), 4 p.m.
(13) Polytech (15-5) at
(4) Hodgson (16-4), 4 p.m.
(12) Concord (14-6) at
(5) St. Mark’s (1406), 4 p.m.
(15) Archmere (12-8) at
(2) Salesianum (14-5), 4 p.m.
(10) St. Elizabeth (15-5) at
(7) Caravel (11-8), 4 p.m.
(14) Milford (15-5) at
(3) Sussex Central (17-2), 4 p.m.
(11) A.I. duPont (13-6) at
(6) Newark (15-5), 4 p.m.
Girls Lacrosse: Cape Henlopen wins championship
Since the inception of girls lacrosse 11 years ago, only two schools — St. Andrew’s and Tower Hill — had ever held the state championship trophy. But when the final horn sounded at Bill Billings Stadium on Thursday night, Cape Henlopen became the first public school to earn the right to call itself state champions.
The Vikings wasted no time in their quest, scoring five unanswered goals in the first 6:21 of the game and never leading by less than four en route to defeating six-time champion St. Andrew’s, 11-7.
Maura Johnson led all scorers with three goals and senior goalie Leigh Ann Redefer recorded eight saves for the Vikings, who lost to the Saints twice during the regular season.
“I started crying when there were 45 seconds left,” Redefer told The News Journal. “It’s history.”
Kaci Coveleski and Caroline Judge each had two goals for the Vikings.
St. Andrew’s out-shot the Vikings 17-15 and was led by Grace Saliba and Madison Beres, each scoring twice.
Cape Henlopen finished with a 16-2-1 record, while St. Andrew’s (15-4) saw its 12-game winning streak come to an end.
“Every public school was rooting for us, and even some of the private schools,” second-year Cape Henlopen coach P.J. Kesmodel told The News Journal. “This was really important for the game. If they just think it’s a private school thing, the kids aren’t going to play. But hey, a public school can win.”
Boys Lacrosse: Salesianum caps perfect season with state title
Salesianum entered Saturday afternoon’s state title game with a perfect record but the sting of last year’s title game loss fresh in its mind.
The Sals entered that game undefeated, too, and saw their perfect season and dream of repeating as state champs come to a crushing close with an 8-7 loss to Cape Henlopen.
Salesianum would not be denied this year, firing 33 shots on goal and scoring early and often on its way to winning the school’s third state title with a 13-4 victory over Tower Hill.
Senior attackman Brandon Groux led Sallies with four goals, despite playing with an injured back and bruised wrist. Daniel Rodgers was stellar in goal, making six saves, including the game’s first which immediately led to a Timothy Brown goal at the other end.
Salesianum (17-0) is a combined 50-2 over the last three seasons and defeated Tower Hill (16-3) during the regular season 11-6.
News and Notes
St. Mark’s senior Courtney Schweizer finished with a state-record 329 lacrosse goals. … Longtime St. Mark’s coach Joe O’Neill passed away last week after a battle with cancer. … Tommy Andrews and Bill Vivian combined for a no-hitter in Pencader Charter’s 2-0 win over Glasgow. … Mike Johnson’s three-run home run sparked Charter to a 10-7 win over Christiana. … Zack Edwards pitched a perfect game with 11 strikeouts to lead Lake Forest over St. Thomas More, 10-0.
Jon Buzby is the Delaware correspondent for MaxPreps.com.