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Mallards at Vikings: Showdown about to go down

April 30, 2013

Over easy - The Cape girls' lacrosse team of 2013 has had too many games that were over easy or late early for the visiting team. It’s hard to assess and do a self-analysis of what that means. Are we that good or have the people we’ve been playing just that bad? Cape, 9-0, and their buddies at Worcester, 10-1, will test each other at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 30 at Champions Stadium in what promises to be an up-and-down 50-minute game decided by who shows up, and that includes the officials. Cape is coming off a 20-7 home win over Saint Andrew's, a game that was 15-1 by the end of the first half, which makes no sense at all. Jordan Brown had a career-best six goals in the game. The Cardinals have played Cape in three of the last four state finals and own five state titles themselves.

Beacon girl - The Beacon Middle School girls' track team, coached by Tim Bamforth and Gilbert Maull, won 9 of 13 events, setting a meet record with 172 points while winning the Jim Blades Invitational April 26. Chipman was second with 114 while Fifer Middle School scored 53 points. Chipman won the boys' meet with 123 points followed by Millsboro Middle with 61, Georgetown 57, and Beacon and Smyrna with 55. Annie Judge in the long jump, Zoe Scott high jump and triple jump, Jordan Miller discus, Dijante Mackey 55-meter hurdles, Logan Shuttleworth 1,600, and Alia Marshall 400 were first-place winners. Beacon also won the 400-meter relay (Judge, Katie Frederick, Boyer, Mackey) and 800-meter relay (Mackey, Frederick, Scott, Marshall). A complete listing of results from the Jim Blades Invitational can be found at www.directathletics.com. Story and photos will appear in the online version of the Cape Gazette and in the Friday, May 3 print edition.

Ten Thousand Maniacs - If you are the housebound underemployed guy with an iMac on your desktop, a smartphone in your pocket and a Mac mini in your stretch-o-matic waistband, check out thepennrelays.com for all five days of Penn Relays results with first and last names of competitors, including relay splits. The high school competition is just crazy good, and the great thing about track and field is the results don’t lie. The Mariner Middle School track team attended the relays on Friday and missed the rescheduled Jim Blades Invitational.

King of the cool shirt - Sing it, “Cool Shirt!” I, Coach Fred, bought a University of Penn blue shirt with red pinstripes at Graves' men’s store for the Penn Relays in 1985. I was “that guy” and felt pretty special and in harmony with my natural habitat. I was sitting in the stands Saturday morning, and sophomore sprinter Ricky Pitts, a quiet and gentle soul, kept staring at me like, “Thanks for bringing me up here, Coach.” Then Ricky smiled, reached over and pulled the cardboard out from under my collar. "Do you want to keep this?" he asked. The next year, 1986, Ricky won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter runs at the Division I state meet. He is Cape’s all-time fastest human and knows a thing or two about fashion as well.

Snippets - The Cape girls' soccer team lost at Wilmington Friends 6-0 April 27. The Quakers are now 3-4 on the season. Cape plays at winless Lake Forest Tuesday, April 30, then hosts 2-6-1 Delmar Thursday, May 2. A soccer showdown at Legends Stadium is set for Tuesday, May 7, as Cape hosts 7-1 Sussex Tech.

I strafed Atlantic Lacrosse last Saturday morning with my big old camera rig intent on watching my grandchildren Mikey U11 and Katie U15 play and circled other fields as well to take photos of kids not related to me. That scene is screaming with talented kids; not all head toward Cape, but most of them do. I post all this to Facebook albums hoping parents will identify their kids or tag them, whatever that means.

Cape boys' lacrosse plays Polytech, 9-2, at 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 1. The Panthers are for real - a tough out - and capable of ruining Cape’s day.

Travel baseball and softball are alive as teams are playing in weekend tournaments. Athletes are permitted to play school and travel simultaneously but allegiance is first to the school side team, so says the DIAA handbook. Just remember, no overuse syndrome injuries - stay healthy, my friends. Go on now, git!

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