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Cape lacrosse beats Ursuline 20-7, faces Tower Hill in championship

Game set for 7 p.m., Thursday, May 23, at Dover
May 22, 2013

The target was locked in but not acquired by the visiting Ursuline Raiders May 21 at Champions Stadium in a first-time home Cape game for the semifinal round of the DIAA state championship girls' lacrosse game.

Raiders Laura Huff, Brooke Schmeusser and Mary Abram scored unanswered to start the game, and with stalwart C.C. Cicone in goal it was on like Donkey Kong.

Coach Lauren Berg and vocal fans across the field all shouted, “C'mon, UA, you can do this!”

And then Cape caught fire at 7:22 into the game on a goal by Anna Frederick and two quick draw controls and scores from Karalyn Joseph, running a 10-1 crooked number back on Ursuline to lead 10-4 at halftime. It was all over but the shouting, and there was plenty of that as Cape took care of business, winning 20-7 and outshooting the Raiders 39-16.

Cicone was credited with 14 saves, while Samantha Broadhurst of Cape had 6.

Cape will face Tower Hill at 7 p.m., Thursday, May 23, at Dover. There is a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms. Friday, May 24 is the rain date.

"A 90-mile bus ride to play the top seed in the tournament is a bit of a disadvantage,” Berg admitted after the game. "But we came out strong, going up 3-0, hope you got a picture of the scoreboard. We have some great players, but Cape has like 18 of them, all highly skilled, and eventually they just wear you down.”

Cape had nine different scorers led by Anna Frederick 5, Allie Yeager 4, Karalyn Joseph 3, Sara Young 2, Lizzie Frederick 2 and singles from Amanda Smith, Jordan Brown, Sarah Tappan and Lexi Woodruff.

Assist were Anna Frederick 2,  Brown 2, Young, Yeager, Tappan and Woodruff.

Ursuline goals were Laura Hurff 3, Molly Abram 2 and Brooke Schmeusser 2. Maddie Hughes 2 and Laura Hurff 1 had assists for the Raiders.

“I knew we would be OK and wasn’t really worried after getting down 3-0 early,” coach P.J. Kesmodel said after the game. “But I’d be worried if we did that in the championship game against Tower Hill. They are very skilled and will make you pay for mistakes and slow starts."

Tower Hill started slow in its semifinal game against Archmere, trailing 7-5 at halftime before outscoring the Auks 7-1 in the second half to reach the championship game for the first time since the Hillers won their third consecutive title in 2008.

The Vikings' Strive for Five mantra will be answered or not in the championship game.

“The two best teams have reached the final, so we’ll prepare and play the game and hope we win,” Kesmodel said.

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