Rough house play in girls' lacrosse; Cape toughens for season

Executive session with the Zen Master of Cape girls' lacrosse P.J. Kesmodel following his own orchestrated play day featuring seven national powers and his own Vikings five-time consecutive state champions is like going to a graduate school seminar where most commentary is better left off the record.

Cape went against Marriotts Ridge, Good Counsel and Georgetown Visitation in games featuring two 20-minute halves with running clock and lost all the games.

Cape has a record of 85-5-1 over those five years and last lost in Delaware to St. Andrew's in May of 2009.

This preseason of lacrosse started late because of bad weather but on March 15 you are playing full field against some of the best programs in the nation. The Vikings only lost starters Anna Frederick and Sarah Young but also their 110 combined goals and competitive leadership.

And so there is no good question to ask coach Kesmodel, an experienced reporter simply nods and says, “Go ahead and talk and tell me what I saw.”

“We learned a lot. I told the kids I wasn’t discouraged. We learned a lot about who can do what and that’s what play days are all about," Kesmodel said. "We’re still trying different combinations. I tried Riley [Wagner] on defense, moved Cailey [Thornburg] to a different midfield, tried Alison Palmer on midfield; still playing with stuff to try to see what my best combinations are."

I was encouraged. We have a lot of things we have to work on and almost all of it is correctable. And the good news is there is nobody in Delaware close to as good as any of these teams we played today. We didn’t do great, but we didn’t do badly."

And assistant coach Richard Collins said, "We did a good job during the day with the speed of play. All these teams were much more aggressive than us and played much harder and quicker. They are all really aggressive; just all over you."

Cape opens the season at Holy Cross in Potomac, Md., Saturday, March 22. The Vikings beat Holy Cross last year 9-8, all goals were scored by Anna Frederick 5 and Sarah Young 4. The game ended dramatically with Sam Broadhurst stopping a free position shot as time expired.

“Sam is key for us this season,” Kesmodel said. “She had a rough day today but she faced a bunch of great shooters."

Cape will play at Ursuline March 25, who is now coached by Delaware Hall of Famer Feffie Barhhill. Cape opens at home March 28 versus Caesar Rodney.