Cape boys beat Queen Anne's 11-3 but goalie Gillan gets trucked
Queen Anne's County High School is the kind of home field with a handicapped access sign in the middle of a chain-link fence. The Lions, both boys and girls, are a take-the-body-first, let-the-next-person-pick-up-the-ball type of program. The term "scrappy" doesn’t do them justice.
On April 28, the Cape boys were wearing the Lions out, sitting on an 11-3 lead with under a minute to play but took a shot with possession and missed, which set up a shot heard around the county.
Cape goalie Grant Gillan, who had been money between the pipes the entire game, got rid of the ball with 15 seconds left on the clock. Then he got trucked by a bone-rattling, teeth-chattering, cheap shot that put the stoic goalie on his back as trainers rushed to the field. Somehow Cape players - with state champion wrestlers and football guys on the defensive end of the field - kept their composure.
"Maybe when I played in 1995, that wasn’t even a penalty," head coach Jack Lingo shrugged. "The game wasn’t even chippie, so I’m not sure what happened.”
Gillan was on the tailgate of the local gator, not only answering all the concussion protocol questions but also asking them. There was just no way the senior, who missed all of last season with a broken collarbone, was heading to the disabled list. Every Queen Anne's player and coach sought out Gillan after the game and shook his hand.
“He’s our most important player,” Lingo said. “It was like an accident, just never saw it coming.”
Cape jumped out early to lead 7-2 at the half, but really the game didn’t seen that close.
The Vikings outshot the Lions 52-18 a statistic that must have included warm-ups. Vikings goals came from Blake Mann with 5, Todd Keen 2, and single goals from Luke Benson, Mike Hopkins, Kyle Orton and Jeb Monigle.
Seven of Cape’s 11 goals came on assists from Benson with 2, Hopkins 2, Keen, Ashby and Mattioni.
The win was the sixth in a row for Cape, which improves to 7-2 on the season, but the big dogs are waiting down the road as Cape plays at CR Wednesday, May 7, then hosts Tower Hill Friday, May 9, before playing at Salesianum Monday, May 12.
