Cape hockey beats Dover 9-0 to open state tournament

The Division I field hockey semifinals are set for Tuesday, Nov. 16, at DE Turf, where Cape Henlopen will play Polytech at 5 p.m., followed by Smyrna versus Charter School of Wilmington at 7 p.m.

The state championship final will begin at 11:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 20, at Dover High. 

Cape reached the semifinal round by beating Dover 9-0, while Polytech edged Sussex Tech 2-1. 

In the other bracket, Smyrna beat Appoquinimink 7-0, while Charter shut out the Padua Pandas 3-0. 

Cape will play the Panthers in the semifinal round for the fourth time in the last five years. Last year, Cape and Poly played in the finals. 

Dover hockey played Cape tough Nov. 11, trailing 3-0 at the half after Reagan Ciabattoni buried a pair of first-quarter penalty strokes and Lulu Rishko one-timed an airmailed crossing pass from Noelle Sabbagh. 

But the Senators started to wear down in the second half and couldn’t get a shot on goal or spring their fast forwards loose.

Sam Connors scored on an assist from Sabbagh with 12:51 left in the third quarter for a 4-0 Cape advantage. 

The Vikings folded in the rest of the roster, excluding the ball girl, in the fourth quarter and erupted for five goals, including two each from Sabbagh (assist Hannah Maney) and Kelly Bragg, and one from Ciabattoni.

Cape outshot Dover 29-0 with a 17-1 advantage in penalty corners. 

Senators goalie Savannah Strauss had 17 saves.

Notes: Cape defeated Polytech 4-1 Oct. 5, after trailing 1-0 at the half. 

The Vikings defeated the Panthers in last year's 2020 state championship game 3-0 and in the 2019 semifinals 1-0, the 2018 semifinals 3-0 and the 2017 semifinals 4-0.