Cape hockey beats Padua in OT 5-4, heads to championship game Nov. 15

The Cape field hockey team has been so dominantly successful over the last decade that players sometimes have to apologize for winning.

The 2014 state tournament journey for the 18-0 squad has been cardiac crazy, with Cape coming from two goals behind in the quarterfinals to beat Sussex Tech 3-2. The Vikings then moved to the semifinals Nov. 12 and fell behind Padua 3-1 before taking a 4-4 tie into sudden-death overtime and winning on a goal by Sam Broadhurst at 6:16 into the extra period.

The Vikings will play Polytech for the state championship at 2 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 15, at the University of Delaware. The Panthers, coached by Lynn Richardson, defeated Tower Hill in the semifinals 2-0. Poly comes off a wacky regular season, dropping games to Lake Forest and Smyrna, and being tied by Woodbridge, then taking Cape to the brink before losing 3-2. The Panthers opened the tournament with an overtime 5-4 win over Charter.

“I think we lost our mojo the last two games, but we’ll get it back for the final game," Cape assistant coach Debbie Windett said after the Nov. 12 win.

And therein lies the Cape mind-set, a program of players not programmed to fight off their backs but battle-tested to take body shots and keep on trucking.

The Vikings have now won 11 straight state tournament games under coach Kate Windett Austin and 15 in a row over the last four years.

The 2014 journey includes wins over Concord, Sussex Tech and Padua with Cape outshooting opponents 55-14 with a 50-12 advantage in penalty corners. Those numbers don’t indicate a missing mojo, but as any D student in statistics will tell you, “Numbers lie all the time.”

Polytech has been twice as good as the three teams they’ve knocked off, beating Charter, Delmar and Tower Hill with a 42-22 shot advantage and doubling down 44-22 on corners.

Sam Broadhurst scored off her stomach just 3:11 into the Padua game for a 1-0 Cape lead.  Her winning goal in overtime would come 63 minutes later. Between those scores was a battle as pumped-up Pandas were flying about up and down the field, pressuring every pass and taking advantage of their scoring opportunities.

Three unanswered goals by Molly Bobjak at 5:16, Abigail Boudart at 13:31 and Samantha Haines at 16:52 found Padua with a 3-1 lead.

Cape quickly crashed that party on goals by Erin Coverdale at 18:51 and Tess Bernheimer at 20:24 as the game settled in to a 3-3 halftime question mark.

The Vikings kept up relentless pressure on goalie Danielle Clerval (12 saves) with Marlee McGinnis scoring at 46:29.  But just three minutes later, Marissa Sipala of Padua found herself alone in front of the Cape cage to tie the game at 4, forcing a seven-on-seven sudden-death overtime period.

A big play in overtime was made by freshman Annie Judge, who thwarted a one-on-one breakaway attempt, stripping and winning a ball in the open field.

The Broadhurst game-winner - on her 18th birthday - was a pull-back-and-settle-it rebounded poke shot through traffic, sending Cape to the finals for the fourth straight year.