Cape hockey comes alive in 4-1 win over Pandas
Bob Seger’s song title “Against the Wind” could have described the Cape field hockey team Sept. 30, as the Lady Vikings faced a brisk and breezy first half along with a speedy Padua squad. But in the second half, the wind was at the backs of the Vikings, and Padua’s backs were against the wall, as Cape defeated the Pandas 4-1.
Cam Smith started the scoring for the Vikings, as she put back a shot on the Padua cage after a mass of players poked sticks in front of Pandas goalie Shannon McCormac.
“Carly [Truitt] took it baseline and crossed it at the cage, and I was able to get a touch on it,” said Smith, a sophomore attacker. “ We’re putting a lot of work at practice, making it more game-like, and I think we’re taking it more serious. It’s a tough love type thing, you know? The coaches tell us we might be knocked out of the tournament and we are just working hard to get back up there.”
Less than three minutes later, Kathleen Melia sprinted the length of the field and put a powerful shot past Cape goalie Lori Ferguson for the only Pandas tally. It was the last shot Cape would allow.
The second half found three different scorers putting the ball in the back of the Padua goal cage.
Annie Judge took a pass from Marcella Sabbagh and found the cage with a powerful shot nine minutes into the period. Lindsay Monigle came out of nowhere to pick off a Pandas pass and put it home at an nearly impossible angle on the sophomore goalkeeper at the 15:46 mark.
“That was the best I’ve seen Lindsay play,” said Cape coach Kate Austin. “ She was falling out of bounds when she took that shot.”
Sabbagh picked up her second assist of the game as she slammed a shot off a corner at 2:14 left that was tipped in front by junior attack Chloe Schaeffer.
“We’re usually a second-half team,” said Monigle. “For some reason, our energy is always higher in the second half. Padua was higher than us in the tournament last year and made it farther than us, so it was important for us to get the win against them so we feel good going into the rest of the season.”
Cape outshot the Pandas 19-1. Pandas goalie Shannon McCormac made four saves.
“That, by far, was the best game we’ve played,” said Austin. “Today was the first time I saw that real desire to score. We played 10 times better than we played at Lake. They only got across the 50 a few times and we were putting pressure on them with our forwards. We were stopping the ball with just our forwards.”
The Vikings were awarded 24 penalty corners in the contest.
“Padua’s corner defense was probably the strongest we’ve seen,” said Austin. “They were out on us very quickly, but Kaylie [Truitt] does a great job keeping the ball flat to allow us work with it.”
“We have this little system on the corners,“ said Truitt. “But we improvise some on what our best option is. I think we’re definitely stepping up from our 2-2 early season record. I think the 2-2 was a wake-up call for us just because we aren’t used to losing so much early in the season. We’re working better together now and trying to keep the momentum up.”
The Cape junior varsity team defeated Padua 3-1. Emily Monigle scored all three goals, two unassisted and one off an assist from Lola Messick. Vikings goalies Julie Heffernan and Autumn Davis teamed for two saves.
Cape will welcome Sussex Tech Tuesday, Oct. 3, when the Lady Vikings will host a Grass Roots Rescue fundraiser next to Champions Stadium. Donations of money and supplies will be accepted. A registry has been set up through Amazon. View the registry at https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/QC66NF0PI742.
