Cape championship cousins - The Fredericks and Rishkos are Cape-connected Sussex County cousins. The combined eight girls have shared double-digit state championships in the sports of field hockey and lacrosse. Last Saturday, the first of that generation, Lizzie Frederick, a former lacrosse Delaware Player of the Year who went on to be a captain of the Temple University lacrosse team and is now a speech therapist in the Cape school district, got married to Jamison Gomsak of Baltimore, Md., at St. Edmond Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach. A reception followed at Rehoboth Beach Country Club – what a vista and what a venue. I went full-boat fall equinox box turtle with no camera, no microphone and no tie. I was like grandpa at Thanksgiving under a gag order. The Gomsaks are an entrenched Baltimore family, but don’t think of "The Wire," rather “The Wireless,” as in sports wire, because no one knows more about Baltimore sports and sports in general than Jamison and his brothers going up through grandpa Pete, a Baltimore Colts fan. Mikey, on the microphone, had the best quote at the dinner the night before, "When I heard Lizzie had gotten engaged, it was the first time in my family I actually knew something was going to happen [marriage] before it happened.”  

Maraider of the Lost Ark - Mairead Rishko, “The Cupcake Kid,” was approved to skip the Thursday field hockey game at Smyrna to attend the wedding  rehearsal dinner of her cousin Lizzie in Selbyville, but “family first” is easier to talk and a little tougher to walk. Mairead and Meredith Fred chose the game and a late arrival to the dinner. I choose to hand off the game to Dan Cook and go straight to dinner like a pavlovian poodle. Mairead scored the game-tying goal with six seconds left of the third quarter and then had the assist in overtime to Kailey McMahon in a 2-1 Cape victory. Chalk it up to a simple twist of fate. Mairead is Destiny’s Child. 

Precision Garage Doors - garage doors done right - We’ve all heard the commercial, but the trick is, “Can you unhear it?’ Coach Jon Gruden said years ago, “Our game has gotten too precise – with replays – sometimes it's better just to get it right or get it wrong,” but just get along, little doggies. In the last stages of the first flight of college football games Saturday, many came down to replays – "Was his knee down?" "Did the ground cause the fumble?" and my least favorite, the 10-second runoff. Actually my least favorite is holding by an offensive lineman. 

Vulgar taunting - A Texas player sacked the Tennessee quarterback then pretended he was marking his territory like a dog prowling the neighborhood. It was called unsportsmanlike (taunting), but I saw it as borderline sociopathic. I’m curious to see what further discipline is doled out to this “take it to the doghouse” player. ESPN broadcasters Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler criticized the behavior of Colin Simmons as vulgar and idiotic. Simmons, a sophomore, had a school-record five sacks in the game and is considered a top 10 pick in the NFL Draft. You can't make it up because you don’t have to.   

The good news is the bad news - I remember covering a few winless football teams and once writing, “The good news is a team with high-character kids means there hasn't been an unsportsmanlike penalty all season. The bad news is there hasn’t been an unsportsmanlike penalty all season.” I want to see some late hits, unnecessary roughness penalties, crackback blocks, and throw in a face mask and some mom jokes. Go down fighting like the “Fightin’ Phils,” not the  punchless palooka Phils. 

Head to head - Veteran field hockey fans – a niche group – would agree that head-to-head battles between top-of-the-line great teams showcase the best of what the sport has to offer. Cape and Smyrna had played 12 times since 2020, including the last five finals. The Vikings hold an 8-4 advantage. Cape won titles in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Smyrna prevailed in 2022 and 2025, both in overtime. Smyrna has won a total of three overtime games versus Cape, including twice in 2025. Thursday’s 2-1 overtime win by Cape was the first overtime win by the Vikings over the Eagles.    

Snippets - Tim Bamforth had the juxtaposed quote of the weekend when addressing 1,200 runners standing in the rain at the start of the Dogfish Dash – “Just go out the way you always come back.” Philosophy majors kept pondering what that meant, but more likely it was just me. The Ohio University Bobcats upset Appalachian State 2-1 in MAC conference play on a fourth-quarter goal by Addy Basile (Cape) on a corner deflection. Go on now, git!