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Flashback Friday: Cape wins first state lacrosse title

Vikings riddle Tatnall 14-3 to complete undefeated dream season
April 10, 2020

Editor’s note: This article appeared in the May 29, 1998 edition of the Cape Gazette. Over the next several weeks, we are going to highlight some shining moments in Cape’s 50-year history.

The team of focus finally freaked, but it took 19 full games and a state championship to unlock the emotions. When the final horn sounded in a championship game that was really never in doubt, bedlam broke loose on the green carpet of Polytech.

Sticks were thrown toward the heavens while bodies piled onto the ground.

Coach Steve Aubrey took an ice bath.

Fathers along the fence whooped and hollered.

Mothers took pictures of sons and teammates.

Grandmothers had tears in their eyes.

The Cape lacrosse extended community had captured the dream they had been chasing for 20 years, ever since Milt Roberts and Lou Norbeck brought the sport to Cape.

"It feels great to have finally done it," said senior Scott Steele. "Everyone talked about the distraction of prom weekend, but none of us were going to let this championship get away. It's a great feeling."

And for coach Aubrey, who was celebrating his 20th wedding anniversary, the satisfaction was shared with his staff.

"There was not one decision made on this team without the input of all the coaches," Aubrey said. "With assistants like Mark D'Ambrogi, Tim Mahoney and Shaun Williams, how can you not be successful? And as I've been saying all season, this is just a very special group of young men, very special."

Cape plays balanced ball

The championship game itself featured a totally balanced Cape squad with an unflappable goalie, Billy Brennan, nicknamed "The Wall," backing up a huge defense of Matt Hall, Jimmy Derrick and Corey Mahoney; a pair of face-off men, Malik Lopez and Matt Martin, who ripped and raked the ball loose all afternoon; and a stealth bomber attack with close friends Bill Lingo, Josh Wyatt and Derrick Quillen circling the net for target practice.

Steele at the point, whose 90 mph crank shot has been freeze-framing goalies all season, led a midfield that saw Josh Lowe, David Steele and Jimmy Carpenter come off the sidelines to play first-class full-field lacrosse.

And Tatnall had Josh Bergey!

The youngest son of former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Bill Bergey contested every face-off and played every second of the game from his attack position. Bergey, more than any other single individual, knows Cape's power from deep inside the belly of the beast.

"Good %$#@ * game!" Bergey said, passing goalie Brennan after the game.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Brennan said.

The game started with Lopez digging out the ball on the opening face-off and sprinting into the attack zone where he found Lingo camped on the doorstep of the open hearth. The senior cleverly shoveled the ball into the goal, igniting a furnace of frenzy that ended at the quarter with Cape commanding a 5-0 advantage.

Hall broke loose from his defensive end of the field, "middie back," looking like a runaway locomotive on the Queen Anne Railroad, and fed Lingo for his second goal of the game.

Then Wyatt scored off a diagonal feed from Quillen.

Later Quillen went high and wide with his left-handed quick shot, and finally Lopez sprinted half the field to bounce home a goal just before the quarter.

Tatnall comes back

Tatnall got some breathing room in the second quarter, outscoring Cape 2-1 as Bergey finally solved the riddle of Brennan in a man-up situation.

"We're still in this game," Bergey shouted to his teammates as the Hornets, who came back from a 5-1 deficit in the semifinals against St. Mark's, only trailed 6-2 in a half totally dominated by Cape.

But the Vikings’ fury returned like a full moon high tide in the third quarter as Cape outscored Tatnall 5-0 on goals by Lingo, Lopez, Quillen and Scott Steele twice.

The Vikings entered the final period leading 11-2 but kept playing hard as coach Aubrey used his entire squad, as he has all season.

"All our kids got great experience this season, especially in the first half of games," Aubrey said. "The young guys are already talking about next year."

The final period was showoff time for Cape goal scorers as Scott Steele [with a right-handed and left-handed goal] and Lingo both scored a pair. Lingo threw a roundhouse 360 into the goalie's face but somehow kept the ball in his stick and then just dropped it into an open net.

"I just can't believe we are state champs," said defenseman Derrick. "I just can't believe it!"

There are 19 teams on the schedule that have no problem believing it!

 

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