Peddie School beats Cape on goal by goalie

A long bus ride to Hightstown, N.J., followed by a strange lacrosse game came down to the final two minutes of the fourth quarter as the Cape boys lacrosse team let a 5-3 lead slip back to even with less than two minutes remaining.

Peddie School, trailing 5-3, scored goals at 1:51 and 1:27 to tie the game at 5 then gained possession and called time out. The ball was thrown in to a middie who was double-teamed, so he tossed the ball back to his goalie, Ethan Kibrick.

“The kid started to walk the ball up the field. Everybody was covered so he kept coming, then broke into a run,” said Cape coach Jack Lingo.

This is the moment when a defender should slide and knock the wandering goalie into the middle of next week. But the kid got a shot off and Cape’s James Cook, who according to Lingo saved their butts all afternoon, couldn’t get this one, which got rope with 63 seconds remaining and sent the Vikings back to Lewes with their first loss of the season, 6-5 to the Peddie School.

Cape drops to 3-1 on the season and faces St. Mark’s at home at 2 p.m., Saturday, April 10.

“We got off the bus and it was like we were waiting to see how good they were rather than giving them a lesson in Cape lacrosse,” Lingo said. “I can’t fault the defense as Tim Voss, Jake Mathews and Dom Prestipino played well in front of James [Cook] and only allowed five goals. But offensively we need more killer instinct. I think we were bigger and faster than them but maybe they were smarter.”

Cape led at the half 4-1 and started the third period a man up but missed two point-blank shots that would have gotten the team off and running in the second half.

Cape’s scoring came from John Young (2), with single goals from Aaron Tartal, Chris Young and Dan Steele. Andrew Scrutchfield and Chris Woodruff each had a pair of assists. Cook was credited with 16 saves.

Cape was called for seven major penalties in the game including three for slashing, three unnecessary roughness, a cross check and a hold.

Peddie goalie Ethan Kibrick had 13 saves on the day while the Falcons outshot the Vikings 42-26. Cape led the first 44 minutes of the 48-minute game.