A season full of promise for the Sussex Academy girls’ lacrosse team has had some early setbacks, with the latest coming in the form of a 20-13 loss to Caesar Rodney April 4. 

“It wasn't the result we wanted; CR is a very good team and definitely one of the top teams in the state, so the competition was really good,” Seahawks coach Taylor Gibbs said. “One good thing we got out of this game was fighting every second of this game, which is something that we've been working on as a team. CR really put us to the test with that.”

After the Riders scored first, senior Shelby Manlove tied the game, and sophomore June Hale gave the Seahawks a 2-1 lead less than five minutes in. CR rattled off four in a row before Manlove completed a first- quarter hat trick. The Riders responded in the final minute, but so did Manlove, to make it 6-4 CR with eight seconds left in the first quarter.

Killing a penalty to start the second quarter, the Riders inflated their lead to 10-4, before Manlove struck again for her fourth goal of the first half. CR added two more on the heels of senior Emiley Bisaha delighting the crowd with a huge goal, and time expired in the first half to make it a 12-6 Riders lead at the break.

The high-powered Sussex Academy offense seemed to be tamed.

“Some of it had to do with us working through our offense and being better prepared with our offense,” Gibbs said.  “There are still definitely some holes that we need to work on, but CR’s defense is a really tough defense to go against, so we had to find the right opportunities and the perfect shots.”

After the Riders scored the first goal of the second half, Manlove tallied her fifth, and Bisaha found the net twice to complete her hat trick and give the Seahawks hope. They were down 13-9 with about six minutes to go in the third quarter. Manlove matched the next two goals CR scored to give her a game-high seven goals and make it a 15-11 contest at the end of the third quarter.

Five more goals went into the Seahawks' net in the fourth quarter, while Bisaha picked up her fourth goal and junior Shea Danahy got on the board. In the end, the Riders stormed off with a 20-13 win in their pocket.

“We still have another tough game ahead of us when we face Tatnall, but I'm really hoping we're able to take some time this weekend to digest what happened in both of these [last two] games. Learn from the games and then apply it to the games that we have up ahead,” Gibbs said.