Share: 

Cape girls win eighth straight lax title

Kesmodel's team delivers win on his 73rd birthday
The Cape Henlopen girls' lacrosse team celebrates the school's eighth straight DIAA state championship. BY DAN COOK
Dave Frederick
May 31, 2016
The Cape girls pile on to celebrate their 2016 DIAA state championship with a 16-4 win over Tower Hill. BY DAN COOK
The Cape squad presents head coach P.J. Kesmodel with the game ball on his birthday. BY DAN COOK
Cape's Katie Klabe dodges past a Tower Hill defender in the Vikings' 16-4 win over the Hillers. BY DAN COOK
Cape's Cailey Thornburg, right, wins a draw. BY DAN COOK
Cape senior Tess Bernheimer shoots on the Hillers' goal but the shot went just wide. BY DAN COOK
Cape goalkeeper Izzy Cryne makes a save on a Hillers shot. BY DAN COOK
Cape captain Lizzie Frederick plays tough defense on a Hillers middie. BY DAN COOK
Cape coach P.J. Kesmodel does a happy skip across the field with his team after winning his eighth straight DIAA State Championship. BY DAN COOK
All of the Cape team gets a touch of the 2016 DIAA State Championship trophy. BY DAN COOK
Cape is number 1 !!! BY DAN COOK

P.J. Kesmodel, the Zen Master, delivered the Cape girls' lacrosse program its eighth straight DIAA state championship on his 73rd birthday in front of family and friends May 31 at Wesley College, as the Vikings methodically moved away from Tower Hill for a 16-4 victory.

Kesmodel announced his retirement before the season, and this time he means it.

Kesmodel moved to the beach from Baltimore 10 years ago to retire after a storied coaching career at Mt. Hebron, where he won numerous state championships and was the coach of Maryland’s head coach Cathy Reese.

Tower Hill, which had won three straight state titles before Cape’s run of eight, lost to Cape for the 14th straight time going back to the 2009 season. The Cape win was also the 99th in a row against Delaware competition for the Cape lacrosse team.

Senior athletes Lizzie Frederick and Tess Bernheimer, both field hockey and lacrosse players, graduated from high school with eight state title rings without ever having lost to a Delaware team in either sport.

Preparation and patience in big game situations is a trademark of Cape teams under Kesmodel.

Tower Hill face-guarded Frederick, who finished the season with 100 points - 66 goals and 34 assists - after Frederick had torched Caravel for eight goals and six assists in the semifinals.

“It was annoying, so I mostly took my defender to the corner and opened up the field for everyone else,” Frederick said. “When we were up by five, and I was still being face guarded, I was like, ‘Whatever, let’s just put the trophy in the bus.'”

The score was 4-3 in favor of Cape with 7:52 left in the first half after Tower Hill's Abby Manning scored her second goal. Vikings goals to that point came from Cailey Thornburg, Chloe Schaeffer, Malloy Jones and Eddy Shoop.

“We were fine running the spread offense and playing them straight up on defense,” Kesmodel said. “Once we started to dominate the draws with the lead, we emphasized good passes and shots and began to pull away.”

Cape ran a 12-1 crooked number at the Hillers over the final 32:52 of playing time with a 28-10 advantage in shots.

Izzy Cryne, Cape’s junior goalie and first-year starter, kept opponents in single digits for the 15th time this season.

Cape offensive scoring was Cailey Thornburg, four goals and an assist; Lizzie Frederick, two goals and an assist; Eddy Shoop, two goals and two assists; Chloe Schaeffer, two goals; Mallory Jones, one goal and an assist; and Katie Klabe, Lindsay Monigle, Christina Benson and Alia Marshall with one goal each.

Tower Hill got two goals from Abby Manning and single goals from Kiva Walsh and Isabel Zungalia.

The Hillers got outstanding seasons from senior goalie Ellie Wakefield, midfielder Abby Manning and attacker Kiva Walsh.

Most Popular

Most Popular