St. Mary’s lacrosse closes out visiting Cape 15-6
Cape girls' lacrosse travelled across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge April 10 in search of a big game, and they found one, playing St. Mary’s of Annapolis from the tough MIAA league. The Saints had lost to McDonogh, the nation’s top-ranked team, 14-9 the day before.
The turf was hot, clouds were sparse; the Vikings wore masks, the Saints did not.
Cape jumped the Saints early, leading 3-0 on goals by Kelly Bragg, Emily Monigle and Ella Rishko. Bragg went down early with a twisted ankle and did not return. The first half was back and forth, with St. Mary’s leading 7-5 at the intermission.
“Losing Kelly definitely hurt us. She is so quick and the team feeds off her aggressive energy,” said coach Lindsey Underwood.
Cape scored early in the second half to close the gap to 7-6. The game was shaping up as a back-and-forth slugfest, but then the Saints ran eight unanswered goals for the final of 15-6.
“It was two good teams going back and forth, then we just stopped converting on our fast breaks, which were successful in the first half,” Underwood said.
The last Cape loss was April 24, 2018, to South River 8-6. The Vikings previously lost at St. Mary’s 11-8 in 2017.
Rishko scored three goals, while Monigle had two and Bragg one.
St. Mary’s goals were: Gracie Driggs and Alex Parker with four each, Kyra Obert with three, and Camryn Pfundstein, Ria Lagdameo and Meghan Ohare with one apiece.
Cape’s Destiny Kusen stopped 14 of 29 shots in the cage. Madigan Brewer of St. Mary’s had 10 saves on 16 shots.
“The other team got 10 eight-meter free position shots,” Underwood said. “We played man down for six minutes. Destiny had 14 saves – she came up huge for us. We didn’t capitalize on our opportunities. We had 16 quality shot opportunities and didn’t convert. We need to clean up our unforced errors and play faster consistently.”
Cape has upcoming games versus Padua on Thursday, April 15, at home; Dover on Saturday, April 17, at home; and Ursuline Monday, April 19, on the road.
