Cape quarterback Jack McPike threw for close to 400 yards and five touchdowns - four in the first half - hitting seven different receivers, and with a minute remaining until the homecoming court hit the field the Vikings were ahead 29-14.

“Kids played their best first half of the year. We still were playing OK in second half,” Cape head coach Tom Ott said after the game. “We lost Eric Brittingham and Matt Millman to injuries in the first half which really hurt us on the defensive side of the ball.”

Dover outscored Cape 42-7 over the last 25 minutes of play to win going away 56-35.

“The score was 43 to 35 with 7 minutes left in the game,” Ott said. “Dover is a good team that is very talented.”

Dover’s Eric Sumlin, whose father and uncles went to Cape - Emory Sumlin was the point guard on the 1976 state championship basketball team - and whose late grandmother Barbara worked there for 40 years- hauled in a 44-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kamal Abrams late in the fourth quarter. The two-point conversion made the score 43-35.

“I was hurt the beginning of the year so I’m just getting to where I need to be to help this team,” said Sumlin, a junior on a team with just three seniors. “I hear about Cape all the time.”

Pierre Foreman was “Beast of the East” all night for the Senators rambling for close to 300 yards and four touchdowns in addition to having a punt return called back. Junior quarterback Kamal Abrams ran for two touchdowns and passed for two more.

‘We were down 29-20 at the half so we had some things to straighten out,” said Dover head coach Carlton Brown. “McPike must have thrown the ball 40 times and he was just lighting us up in the first half. We knew we could score; it was just a matter of slowing down Cape.”

McPike hit Millman down the right sideline on a 69-yard strike and later Ryan Goodwin down the left side on a 63-yard pass as Cape led after one quarter of action 14-7.

The lead increased to 20-7 in the second quarter as McPike found Millman again on a 13-yard touchdown pass. Pierre Foreman scored his second touchdown of the game on a short run closing the score to 20-14.

Then, with 1:46 left in the first half, Cape tackled Foreman in his own end zone and followed that with a McPike to Ryan Goodwin touchdown pass for a short-lived 29-14 cushion of 15 points.

Dover quarterback Abrams scored just before halftime on a half-field keeper for a 29-20 Cape lead at intermission.

McPike’s 41-yard strike to Brent McDowell accounted for all the Viking points in the second half. Pierre Foreman was a child running wild in the fourth quarter scoring on runs of 65 and 57 yards.

Jerome Johnson, just a sophomore, carried the ball 19 times for Cape for 120 yards.

The Vikings play at Milford, the defending Division II state champion, Friday night, Oct. 30. All-State running back Brandon LeGrande of the Bucs is healthy and ready to play.

“Our kids blocked Dover’s last extra point and were still playing hard,”Ott said. “You can expect them to play hard against Milford.”

NOTES - McPike had a half-dozen balls dropped including two in the end zone. Shane Draper played well for Cape anchoring the offensive and defensive line.

Spencer Brittingham, a 205-pound 10th-grader , made several good plays on defense along the line of scrimmage.