A pair of must-win games over five days played at Legends Stadium resulted in a few shots, zero goals and no wins for the Cape Henlopen soccer team as the Vikings lost to Caesar Rodney Oct. 22, 1-0, and Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2-0 to Sussex Tech.
Both Raven goals were scored by Ryan Moore coming in the last nine minutes of the game. The Vikings have gone 160 minutes without a goal and have not put much pressure on the opponents’ nets with five shots on goal versus Sussex Tech and eight versus the Riders with none of the shots requiring heroic goalie saves.
Sussex Tech improved to 9-2-1 on the season while the Riders are 10-3. Those teams were to play at Sussex Tech Thursday, Oct. 29.
“The game was scheduled at our field but the weather brought us to Cape which was great,” said Raven head coach Carlos Villa. “This was a great challenge for our team heading into the tournament. Last year we came over here and were upset by a good Cape team. I didn’t hesitate to come over here and play at this great facility. My team was really excited to play here again.”
Villa is a mental heath counselor at Sussex Tech and laughs about wearing the two hats of counselor and coach.
“I’d say we played much better in the second half controlling the ball in the midfield and pressuring the Cape defense,” Villa said.
Cape, now 7-6 on the season, has games remaining at Sussex Central then home against Milford Tuesday, Nov. 2.
“We have a great goalie in Andrew Scrutchfield and a solid defense in front of him,” said Cape coach Jay Hayes. “We have played two tournament teams two games in a row both times to a scoreless first half and deep into the second half. But we start losing the battle in the midfield and not getting the ball to our strikers. We just didn’t generate many scoring chances in two games we needed to win.”
Dylan Pepper and Ryan Moore, midfielders for the Ravens, are both from Milton; Dylan went to Mariner while Ryan went to Eagle’s Nest.
“We know and have played with lots of the Cape players and, sure, it is a rivalry game for all of us in that we want to win. I thought we would score earlier but their goalie is tough,” said Moore.
Moore headed in a corner cross from Arismendy Reynoso into the net at 71:35 then scored again at 78:00 converting an unsettled situation into a score off a nice setup pass from Ariel Espinoza. Sussex Tech has scored 41 goals on the season while yielding 10 compared to 20 scored for the Vikings while Cape has only given up 14 goals all season. By comparison Caesar Rodney has scored 52 goals and yielded 20.
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