Cape boys’ lacrosse honors lax brothers with big comeback over CR
The Cape boys’ lacrosse team had an overwhelmingly emotional pregame ceremony Friday night, April 4, to honor their lax brothers Ryan Andrew and Elijah Ghabour at the Cape vs. Caesar Rodney contest. Each Cape player was wearing a shooting shirt with the initials EG, RA, and the Cape lax boosters gave EG, RA wristbands to one of the the largest crowds ever to attend a Cape lacrosse game at Legends Stadium.
Along with the Caesar Rodney team, the Vikings linked up arm in arm, stretching from end to end of the Legends Stadium turf, and bowed their heads for a moment of silence for their fallen friends and teammates behind a lax goal that belonged to Andrew. A group from the team painted it Cape colors and made the wooden plaques that hang in the top corners. One corner plaque has Ryan and the other Elijah. The goal cage was on the stage during Ryan’s service.
The Cape squad was about to play the greatest comeback game in school history as they defeated Caesar Rodney 16-9.
The emotion took its toll on Cape in the first half, as they fell behind the Riders 8-5 to go into the halftime break.
“There were a lot of emotions coming out in the first half,” said Cape’s Burke Healy. “That was a lot to overcome. Jake (Hutchison) took the defense and I took the offense, and we had a talk with the guys. There was a big crowd and a lot of energy. We just needed to settle in and get our heads right, and we came out firing in the second half and played the way we can.”
The second half found the Vikings’ defense shutting out the Riders for 17 straight minutes, while the offense scored 11 goals in a row and finished the game with a seven-point comeback victory.
“We had Ryan’s and Elijah’s sticks on the sideline to give us motivation,“ said Hutchison. “It was a real emotional beginning; it was tough to play when your head is crowded like that. We saw that in the first and second quarters. We weren’t focused on discipline, and we had a lot of careless mistakes. We used halftime to get our minds back to what we know. The second half, we came out and played lacrosse the way we normally play and stuck it to them.”
Ryan Morgan led the Vikings’ offense with four goals. Brenner Short, Grant Conway, Burke Healy and Evan Burris each tallied two. Braddock Smith, AJ Grapski and Carter Nemcic each cranked the rock for a goal.
Short was credited with two assists, and Healy, Morgan, Grapski and Nemcic each garnered a helper. Goalie Mason Trench made nine saves in the Cape cage.
“I’m so proud of the boys for being able to regroup and come out strong in the second half,” said Cape head coach Geoff Shupard. “It was an emotional night, and I think our guys showed a lot of character in how they performed to finish the game.”
The Vikings will play host to Broadneck High School Tuesday, April 8.
