Cape holds off Polytech 3-1 as Warrior Cami Smith goes off
Cape field hockey rocked it old school Oct. 3 at Champions Stadium, holding back a speedy Polytech team 3-1 thanks to throwback Cami Smith, who scored two second-half goals.
“Cami was just awesome tonight,” said coach Kate Austin. “She goes to the goal and doesn’t play around.”
Smith reminds veteran hockey watchers of Diane “Tweety” Travis, the leading scorer for the 1979 state championship team – Cape’s first – 40 years ago. Travis had 57 career goals when Cape was a three-year high school.
Poly scored first at 21:27 on a goal by Megan Popp.
The Vikings got back to even at 8:56, when Noelle Sabbagh finessed a pass across to Abby Kane, who scored the tying goal. Reagan Ciabattoni was out of the game at that time serving a five-minute yellow card penalty.
Cape woke up and went off in the second half, totally dominating possession and field position.
“This year’s team gets off slow and closes fast,” Austin said. “We’ve played close games and I think that will continue. The good news is we never play afraid.”
At 17:45 of the second half, Ciabattoni fought down the right sideline and sent a crossing pass to Smith, who was camped in front of the goal, and Cape’s warrior blasted home the go-ahead goal.
Later, it was Smith on a solo flight down the right side. There was no knick-knack paddy-whack pass into traffic, as Smith kept running stop signs and sent home a goal to the far post to cap a 3-1 Cape win.
Cape outshot Poly 6-3. Cape goalies Marlee Geppert and Julie Heffernan split time on the goal cage. Regan Thomas had one save for Polytech.
Cape improved to 7-1 on the season and next plays at Smyrna Thursday, Oct. 10.
The Panthers fell to 4-2-1 and play at Delmar Tuesday, Oct. 8.
Cape won the JV game 2-0 on goals by Marisa Conte and Casey Schnupp. Sommer Dorman had an assist. The JV team is 4-1-1. Sophia Zych got the win in goal.
