DOVER — After Cape Henlopen hung around with Salesianum for a half in the Division I boys soccer championship game on Nov. 18 at Dover High School, the Sals decided it was time to turn up the heat. Sallies scored three times in a dominant second half, earning a 4-2 victory and their third straight state title.
It was the 22nd overall state championship for the Sals and the 19th for coach Scott Mosier. Many of the players were veterans of previous champions, including goalkeeper Andrew Scott, but only this season did he get a chance to be the starter and earn the trophy-winning victory.
“They all feel good, especially as a senior. There’s a finality to it,” he said.
Gianluca Marroni, who scored three times in the championship, has been on the varsity for all four years he’s been at Salesianum, and he scored last year in the win over Wilmington Charter. He said holding that trophy never gets old.
“It felt great,” he said. “This was the first hat trick of my high school career. I was definitely looking forward to it, and it was a great culmination of our whole team’s hard work and effort throughout the season. I’m really happy that it ended up with a good win.”
Cape Henlopen, the top seed this season, was playing in its first title game and was just the second Henlopen Conference squad to reach the final, joining Caesar Rodney. They last met the Sals in the 2020 quarterfinals, a 2-0 Salesianum victory. Marroni said the Sals made sure not to underestimate the Vikings, that they were the top seed for a reason.
“We knew coming in it would be a great challenge,” he said.
The Sals kept Vikings goalkeeper Jake Hutchinson and his defense busy all afternoon, but the lone first-half goal came in the 18th minute when Chase Esser sent a cross into the box that Marroni knocked in for a 1-0 lead. Hutchinson had made a spectacular save minutes earlier when Aiden Gonzalez weaved his way around several Cape defenders, only to have Hutchinson spoil his shot with a diving stop.
The Vikings interrupted the Sals’ attack long enough in the late stages of the first half to forge a tie. Brady Spiegel got past two Sals on the left side and sent a sharp-angle shot just out of the reach of Scott and into the far side of the net. The very large contingent of fans wearing baby blue and gold who made the trip up from Sussex County erupted. The Vikings had a chance to take the lead in the final minutes of the half, but a corner kick was unsuccessful.
Cape had a few offensive chances early on in the second half, but after that, the Sals began to take control.
“The message at halftime from coach Mosier was there are players who rise up to the occasion or don’t rise up to the occasion. I felt like our team took that well and rose up to the occasion. We just said that we needed to get one more goal, and then the goals would keep coming,” Marroni said..
About seven minutes into the second half, a corner kick bounced around the 18-yard box for a few seconds before Hutchinson got to it. In the 50th Gonzalez sent a shot just wide after a throw-in. Then, in the 52nd, a foul in the box resulted in a Salesianum penalty kick.
Tyler Cifa stepped to the line and fired a shot to Hutchinson’s left. The keeper dove that way and got a piece of the ball, which rang off the right post and went directly back to Cifa, who was able to punch the ball into the open net. Cifa said Hutchinson deserves credit for the save.
“The keeper must have been watching film,” he said. “That’s been my spot the whole year, going right. I’m just fortunate enough that I was able to react quick, get the rebound, tap it in.”
Neither team generated much offense until the 66th minute. Marroni got loose for a shot that went off Hutchinson’s hands, but it bounced off the inside of the right post to make it 3-1. Five minutes later, Marroni completed the hat trick in his final high school game, deking to his right around a defender and sending a shot inside the left post.
The three-goal cushion allowed coach Scott Mosier to clear his bench, so all of the team’s 14 seniors were able to get some playing time. Cifa said playing for the Salesianum community is “the best feeling.
“It doesn’t get much better than this. I’m so happy I go to Sallies. It’s the team, the coaches, the environment, the (student) section, the trips, all the stuff we do here. It’s the absolute best. I absolutely love it.”
All photos by Don Blake.
