CAMDEN – Salesianum’s lacrosse team trailed Cape Henlopen at the half of the DIAA championship game, 8-4, a position the Sals had not found themselves in against an in-state opponent in quite some time. In the second half, however, the defending champs and top seed outscored the No. 2 Vikings, 8-1, and left the field at Caesar Rodney High School on May 31 with a 12-9 win and their fifth consecutive title.
When the teams met on April 14, the Sals held a 5-4 lead at the half before taking control in the second half. On championship Saturday, the Vikings came out with a plan, and it worked very well. They bottled up the Sals’ top scorers, overcoming an early 1-0 deficit with a 5-0 run, much to the delight of the Cape faithful who had waited out a one-hour weather delay.
The Vikings took a 3-1 lead into the second quarter when Brenner Smith beat Sals goalie Cam Taylor with just 1.8 seconds left on the clock. They stretched the lead to 5-1 before Zach Strohmaier ended the Sals’ scoring drought five minutes into the second.
Luca Pompeii (St. Mary Magdalen Parish) scored his first two to cut the Cape lead to a pair, but the Vikings took a four-goal advantage into halftime after a one-timer by Burke Healy with only .7 seconds to go on the clock.
“Their offense came out kind of firing, and they were getting a couple looks on the inside,” Taylor said.
That changed after halftime.
“In the second half, we kind of buckled down on that, and the defense closed up the center and forced the outside shots. Offensively, we just started moving the ball faster, and that opened up their zone defense,” he said.
Teammate Mitch Cummings said the Sals needed to be more patient in the second half.
“We just had to let it come to us,” he said. “We were trying to force plays in the beginning.”
Salesianum methodically chipped away at the Cape lead throughout the third quarter. Pomeii intercepted a Vikings pass and bounced a shot past Cape goalie Mason Trench in the first minute of the second half. Taylor (St. Mary Magdalen Parish) made a pair of outstanding saves, and after the second, he sent the ball to Pompeii, who found Chris Cobb for a goal at the 8:34 mark.
Three minutes later, Cobb scored again, this time on the assist from Mitch Cummings (St. John the Beloved Parish). Taylor came up big again before Motta tied the contest, 8-8, with a rising laser of a shot with 1:57 to go in the third and the Sals a man up.
Salesianum took the lead for the first time a minute into the fourth when Motta scored a man up on a pass from Andrew Althouse, sending the Sallies supporters into a frenzy. But, facing a deficit for the first time in the game, Cape Henlopen needed less than a minute to tie the score when Grant Conway connected.
The Sals took the lead for good with 5:44 to go. Tyler Stukis intercepted a Vikings pass, and he found Pompeii, who made the score 10-9. Later, after holding the ball for a minute, the Sals got an insurance goal, again from Pompeii, who took a shot to the helmet on his follow through. Finally, Pompeii closed it out with the final goal with 40 seconds to go.
Pompeii said his big day was the result of the work of others.
“Credit to my teammates for putting me in that position and the coaches for putting that game plan in, replicating that same situation in practice. I’m just glad we got it done,” he said.
The Sals knew Cape would be a battle, he added.
“They put in a great game plan,” Pompeii said. “They came out hot. They were giving us a battle, credit to them. But we were just sticking to our roots, sticking to all our traditions, staying confident and staying trustful to all of our systems. We came through at the end and had a lot of momentum going into the fourth, and just ended it.”
Salesianum finished the season 15-2. This was the school’s 200th overall state championship. Cape ended with a record of 16-3.
Photos by Mike Lang.
