BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s girls’ varsity lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the season this week, falling on the road to Cape Henlopen, 9-8, on a goal in the waning seconds of the see-saw contest.
The Seahawks opened the season with four straight wins including a big victory over Kent Island in the second game of the season. On Monday, the Decatur girls took their unblemished record on the road to always-tough Delaware power Cape Henlopen and fell, 9-8, for their first loss of the season.
Cape took an early 1-0 lead, but the Seahawks rallied with two quick goals by Lexie VanKirk and Claire Porter to take a 2-1 advantage. On what would become a theme for the contest, Cape scored two goals to go back ahead 3-2. Decatur’s Victoria Kerkovich pulled the Seahawks even at 3-3, but Cape scored two goals late in the first to take a 5-3 lead into intermission.
Decatur tied it early in the second with a two-goal spurt. First, VanKirk scored on an assist by Porter, then Brigitte Ardis scored on a nice assist by Christina Romano to knot it at 5-5. Cape came right back and took a 6-5 lead, but Decatur went on a three-goal run to seemingly take control of the contest.
VanKirk scored a free position goal to tie the game at 6-6 and then scored again on an assist by Porter to take a 7-6 lead. Kerkovich capped the run with a goal on an assist by Romano to put the Seahawks ahead, 8-6.
However, Cape rallied once again and scored the last three goals of the game, the final one coming with just 39 seconds remaining, to pull out the 9-8 win and hand the Seahawks their first loss of the season. Decatur faces Kent County on the road on Friday, followed by a home game against Queen Anne’s on Monday.