Appo boys lacrosse steps up, upsets Cape Henlopen

Sophomore goalkeeper Mitch Meckley made five big saves in the second half to help Appoquinimink upset Cape Henlopen 10-7 on Tuesday night.

MIDDLETOWN – With a 34-game conference winning streak and four straight titles in Blue Hen Flight A, the Appoquinimink boys lacrosse team decided to dramatically increase the strength of its non-conference schedule this season.

The Jaguars took a couple of lumps because of that, but they delivered a big lump on Tuesday night with a 10-7 victory over third-ranked Cape Henlopen.

“They’re the juggernaut of lacrosse in the state of Delaware,” Appo coach Chris Rutter said of the Vikings, who have won six state championships. “They’re the ones who founded it, started it here. It was exciting to be able to compete with them and have a nice game.”

Cross Ferrara scored four times and John Dunbar and Zach Bowen each added three goals for the Jaguars (9-3).

Appo lost 17-6 to a dominant Wilson West Lawn (Pa.) team that is rolling along at 18-0, and Tower Hill and Delaware Military Academy edged the Jaguars in 10-8 and 11-10 games. Those setbacks prepared the home team for the challenge it would face Tuesday.

“Without those experiences, the outcome might have been a little bit different,” Rutter said. “We found that we needed to just work on our maturity and not making mistakes. We cut those mistakes out tonight.”

The first half was close all the way, with three lead changes and four ties. Ferrara reversed field twice before cutting in from behind and scoring on a low shot to give the Jaguars a 6-5 lead at halftime.

Then Appo played a textbook second half, holding Henlopen North champion Cape (8-5) to two goals and scoring twice in man-up situations.

After junior Noah Given stopped three shots in the first half, sophomore Mitch Meckley guarded the cage the rest of the way and made five big saves for the Jaguars.

“It’s really hard. It’s really nerve-wracking,” Meckley said. “Just don’t be the guy to mess it up, honestly. I work with Noah a lot, and we really get into those situations in practice, hopping in cold.”

Appo made Cape pay after one of the Vikings was sent off for slashing with 7:31 remaining. Ferrara dished to Bowen just 21 seconds later, and the junior scored for a 9-6 lead.

“That was huge,” Bowen said. “We needed to keep pushing the tempo. We wanted to get the lead and keep increasing the lead. We knew we had to stick together after that, calm it down.”

Brock Maloomian assisted on Hank Coveleski’s third goal as Cape pulled within 9-7 with 5:32 to play. But Meckley frustrated the Vikings the rest of the way, Appo senior Dominic Barrera singlehandedly controlled possession for almost two minutes, and Ferrara scoring the clinching goal with 3:09 left.

“We practiced a lot of situational stuff yesterday, and when we were put to the test we did exactly what we were supposed to do,” Rutter said. “It really paid off.”

Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ