CAPE ELIZABETH — After being idle for 10 days, Cape Elizabeth’s unbeaten and top-seeded boys’ lacrosse team looked plenty sharp in a 16-4 Class A quarterfinal win Saturday against No. 9 Noble/Sanford at Hannaford Field.
The Capers are the two-time defending Class A champions and have won 13 state titles overall since lacrosse became an MPA-sanctioned sport in 1998. They worked a crisp offense supported by strong defense, winning ground balls and in the face-off circle to take a 9-0 lead after one quarter and 13-0 at the half.
“All those little things. I think that’s what we can take away. The little things we did really well in the game today,” said Cape Coach Ben Raymond.
Nine players scored a goal for Cape. Bobby Offit had three of his four goals and Keegan Lathrop notched two goals and two assists in the first quarter. Sam Cochran, Nick Laughlin and Tom Hennessey each had two goals for Cape, which played reserves throughout running time in the second half. Abe Smith, Connor Goss, Will Picarillo and Andrew Trachimowicz each scored once.
“We were working on offense, moving the ball and beating our man. We’ve been trying that. So today was a good test for that,” Lathrop said, adding later, “now playoffs really start.”
Cape Elizabeth (15-0) hosts No. 4 Thornton Academy (11-4) in a semifinal on Wednesday. The winner will advance to Saturday’s state championship at Fitzpatrick Stadium. A season ago Cape beat Thornton 15-8 in the Class A South final. In the regular season this year, the Capers have beaten Thornton 7-4 and 13-7.
Noble/Sanford, which had 23 players from Noble and four from Sanford, got second-half goals from Ayden Lockard (two), Carter Sonneau and Sunny Johnson. Noble (10-6) had beaten Portland, 15-5, in the preliminary round. A varsity program since the 1990s, Noble had never won more than seven games prior to this year, with the seven-win season coming in 2021, said third-year coach Kyle Baker.
Baker said Saturday’s game was good for his program.
“Absolutely. One hundred percent. At the very least we got the environment of playing in a playoff game at Cape Elizabeth against a team that is arguably is capable of winning a state championship any year,” Baker said.
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