By BRIAN CUNNIFF
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — Adam Dille helped the Cape May Tech boys soccer team put to rest a long winless streak Monday afternoon.
Dille scored three times in the span of eight minutes early in the second half to power the Hawks to a 6-3 victory over county rival Wildwood Catholic.
The win was Cape May Tech’s first in 19 games. Tech’s last victory came in a 3-1 result over St. Joseph on Oct. 17, 2019, before ending that season with five straight losses. The team went 0-8-1 during last year’s season truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic before losing its first five games of the current season.
“It’s amazing to finally get a win, especially after last year with the way the scheduling went because we were playing a lot of teams way above us,” Tech coach Jon Harris said. “It’s been (more than) 15 games since we had a win so it feels great. I knew we had it in us.”
Tech led 2-0 at the half through goals by Danny Martin and Nick Boehm that were scored less than 30 seconds apart midway through the first half. Dille then scored twice within the first four minutes of the second half to up the Hawks’ lead to 4-0. Jimmy Kane pulled one back for Wildwood Catholic by converting a penalty kick shortly thereafter, only to have Dille quickly tally again to up the score to 5-1.
“We call (Dille) ‘The Machine’ because he’s almost unstoppable with the way he never gets tired,” Harris said. “He’s a workhorse.”
Boehm later added a second to round out the scoring for Tech (1-5). Chase Adams and J.P. Arena added second-half goals for Wildwood Catholic (0-3).
“This is a game we always look forward to,” Harris said. “A lot of the kids are friends. A lot of them know each other. It’s always a great game to play.”
Dille, a junior, doesn’t just score goals for Cape May Tech. After being subbed out late in the game, the junior went across the field to run the line and retrieve balls.
“That’s the type of guy Adam is,” Harris said. “He’s a team first guy, one of those kinds of guys you always want on your team.”
Cape May Tech faces another local rival in Wildwood on Wednesday. The game will be played at Wildwood under the lights with a 6 p.m. start.
“We’re going in with some momentum,” Harris said. “We need to move past this one and focus on Wildwood.”