scapegoat

Hi
When I looked up the meaning of "scapegoat" , I found it to mean " a person who is blamed for something that somebody else has done or for something wrong". It has other meanings also. Here, I have something I want to know. How is "scape" combined with "goat"? In biblical meaning, "goat" itself is the main meaning of the word( scapegoat). I want to know what is about "scape".
Thanks

In the ancient Jewish tradition, once a year the high priest put all the sins of the people on a goat, which was then allowed to “escape” into the wilderness (unoccupied land). The word “escape” was shortened to “scape” only in the compound word “scapegoat”.