Cold Spring Harbor girls lacrosse's Amelia Bentley nets five goals in victory over South Side

The Cold Spring Harbor girls lacrosse team’s motto this season is “finish business.” And so far, the Seahawks have been doing just that.

Attack Amelia Bentley scored three of her five goals in the first quarter in Cold Spring Harbor's 13-6 win over host South Side in Nassau Conference I on Saturday. The Seahawks improved to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the conference.

“So far, she’s been super consistent for us,” Cold Spring Harbor coach Danielle Castellane said. “She really owns her position. She’s able to dominate the X [area] day-in and day-out, and as a senior she acts as our quarterback.”

Bentley said that having experience playing together throughout the offseason and being able to trust one another helps the offense click on the field.

“We’ve trained really hard together throughout the winter,” Bentley said. “Playing with each other so often has helped our communication and has just helped our chemistry overall.”

Coming off two big non-league wins, an 11-7 victory over Penfield (Rochester) on Thursday and an 8-6 triumph over the reigning Class B state champions Victor on Friday, Castellane said it was important for her team to get the victory in-conference.

“This was our third game in a row and I think some of our girls are starting to feel it,” Castellane said. “It showed a lot of poise and confidence in our group that we were able to have such a dominant performance [Friday], and come back and do it again in-league.”

Kelly Callaghan added three goals and two assists, Maggie Spehr had two goals and one assist and Ruby Spielberger added two goals. 

“A big part of our game is that anyone on our team can be a goal scorer, a dodger, or a feeder,” Callaghan said. “We are all very versatile and we’re all able to create opportunities for one another.”

Caitlin Haggerty had two goals and three assists and Charlotte Rathjen scored three goals for South Side (1-2, 0-2).

Although the offense had an impressive showing, Castellane says her team's success wouldn’t have been possible without goalkeeper Maya Soskin (19 saves).

“Her making saves was the reason the offense was able to have the ball so much,” Castellane said. “We weren’t dominating at the draw which has been a struggle for us, but having Maya be hot in goal has given us those opportunities.”

Cold Spring Harbor will have just one day off before it faces Long Beach on Monday in another Conference I matchup.

“Having so many games back-to-back, we haven’t been able to rest and scout the teams we’re playing properly,” Bentley said. “We’ve just had the mentality that we need to show up and play our game for the full four quarters, and so far, it’s been working for us.”