DeBellis, Vitale lead Cold Spring Harbor to Long Island Class C title

Time seemed to tick slower.

As Cold Spring Harbor and Bayport-Blue Point shared the field in Saturday night’s Long Island Class C girls lacrosse championship game at Adelphi, two different stories were told.

In the first half, both teams took shots at each other in a back-and-forth affair. In the second half, Cold Spring Harbor took a two-goal lead and valued possession to secure the win.

Behind two goals from Caroline DeBellis and one goal and two assists from Isabelle Vitale, Cold Spring Harbor defeated Bayport-Blue Point, 5-4, advancing to Friday’s state semifinal at SUNY Cortland against Honeoye Falls-Lima.

“Definitely being mentally tough is the biggest part of all of it,” said Nicole Mormile, who tied the score at 3 with 6:29 left in the first half. “We were back and forth in the beginning, but once we started winning draws, we just started being more poised and took care of the ball more in the second half.”

Cold Spring Harbor (17-2), the defending state Class C champion, took a 5-3 lead when Vitale fell to the turf but managed to score with 20:10 left in the game. Megan Brockbank answered 22 seconds later with her second goal of the night, bringing the Phantoms (15-3) back within a goal.

The Seahawks won the next draw and took their time, showing no urgency to shoot even when BBP pulled its goalkeeper with just over three minutes remaining.

“Our coach told us that if we have possession of this game, we’re going to win it,” DeBellis said. “We did great on the draws, then in the second half whenever we got the ball, we just tried to take some time off.”

Cold Spring Harbor's defense helped preserve the 4-3 first-half lead. The Seahawks went ahead 2-0 before a blistering run by BBP ended in Ailish Kelly’s goal that gave the Phantoms a 3-2 lead.

Mormile answered, then DeBellis scored to make it 4-3.

Goalkeeper Alyssa Moran made four saves and was helped by Sophia Taglich and the rest of the defense in limiting BBP’s bevy of offensive weapons. Each of those players made an impact last year, and they’re out to repeat.

Said DeBellis: “Being a senior and finishing like this, going for our two-peat, is unreal.”