Cold Spring Harbor boys lacrosse gets its state title: 'It was their turn'
Cold Spring Harbor celebrates their win during the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Boys Lacrosse state Finals between Cold Spring Harbor and Chenango Forks on Saturday June 11 2022 at Hofstra University. Credit: Bob Sorensen
Whenever Jesse Phelan and his Cold Spring Harbor teammates walked out to the field for a game this season and doled out high fives to the young lacrosse players, it brought back memories.
“We were those same kids,” Phelan said. “We looked up to those guys playing then and they really paved the way.”
Cold Spring Harbor won three straight state boys lacrosse titles between 2015-2017, still the only Long Island school to ever accomplish the feat.
“They made history,” Phelan said. “Everyone wanted to be them when we were kids.”
And after a dominant 17-1 victory over Chenango Forks in the state Class D title game on June 11 at Hofstra, Phelan and his teammates were finally able to bring a little bit of history back to Cold Spring Harbor themselves.
“Pretty much every kid on the team grew up in Cold Spring Harbor and was around those championship teams,” Seahawks coach Dennis Bonn said. “It’s the ultimate goal of any kid to play for a state title, and it was their turn.”
Bonn said this year's team had five four-year starters — Phelan and fellow defender Patrick Pisano, midfielder Max Hawkinson, attack Luke Giarraputo and goalie Spencer Will.
That group got an early taste of success, winning a Nassau title as freshmen in 2019. But they quickly learned that getting all the way to a state title was not a given after blowing a five-goal lead to Shoreham-Wading River in the Long Island championship game.
They wouldn’t get another chance to play for a state title until this year. The entire 2020 season was canceled because of the pandemic and in 2021 the Seahawks fell in the semifinals to Manhasset, although no state championships were played that year either.
“Coming into this year knowing that we had the 2020 season taken away and then what happened last year," Phelan said, "this year was definitely our turn."
The Seahawks quickly proved they were ready to compete with the best in the state, finishing 18-1 in the regular season with the only loss coming on the road to Rye. They beat both Class B state champion Garden City and Class C state champion Manhasset during the season.
“Some of us have been playing together for over 10 years,” Pisano said. “All that time together has made us so much better as a team.”
Cold Spring Harbor had convincing wins over Friends Academy in the Nassau title game and Port Jefferson for the Long Island championship before a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Briarcliff in the state semis.
“Spencer Will was huge for us that day,” Pisano said. “He came up so big, especially in the clutch.”
Then came the state final where they got out to a 10-0 lead.
“We were super excited when we got up big,” Pisano said. “We kind of realized that we had it in the bag but we didn’t want to let up.”
And after all the years of waiting for their opportunity, they would not let their final chance slip away.
“That loss as a freshman was a heartbreaker,” Pisano said. “But we knew that not winning the state title this year as seniors would have hurt even more. This was a long time coming.”
Gene Morris joined Newsday's sports department in September 2012 and covers high school sports. He earned a journalism degree from Stony Brook University in 2010.
