Jake Rogers leads Cold Spring Harbor boys lacrosse to win over Garden City
Cold Spring Harbor teammates celebrate after their 9-7 win over host Garden City High School in a non-league boys lacrosse game on Thursday, April 14, 2022. Credit: James Escher
Jake Rogers knew that possessions were going to be at a premium for his Cold Spring Harbor team. It’s that way for most teams that go up against Garden City and their elite faceoff specialist, Jack Cascadden.
“Our game plan was to take it slow and try and have long possessions to start,” Rogers said. “But early on we saw they had their short stick defensive middies on our attackmen playing low and we had to take advantage and dodge from low and find the open guys and it sparked us.”
Rogers had three goals and three assists in the first half and added another goal in the third quarter to help lead Cold Spring Harbor (6-0) over host Garden City, 9-7, in a non-league boys lacrosse game Thursday.
“It was an unbelievable high school game,” Cold Spring Harbor coach Dennis Bonn said. “It’s two very good teams with a lot of experience and talent.”
Both teams were the top seeds in their respective classes in the preseason, with Garden City in B and Cold Spring Harbor in D, and entered the game undefeated.
Cold Spring Harbor was able to win only three faceoffs in the game but an aggressive defense led by Patrick Pisano and Jesse Phelan and an efficient offense were the keys to victory.
The Seahawks jumped on Garden City (6-1) early and CJ Reilly scored back-to-back goals to put them ahead 6-1 early in the second quarter.
But after a two-minute penalty on Pisano, Garden City struck for two goals, by Jack Archer and Jay Ottomanelli, to pull within 6-3.
Mike Fargione then added another and Ottomanelli got his second to cut it to 6-5 with 3:57 left in the first half.
“We just wanted to relax, and like Coach Bonn says, ‘weather the storm,’ ” Phelan said. “We just stepped back and took a deep breath.”
Max Hawkinson scored a huge goal with just over a minute left in the half to restore a two-goal lead. The teams traded goals in the second half but the Seahawks managed to hang on thanks to the defense and Spencer Will, who made 12 saves in the game.
“The whole defense played great,” Bonn said. “But having those two guys back there in Pisano and Phelan, they’re just so athletic and they’re big and they play offense. They run the field and I trust them. They’re four-year kids and we trust them to make the play. If they make a mistake we’ll live with it, but they usually don’t.”
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.
