Cold Spring Harbor Seahawks move on to Class "C" Championship

For the first 24 minutes of the Class "C" semifinal game, it looked like the only thing that was going to stop the Cold Spring Harbor Seahawks was an imminent thunderstorm, and that's when the sky's opened up.

The Seahawks went into the locker room at halftime with a 4-1 lead over the Friends Academy last night at Hofstra's Shuart Stadium and went on to beat the Quakers 7-4.  Senior midfielder Christian Kennedy had three goals for the Seahawks.

 At the time that the buzzer sounded for the end of the first half, the sky was cloudy, but no rain or thunder had occurred yet.  About two minutes into halftime, lightning was spotted and the fans were asked to talk cover underneath the bleachers for safety.  The delay lasted close to 40 minutes. 

"It kills you," said Seahawks head coach Dennis Bonn on a weather delay.  "It hurts both teams, but I think it hurts the team that is winning at the time of the delay. I was a little concerned about the way we would come out of the delay and how we would play." 

Bonn's questions of how his team would react to the delay were quickly answered as his team scored first out of the break and gave the Seahawks a 5-1 lead. 

For a Seahawks team that needed overtime to beat the Quakers 10-9 the last time the two teams faced off, it was a completely different Cold Spring Harbor team.  The Seahawks made the Quakers of Friends Academy play almost the entire first half on defense, thanks in large part to smart possessions and key win's at the face off X.  Senior Patrick Hackeling went 9 for 13 from the face off X and picked up seven groundballs to help the Seahawks control the tempo and play their type of game.

"Hackeling really helped us control the flow of the game," said Bonn.  "He helped us do what we wanted to do in the game."

 "Hackeling has been amazing all year," said senior attack man Brendan Bouchard, who added a fourth quarter goal.  "Once he gets in his zone no one can stop him.  He has been a huge part of why we have been so successful." 

Bonn did admit there is always room for improvement but he thought his team played a great game, especially with the team missing two starters.  

"I knew we were going to give it everything we had and I think we played an entire 48 minutes.  I feel we did an outstanding job shutting down their top players and we just played a complete game."

For now, the Seahawks have under a week to prepare for the Indians of Manhasett, as the two teams will square off in the class "c" title game for the seventh straight year.  The winner will move on to the Long Island Championship.

The two teams played each other May 8 with Manhasset taking that contest 7-2, a game that Bonn felt his team didn't game play well enough.

 "This time we are going to come up with certain looks on both offense and defense," Bonn said.  "There is really no pressure on us since we are the two seed and they are the number one seed.  We are just going to go out and play."

 Said Bouchard of what it will take to beat Manhasset: "A lot of poise.  We need a solid defensive game and we need to take care of the ball."