By Jaclynkelli Kronemberg
TopLaxRecruits.com, Posted 6/9/16

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – Taylor Strough tallied four goals to lift Cold Spring Harbor to a 12-10 victory over Pleasantville Wednesday in the New York State Class C semifinals at Hofstra University.

The Section 8 champion and defending state champion Seahawks (17-1, No. 13 in the C2C North America Rankings) advance to play Penn Yan in the title game Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Middletown High School. Penn Yan (Section 5, 17-2) defeated Cazenovia Central, 11-10, in overtime.

Pleasantville closed at 19-4.

“We beat them 14-4 last year,” said Strough of the 2015 state semifinal rout of Pleasantville. “So we came into this game starting a little slow in the beginning. We got our heads into it and kind of flowed from there. We did this last year and now this is round two.”

Matt Licciardi (three goals, two assists) gave CSH a 10-9 lead with 8.3 seconds left in the third period when he scored off a faceoff. Ian Laviano made it 11-9 and Strough added his fourth to make it 12-9.

“This was nerve wracking,” said Cold Spring Harbor head coach Dennis Bonn. “Compliments to them. Last year we were fortunate to win by 10 goals. They were really young. You can see the determination and how much they improved.

“Every time we took a two goal lead we wanted to give it back. Every time they came back we responded with something. Besides not sliding well, I thought we did a very good job today. So I was happy with that.

“It is the state semifinals and it was a two goal game, what else could you ask for? This is the first time I’ve ever gone back to back to the state finals).”

Jack Howe tallied two goals and two assist and Brian Reda tallied two goals and one assist for Pleasantville.

“We knew that if we gave them two quick goals in the first quarter it was going to come back and haunt us,” said Pleasantville head coach Chris Kear.

Cold Spring Harbor 12, Pleasantville 10

CSH: 2-3-5-2-12
PV: 1-3-5-1-10

CSH: Taylor Strough 4G; Matt Licciardi 3G, 2A; Matt Degennaro 1G; Ian Laviano 1G; Riley Cox 1G; Kevin Winkoff 1G; Devin Burdo 1G; Will Reed 3A
PV: Jack Howe 2G, 2A; Declan McDermott 2G, 1A; Brian Reda 2G, 1A; Lucas Cohen 2G; Ryan Drillock 1G, 1A; Mike Hammond 1G; Jack Drillock 1A
Saves: Devin Burdo (CSH) 4; Jack Fitzgerald (PV) 5