Long Beach awaits playoff test

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After totaling six goals in losses to South Side and Garden City to close April and open May, respectively, Long Beach poured in 29 in back-to-back wins over MacArthur and Great Neck South in less than 48 hours to get some positivity flowing.

Nine different Marines scored, led by junior Sam Brown’s four goals and one assist and junior Sean Niven’s hat trick, in an 18-2 victory over visiting Great Neck South last Monday. Seniors Josh Keitz, Thomas Nicpon and Sam Imberman, as well as junior Pat Piazza, added two goals apiece in the rout.

Long Beach improved to 5-3 in Nassau B-I and 8-6 overall with defending Nassau Class B champion Manhasset on deck in the regular-season finale at home Thursday at 7 p.m. “If we play right, we can win,” Marines coach Jim Kasper said. “We can’t make the same mental mistakes in May that we made during the first week of practice. We’ve got all good kids and more depth than we’ve ever had. We just have to put it all together for 48 minutes.”

Nicpon, who leads the team in goals with 36, scored five times while senior Cain Tagliagambe added a pair in last Saturday night’s 11-3 home win over MacArthur. Brown scored his 30th of the year, and after the Great Neck South game has 34.

“Thomas is a strong-shooting lefty and really good at what he does,” Kasper said of Nicpon, who busted out against MacArthur after being held off the scoresheet by South Side and Garden City.

Unlike last season, Brown is doing a lot of work behind the cage but still producing at a high level. He’s an All-County candidate, Kasper said.

The coach is bracing for a difficult playoff opener next Monday at home. He said South Side, Hewlett, North Shore and Bethpage are all potential opponents and planned to scout each of them in head-to-head matchups earlier this week.

“The first playoff game is going to be pretty tough no matter who we get,” Kasper explained. “We’d like to get back to the quarterfinals at Hofstra for the 10th year in a row.”

Of the four possible first-round playoff opponents, Long Beach faced only one during the regular season. It fell to South Side, 6-4, at home on April 29. The Cyclones allowed only one goal in the second half and scored the eventual winner with 8:24 remaining. Brown (two), senior Austin Gibbons and freshman Caleb Monzon provided the offense, while junior goaltender Shane Morris made nine saves.

One of the Marines’ bright spots, junior Gregg Wildstein, will be key to their playoff success along with a defense led by senior James Cooper and juniors Joseph Rogers and Quentyn Rowland. Wildstein handles all the important faceoffs, Kasper said, and has a success rate this spring of better than 60 percent. Defensively, Long Beach is mixing zone and man-to-man schemes depending on the opponent and situation.

“We need to beat a team that’s considered as good or better than us,” Kasper said. “We have the talent to do it.”