By KEITH GRANT
Long Beach is one of two top seeds in the eight-team state tournament that begins Friday, March 7 in Jamestown in western New York. After round-robin play, the top two teams from the Marines' East Division and two from the West will advance to the semifinals, with the final two competing for the state championship on Sunday, March 9.
Long Beach finished the regular season at 14-4-2, comfortably ahead of the field. It then swept Cold Spring Harbor and Jericho for the county championship. After defeating upstate Pawling High School, 5-1, at the Long Beach Arena last Wednesday in a state tournament seeding game, the Marines have now outscored their opponents 21-8 in four postseason contests.
Those results, though, simply mirror a regular season in which the Marines stifled the opposition, thanks in no small part to sophomore goaltending standout Kevin Medrano. "Without question, we go as far as our goaltender takes us," Brand said. "I think he's the best player on the island, Nassau or Suffolk. He's the real thing. I'll take my chances with him any time."
With Medrano guarding the net, Long Beach allowed by far the fewest goals in its division this season, nearly 20 fewer than any other team.
"He's a helluva goaltender," assistant coach Brian Coyle said. "He's probably our backbone." Coyle credited Medrano with virtually carrying the team to the county championship game last year as a freshman.
"Joe has said all season that, with [Medrano] in net, if we can play our game no one will beat us," Coyle added. "He has amazing potential to go to a Division I school and succeed."
In the meantime, Medrano's current team is looking to add a new piece of hardware to its trophy case. A win in Jamestown would bring Long Beach its first state hockey championship, something the coaches strongly feel is within the team's grasp. "We have a strong team," Brand said. "We've probably had only one team stronger than this one in last 10 years. We definitely have a very good shot at winning it."
Adding to Long Beach's chances is the state's new competitive formula, which separates small schools -- those with fewer than 1,300 students -- from large and private schools. Long Beach competes as a small school. In the Marines' three previous trips to the state tournament under Brand, they have finished as high as fifth competing against all New York State schools large, small and private.
This time around, the Marines will compete only against similar-sized schools, including Pawling, the Orange County champs that the Marines easily handled in last week's win at the Long Beach Arena. Behind goals from Chris Esposito, Michael Medrano, Rubin Leavitt, Hank Levin and Scott Brugueras, Long Beach claimed the number-one seed for next month's tournament.
Michael Medrano, Kevin's older brother and an assistant captain, has been an offensive force for the Marines this season. Despite playing in just 13 games, he ranked among the county scoring leaders, with 15 goals and 10 assists. "He's been a leader for us for three years," Brand said of the senior.
Leavitt, the team captain, was the county's 11th-leading scorer this season, with 13 goals and 18 assists in 18 games.
The coaches heaped praise on a number of Marines, five of whom earned selection to the midseason Nassau-Suffolk All Star Game, the Vytra Cup, played at Nassau Coliseum: Leavitt, Chris Leonard, Hank Levin and both Medranos. Long Beach was one of just two teams on the island that had five representatives.
"All the kids on the team have incredible heart," Coyle said. "They all work very hard."
With five consecutive trips to the county championship game, Brand said of Long Beach, "We're on a roll. We've got a good program going."
