By Chris Munzing
Head Coach Joe Brand said that the biggest factor in the Marines' win was the home crowd. "It was as loud and excited a crowd as you've ever seen," Brand said. "They were all a part of it. There was not one incident, not one problem. It was so classy. The kids played so much harder to not let that crowd down. To all those people who came down, we can't thank them enough."
The three-day tournament began March 11, when Long Beach took on Starpoint. Brand said that the first period of that game almost derailed the entire weekend. "If it wasn't for [goalie] Kevin Medrano in that first period, none of this happens," he said. "They went up 1-0, but Kevin kept us in it." Long Beach went on to win 5-1.
On Saturday, Long Beach defeated Washingtonville, 7-4, before losing a close game to City Honors, 4-3. Brand said the boys came out sluggish and were down 4-1 after two periods.
But, Brand added, he made sure his team believed it could still win. The Marines dominated the third period, scoring two goals and controlling play. "Had there been another minute or two, I believe we would've tied or won that game," he said. "We were playing that well."
The two third-period goals moved Long Beach into first place in its preliminary group. Three teams finished 2-1, with the Marines winning the top seed on the goal differential.
In Sunday's semifinal game, the Marines beat Grand Island, 2-1, in what Brand called the game of the tournament. "They were huge," he said. "That was as physical a game as I've ever seen. They knew that [sophomore center Joey Diamond] is our guy, and they just took runs at him every time he was on the ice. One of our guys, Boris Safaniev, made it his job to make sure that didn't happen and ended up taking two of their guys out of the game.
"We only have one or two big guys, but toughness? I'll take our guys, pound for pound, every time."
The win over Grand Island set the stage for a rematch of last year's state championship semifinal, in which Cheektowaga eliminated the Marines. It was a game Brand and his team desperately wanted to win. "Last year the tournament was up there, and their crowd was on us the whole time," he said. "Just really nasty stuff. And I remember thinking how different that game might have been had it been in our backyard."
Long Beach had its hands full with a team that had outscored its competition 33-1 through four games. But Brand's strategy, combined with a deafening crowd, proved too difficult for Cheektowaga to handle. "We just kept dumping the puck and chasing, and they were playing tentative," he said. "Off the faceoff, we dumped it in and their goalie covered it up right away. There wasn't one of our guys within 40 feet of him. He was nervous. Who wouldn't be in the state finals, when the entire crowd is rooting for the other team?
"But we kept going and we popped one goal in," Brand continued. "The crowd goes nuts. Then we scored another one quick, their coach called a timeout and the place exploded. I though the stands were going to collapse - I could feel the place shaking." By the end of the first period, Long Beach led 3-0.
Cheektowaga would not go quietly, however, and trailed 4-3 with 33 seconds left when Eddie Safaniev scored an empty-net goal, his second score of the game, extending the lead to 5-3. "That was unbelievable," Brand said. "For the last seven minutes of the game, the puck was not out of our end. Guys were blocking shots, taking penalties, we were playing short-handed a lot. When Eddie got that puck on his stick, you just couldn't have scripted it any better from start to finish."
And the honors didn't stop with the state championship. "Zamboni's said they're going to name a sandwich after us," Brand said.
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