By:TONY BELLISSIMO
The top-seeded Marines overcame some early jitters and inconsistent play to cap a perfect season with a 21-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-17 victory over second-seeded Floral Park in the county title match last Thursday evening in front of 400 fans at Nassau Community College.
Senior Vidal Torres (18), junior David Yolinsky (17) and senior Russell Butts combined for 46 kills, and junior setter Alan Cohn totaled 49 assists as Long Beach won for the 20th time this spring with zero setbacks.
This is very satisfying, coach Bill Gibson said. These guys set their goals high after last year's playoff disappointment. We brought almost everyone back, so anything short of a county championship would have been a letdown.
Long Beach defeated Floral Park twice during the regular season, but that really didn't matter as the Knights won a hard-fought first game to gather momentum.
We were uptight at the beginning, Gibson said. There was a big crowd on hand and we may have gotten caught up in the atmosphere. We were off our game for a while, but it didn't take us long to get back to playing the way we did all season.
Though the Marines' offense was a bit predictable as the start, everyone joined the party thereafter. Cohn handed out the invitations, and the first one to reply was Yolinsky. He had six consecutive kills in the second game, which Torres sealed with a tremendous block. All-Conference senior Albert Diaz had two key kills as well.
Once David got going, our offense opened up, Gibson said. We always spread the ball out, but we didn't do that as much as I would have liked in the first game. But David got us going in the second game, and then Vidal and Russell dominated the rest of the way.
As the Cohn-quarterbacked offense began running on all cylinders, the defense was just as solid. All-Conference seniors Stewart Ratzken (11 digs) and Danny Fischer (10 digs) helped Long Beach keep the Knights and standout Rob Green from regaining the edge.
The Marines looked confident after taking the third game, and after the first rotation of the fourth game they shifted into high gear. Torres, Yolinsky, Butts and Cohn all showed why they earned All-County and All-Tournament honors. Fittingly, Torres sealed the championship with a kill off a pass from Cohn.
It would have been nice to continue from here, but unfortunately the rest of the teams in the state play in the fall, Gibson said. This is probably my strongest team, but it's hard to make comparisons.
Including playoffs, Long Beach won 60 games and lost only eight. It swept playoff opponents Valley Stream Central, Plainview and Hewlett to reach the title match.
There was pressure on us to win this year, but the kids responded pretty well, Gibson said.
