League 2 overview
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- November
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League 2 will certainly be interesting, with three new teams (out of 7). It includes programs on the rise, trying to stop a slide, or hoping to make an impact in the playoffs. In alphabetical order.
Brewster (10-14-1 last year, 4-6 in League 2)
Last year: The Bears suffered three 1-goal losses to Yorktown, including 7-6 in double overtime of the Division II quarterfinals.
Fowards: Two of the three big scorers return, Mike Miller (60 points) and Ian Fleming (55). Both juniors see the ice well and are always moving and working hard. Sophomore Matt Benson, also a hard worker, should fit right in on the first line. Last year’s third line of Ray Bedarczyk, Jake Donelan and Joe Vitaliano will move up to the second line.
Defense: Seniors Kyle Ligos and Jesse Barone are an extremely fast first pairing. Returning junior Joe Rabino, freshman Mark Benson and junior Karl Volpe round out the defense.
Goalies: All three veterans return and are competing for the job. Mike Daley (664 minutes) got most of the time last year ahead of Ian Sampayo (283) and J.J. Lornejo (7).
Outlook: The team is very young and has a short bench, but it has the right work ethic. The team got 91 of its 108 goals from the forward line last year and will need more players to step up to get above .500.
Clarkstown North (1-22, 1-13 in League 1)
Last year: The Rams shut out Mahopac 2-0 on Jan. 18. They lost to League 4 Sleepy Hollow/Irvington 3-1 in the first playoff game hosted by the Palisades Center Ice Rink.
Fowards (with corrected info): Two years ago, Matt Willows led Section 1 in goals (55) and points (103), while Jake Shuman had 25 goals and 32 assists. Willows played at Morristown-Beard last year, where he was third-team all-state, while Shuman sat out, but both players, who are also travel linemates, are back with the Rams for their senior season. Junior Michael Kapnick and Spencer Cohen are the top returners from last year.
Defense: Evan Byrnes is a very strong sophomore who is always in position and has a great shot. Senior Mike Kozlin brings leadership and good size and quickness, while freshman Jake Dickson is a big guy with a slapshot “like you wouldn’t believe,” according to the coaching staff.
Goalies: Chris McIndoe is back to 100 percent after tearing his ACL playing lacrosse in the spring. To give you an idea of how well-respected he is, McIndoe was an all-state honorable mention despite winning just one game
Outlook: If anyone can make a White Plains-like sweep through the competition, it’s Clarkstown North. But is that too much to ask from a 1-win team last year? Then again, it was a 25-win team just two years ago.
Eastchester/Tuckahoe/Bronxville (13-7, 9-3 in League 3)
Last year: The Eagles were runner-ups in League 3 but proved they could beat League 2 competition, winning against Brewster (9-6), Fox Lane (4-0) and Scarsdale (7-6 in the Division I first round). They lost to Mamaroneck 13-1 in the quarters.
Fowards: Top two scorers Alex Hagen (55 points) and Ronny Sherding (44) are fun to watch together. Their puckhandling ability is uncanny and they always seem to find each other. Hagen, who played in the Empire State Games, has an unbelievable shot, while Sherding is big and strong. They could be joined by freshman Mark Luciano, a strong finisher. A big addition this year is a reliable second line with center Chris Bellotti and wings Nick Stefano and Ian Palfrey.
Defense: Juniors Brian McNamara and Mike Ciotta are great skaters and control the game well. They also provide offense, with a combined 14 goals and 47 points.
Goalies: Both Joe Donato (490 minutes) and Matt Lazzaro (329) return from last year and will battle for time. Freshman Will Ruppel may also crack the lineup.
Outlook: The Eagles have some of the area’s best young talent, and they can score with almost anyone. But they gave up at least six goals in half their games last season, and they will need to shore up their defense to compete in a higher league.
Mount Pleasant (7-12-1 last year, 2-7-1 in League 2)
Last year: After starting 4-1 (2-0 in league) the Ice Cats were hurt by injuries and didn’t win another league game. They lost to North Rockland 4-2 in the first round of the Division I tournament.
Fowards: Coach Mike Voron calls his lines the “green line” and the “red line.” The “green” scoring line of Chris Abramo, JoJo Pandolfo and Chris Yarrobino scored 40 of the team’s 79 goals last season. Abramo is the total package — a high hockey IQ, great passer, great defender, aggressive. The “red” line of Mike Belloli, Anthony Cassario and Matt Meleska has tremendous speed.
Defense: Brendan Marinelli, one of the injured players that the team sorely missed last year, is physical presence who does all the little things. Senior Ronnie Catucci is the ideal stay-at-home defenseman who leads by example.
Goalies: Starter Mike Ulley is back, but he will actually miss the start of the season because of an ankle injury suffered while playing football (he’s a wide receiver at Westlake). Brandon Jampol, who won the Clarkstown South game last year, will take over.
Outlook: The Ice Cats are a fast team, and if they can stay healthy they should avoid last year’s slide. A move into the WSA, which is closer to the schools Mount Pleasant represents, and a Saturday night slot for home games could also bring some added excitement to the program.
North Rockland (14-8-1 last year, 10-2 in League 3)
Last year: The Red Raiders closed 8-3 to wrap up a league title and make it to the Division I quarterfinals, where they lost to Suffern 5-0.
Fowards: Sean O’Connor (team-leading 30 goals and 33 assists), another ESG veteran, not only has excellent skills, but also has the ability to make his linemates better. He will likely be joined by returning players Max Hoehn and Michael Meigh. Two sophomores who only played travel year, Steven D’Alessera and Rob D’Bellonia, and St. Joe’s transfer Connor Callanan are also scoring options.
Defense: Craig Meany and James Eberhardt will be on the ice 2/3 of the game. Meany’s a bulldog who runs the point on special teams, while Eberhardt has more of a finesse game. Eberhardt missed half of last year with a concussion but is 100 percent now. Nick D’Amelio, Nick Finch (who will be out six weeks with a broken wrist) and Matt Moran will make the second line.
Goalies: Starter Alex Nestle and backup Joe Pane are both back. Nestle is consistent but also capable of making 1-2 big saves a game.
Outlook: North Rockland returns its top players and has a lot of depth at forward. But like most teams, they lost a lot role players who were integral to last year’s success, and of course they moved up a league, so it’s hard to guess where they stand.
Scarsdale (13-12 last year, 6-4 in League 2)
Last year: It was quite a 2008 for the Raiders—four straight wins, then four losses, then five wins, and then three losses, including a first-round exit.
Fowards: Leading scorer Matt Oliverio (58 points), John Felix (43) and Rye Country Day transfer Aelx Klein are all good skaters who can handle the puck, take good shots and have a good hockey sense.
Defense: Mike Constantinides and Patrick Johnson are experienced. Constantinides is a fast skater who handles the puck well, while Johnson is small in stature but very intelligent. Freshmen Jake Bank and Travis Misarti are an intriguing second line.
Goalies: Coach Jim Mancuso said that junior Jordan Gluck, sophomore Justin Halman and freshman Connor Wolfe are all competing right now, although Gluck (2.323 at RCDS) is the only one with varsity experience. Gluck shut out both Iona Prep and Clarkstown North last season (combined 32 saves).
Outlook: Like usual, Scarsdale doesn’t have much depth. But the Raiders do have a lot of talent, and with Gluck they are capable of beating anyone.
Yorktown (16-8 last year, 6-4 in League 2)
Last year: After a 6-5 start, Yorktown closed really well, beating Rye Town/Harrison in the regular season Brewster in double-OT in the quarterfinals before falling to Pelham 4-1 in the semis.
Fowards: Seniors Brett Cabriele, Michael Bonitatibus and James O’Donnell are end-to-end players who are strong across the board. Junior Joe Castellano, sophomore Matt Williams and freshman T.J. Mayterski should also step up and help.
Defense: Ryan Litwin, Mike Sullivan, Scott Schneider and Brian Shkolnik are all returning juniors who are strong defensive-minded defensemen.
Goalies: Will Parra, a four-year varsity player, is back in net. He had a 3.05 GAA last year.
Outlook: The team is full of great forecheckers and backcheckers and players that love to get their hands dirty. Is now the year they make the leap to the finals?
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 4:45 pm by Harold Gutmann. 
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Harold – correction on CN’s overview. It is Jake Shuman that is on the team this year. Josh, Jake’s older brother, graduated in 2007.
Where did Shuman play last year for High School?
He went to North last year, he just copped out and didnt play on the team.
According to Max Preps, big brother and already graduated Josh Shuman had the 42 goals and 51 assists while little brother and current North senior Jake Shuman had a still impressive 25 goals/32 assists playing on that line with older brother Josh and the younger (current North Senior) Matt Willows. The older and already graduated Rich Willows played a very offensive defense that year (22G/35A). Those 2 brother tandems were on the ice 80% of the time and it was quite a show. It will be interesting to see if the younger brothers can do it again without as much support.
Somers/North Salem beat Brewster this afternoon 8-4
does anybody on Brewster know how to check?
Pawling beat JFK today 5-3
Any update on the JFK/Pawling game?
Yeah, I know this is the L2 blog but I’m familiar with many of these teams so I’m expanding the range of the the crystal ball. And it says: 1) N Rockland 2) North 3) ETB 4) Brewster 5) Scarsdale 6) Yorktown and 7) Mt Pleas.
Too much team in N Rockland for C. North stars and ETB to overcome. ETB and North close battle for 2nd and 3rd. Rest of league is on somewhat of a downer, but it’s a long season and maybe Ytown/Scarsdale pick it up as players improve. But I’d say that most L3 teams will likely fare better in playoffs.
harold…small thanksgiving tournament (ebersole) preview?
your an idiot
North rockland will not beat clarkstown north and win league 2. It will be the complete opposite. And even comparing ETB to clarkstown north is a joke. Lets be real here. 13-1 last year to mamaroneck. North lost 2-0 with no one. Good Luck everyone.
What makes North so interesting this season is McIndoe. Having Willows back is huge, no doubt. But without McIndoe the picture is much different. North’s defense will be the difference in some big games this season I suspect. Their D are solid. Just to bad they are in L2 this season. I would have loved to see them match up against the Mounties for a great game at Sporto. It would be a great game this season, a close one at that. NR has some very talented players again this season. But I still believe that the advantage this season for North will center around the play of McIndoe.
It will be interesting to see how Yorktown responds to a new coach.
This should be a fun league. I like CN to win this league and look forward to seeing the returning kids skate, but it is the goaltending that makes them the favorite.
I have seen CN scrimmage this year and the team does not resemble anything of what they where last year. Last years team had not one player that could finish on a consistent basis. The addition of Willows and Shuman will make a huge difference. Willows was the best Player in the section 2 years ago and he is even stronger and faster now. Shuman is easily a top 10 player and will also help an offense that struggled last year. Lets not forget that additional players such as Alex Willows (quit last year) and Kapnick(injured) will also help with some much needed offensive depth. The wild card with CN this year will be the defense which lacks the little depth it had last year. The other wild card will be the coaching. Although he is not there anymore Lynch did a nice job playing a system last year that took advantage of his teams strengths (defense and goaltending). With the team they had last year its amazing they did not get destroyed 10-0 against every team in league 1 (losing only 2-0 to Mamo, 3-1 to Pelham, 3-2 MW, 2-0 to WP). With the additions this year they should easily Conquer league 2 (CN lost to NR last year in the last seconds of the game by 1 goal). If the team can develop some solid chemistry they should be a serious threat come Playoff time.
Here are my thoughts on the top teams in League 2:
Clarkstown North – should win League 2; Willows and Shuman will carry the offense, and have they solid support in Juniors Kapnick, Cohen and Vela. The goaltending is obviosuly outstanding, and the defense is young, but better than most think. Byrnes is big, strong and moves the puck like a forward, and that freshman kid i heard is the real deal. So basically they have the best forward line and best goaltending in the Section, alogn with a solid D. Should make for a great team.
North Rockland – O’Conner and Meany are legit League 1 type players. O’Conner did lose 2 key linemates to graduation, so he will likely have to carry the offensive load. The goaltending from last year is still there and solid. I don’t think they will be able to beat North this year, but I believe NR and ETB will fight out in out 2nd place in League 2.
ETB – lots of solid forwards, but the big question is defense and goaltending. Goaltending wins championships.
Scarsdale – Oliviero will lead the charge, but do they have the depth to compete?
Why did all those CN palyers quit or leave last year. All the posts last year talked about Willows moving on to bigger and better comp and Shuman supposedly opted out b/c he was preparing for prep school – did not even realize there was another willows who quit last year. Also heard a rumor that Kapnick was done with hockey- good to see him back.
What motivated all these players to return – was it the coaching change?
Mr. ??
Why did the kids leave RCDS? Who else left high school hockey for Juniors this year? Who transferred to private school? Why did the goalie return from New England prep school? Why did those North Rockland kids only play travel last year? Whats the impact of the other new coaches in the section?
Your inferences to CN are nothing more than what is part of high school hockey. It happens all throughout the section. and CN is not immune to it. Maybe Suffern and Mamaroneck are the only 2 programs that withstand these very typical changes.
”?” – to answer some of your questions – matt willows went to Prep School last year, where he was outstanding. in the end, i think he wanted to graduate high school with his hometown friends. shuman committed more to travel last year, and opted not to play high school. alex willows is a Junior on the team this year, and he is matt’s cousin. he was on the team two years ago as a Freshman, but for some reason did not play on the team last year.
I think a lot of people are going to be amazed at the #’s willows puts up against league 2 teams. I am serious when I say he will basically be able to score at will. For all of you who say the league 2 is good hockey, you are going to be eating your words when you see what he can do against your kid. It is not going to really matter who he has around him, he will go coast to coast whenever he wants. ps I am not a CN fan, parent friend etc..
To shoot score. I agree that Willows is a real talent. Maybe the best forward in the section. But, looking at his Midget travel stats, he has 6 goals in 15 games. His teammate (on travel and at school) Jake Shuman actually scored more (9 goals in 14 games). And I agree Shuman could be considered a top 15 forward in the Section. League 2 has a few pretty good goalies, including Yorktown’s Parra who faces Empire Junior B shots all travel season and Empire State goalie Gluck at Scarsdale. So, while I expect big things from Willows, I don’t think he will score at will.
“Thoughts”- overall i dont disagree with you, but please never use the phrase “legit League 1 type players” ever. Players in L1 are not better, they just have more good players on their teams. The difference is not the quality of the players, just the number of quality players
I agree with your post “comments” but travel really clouds it. Many make assumptions that just because a player is a travel player he should rate at the top of the high school league in talent. Not true. Players in high school should be ranked on how they perform in the high school league not the travel league.
Big cloud
You are right, they should not be rated higher. But I assume you agree that when the HS season is over, and you needed to pick an All Star HS team (not based on stats but based on talent) in most cases the top players in high usually play at a decent level of travel. It is not always true, but probably 90% of top HS kids are playing travel – where competition tends to be higher and seasons are longer.
well yes true but for those who think travel kids are always better then those same players should show it in high school league play as well
Big cloud
I agree, but you can’t look just at stats, since two clone players, one playing in a L4 school with the other in a L1 school will have completely different stats. Therefore it is hard to tell quality without looking at them play. Even then it is tough since they may not have anyone to pass to on their L4 team as opposed to their clone playing on a L1 team. You need to see them in the same environment.
Based on playing Lg 2 competition, Im willing to bet that Willows puts up 100 pts. He had 103 two years ago against arguably tougher competition.
Is there a high school all county (ist team) player in the last 5 years who has not played travel?
I understand some very good kids may not play travel as junior or seniors in high school, but they have probably spent a significant time playing travel as youth hockey players. Honestly ths is when you really attain the skills to become good players. I guess its liking learning a languauge, easier to do when your a kid. Kids who take up the sport in high school often go onto be nice players but you can see the stick and pass and puck carrying skills are not as finely tuned as the long time youth players.
I think the Marasco kid at Somers is a good example of this. I’m aware he played a lot of youth hockey, but has not continued this into high school. I’ve read about his lacrosse and football success, so he’s obviously a great athlete. But for not his youth hockey experience I do not beleive he would be the all county caliber hockey player he is today.
99% of the time kids need to start playing Travel hockey when they are young. By doing so it lays a good foundation for later on. Marasco played a lot of travel for example and now combined with his lacrosse/football experience is a very good player. While he probably doesn’t have the time to play travel now it certainly helped him get to the place he is today hockeywise.
As a Somers/NS fan Joe still has his talent of course he has been training for lacrosse because of his scholarship but he still has plenty of hockey in him
more than you think. Of course travel player get more ice and are porbably more dedicated to making themselves the best. They are usually more battled tested as well. Thats the pros. The cons are this. There are ten times as many travel programs midgets,juniors, bantams, A AA AAA then there used to be so its watered down considerably. So a “travel player” may not be anything other than an average joe who got on one of the many travel teams in our area. The other thing that sticks out is how a player plays. Sometimes travel players feel the pressure of assuming they should be the best player on the ice. Many times they refuse to accept the fact that high school could be challenging to them. Coming in with that outlook could be disasterous. Other times the travel player may play too much individually and that can hurt the team. He may feel he is on a personal “mission” or journey. My sons team here in Rockland has some nice travel players and it works. There are places where it doesnt
WP Tournament predictions:
Step 4 Ryetown 2, Ryetown in for a long season.
WP 8 Brewster 3, WP favorite to win tourney.
Pac 6 S/NS 1, Marasco shut down, Pac is back.
CN 4 M/W 3, Willows dominates game.
As A suffern fan I’m very sad that Clarkstown North won’t be playing us. I will just have to go to the Mall to see them play. Good luck to both teams Suffern and Clarkstown North this season.
Is anybody else sad that the 2 best teams won’t be playing each other?
North seems to be crushing league 1 teams..(Rye Town/Harrison, winning the white plains tourney)..Seems like they are gonna walk all over league 2.