Long Beach Blanks East Islip in Playoff Opener

On the strength of four third-period goals, the Marines pulled away from eighth-seeded East Islip in the Suffolk County High School quarterfinals Monday night, 6-0, at The Rinx in Hauppauge.

After blowing out the Redmen in two previous meetings, Long Beach was unable to open up a big lead in the first two periods, despite holding a 35-12 shot advantage, thanks to East Islip goaltender Mike Scarola.

"We were totally surprised," said Long Beach head coach Joe Brand. "We were anticipating the team we saw earlier in the year, and this group came and gave us as much as we could handle for a period and a half."

The top-seeded Marines got goals from six different players, including one late in the third period by captain Keegan Travers. Nolan Pues also added two assists.

After netting one goal in each of the first two periods, the Marines feasted on tired Redmen legs in the third. Long Beach managed two goals in 25 seconds to double their lead to 4-0 and extinguish any upset hopes East Islip had.

Hunter O'Neill's powerplay marker at 2:46 of the third period was followed immediately by a shot from Liam Pues that found it's way through traffic and past Scarola at 3:11.

"The game plan from the start was to use three lines, get the puck deep and make them chase the puck," said Brand. "We knew we could wear them out, and it started to show in the third period."

Aiden Salerno opened the scoring at 8:20 of the first period, taking a pass from Rob Delury and beating Scarola.

Early on in the second, Jimmy Diamond picked up a loose puck behind the East Islip net, walked out and buried it to the near side over the glove of Scarola to give the Marines a 2-0 advantage.

Travers and Jake Shapiro added insurance goals late in the third period to cement Long Beach's place in the semifinals on Thursday.

Harris Pittinsky wasn't tested often, but when he was he stood tall for the Marines, stopping all 14 shots he faced.

"What you get out of Harris, in a game where he sees a lot of shots or a game where he doesn’t, is the same consistent play all the time," said Brand. "He’s very, very sound fundamentally. He’s not going to lose a game for you, always plays well enough for you to win the game. That’s what we ask of him."

Long Beach does not yet know their next opponent, as the league will reposition the playoff bracket to afford them a game with the lowest remaining seed. They will play either the winner of the Kings Park/Commack-Middle Country game, or Northport/Huntington if they can manage to upset second-seeded Connetquot/Sayville.