The 2021 season saw the Comsewogue Warriors go 15-2, making it all the way to the Long Island Class B Championship where they were defeated by Garden City. Throughout their history they have made the playoffs the last 30 years and have nine county titles, two Long Island championships, and two New York State championships. This year they come in as the 13th ranked team in the LILJ preseason rankings. The Warriors are coached by Pete Mitchell, and he’s excited to see what his team can do after losing some key pieces in the class of 2021.
“Hard work everyday will determine what we will be capable of achieving. Lots of young talent with big shoes to fill. Excited to see how this team develops its own identity.” -Pete Mitchell, Head Coach Comsewogue
Senior Michael Katz (Army) is one of the starting attackman who is back for the 2022 season. Katz is a lethal scorer and led the team with 52 goals and had 18 assists for 70 points which was tied for the most on the team. He has the ability to completely take over games and did so on multiple occasions last year. As great as he was last year, there’s a very good chance he’ll put up even bigger numbers this season with the absence of Jake Deacy and Corey Watson. Deacy matched Katz with 70 points, and Watson tallied 38 points.
Junior midfielders Justin Bonacci (Stony Brook) James Krieg (Fairfield), and Thomas Kennedy (Mt. St. Mary) are returning to a midfield unit that will be without James Mantione who had 37 points and was a 2021 graduate. Bonacci made his presence felt as a sophomore, contributing with 20 goals and 27 points. Expect all of them to have a significant role in the team’s offensive success.
Face-off/midfielder Kevin Radmann (Marist) is back for his senior season and will surely see the majority of the face-offs. He is coming off of a stellar junior year in which he was named first team All-Division and was an All-County honorable mention. Senior Kenny Summit (Limestone) will also spend time spend time at the face-off X.
On defense the Warriors will be backed by first team All-Division LSM Matt Sparhuber (Lehigh) and defenseman Brian Wolf. Sparhuber is an elite shut-down LSM. They both return to a defense that held teams under 10 goals in 16 out of 17 games, and only allowed 88 total goals all season which was the third fewest in Suffolk County. A huge part of that was because of their elite goalie play from Mason Oak (Quinnipiac) who was another 2021 graduate. He notched 130 saves with a 68% save percentage. The Warriors may have sophomore Adam Wachholder get the nod as the starting goalie this season, but also have junior Gavin Larsen on the roster as well. Without Aiden McCaffrey( Delaware), Brendan McCrary(Army) , and Ryan Mimnaugh(Pace) the defense will surely look different this year.
Two young guns that may see playing time this year are sophomore attackmen Brayden Aires and Dylan Rocchio.
This season Comsewogue has plenty of teams on their schedule that should make for some great games. Some notable matchups include home against Bay Shore (3/24), at Mt. Sinai (4/8), home against Shoreham (4/20), at West Islip (5/9), and at Bayport (5/12).
Throughout the years Comsewogue has had a huge amount of players that played for them and went on to be elite college players. Some notable alumni are as followed:
Kevin Cassese – Duke, Head coach at Lehigh.
Nick Russo – Virginia
Tom Sullivan – Johns Hopkins
Danny Robbins – Maryland
Tim Pearson – West Point
Charlie Pearson – West Point
Overall there have been 36 All-Americans to come out of Comsewogue and 15 All-American honorable mentions in what is a very storied lacrosse program.
