At number 18 of the preseason top 24 rankings we have the Huntington Blue Devils led by Head Coach Julian Watts. Suffolk Class A has a number of teams that will be in contention looking to dethrone Northport, and Huntington looks to be one of them. They had a regular season record of 10-5 last year and qualified for the playoffs but let one slip away in the quarterfinals against Smithtown East 7-6. As they look to re-write their story this season, the Blue Devils utilized the offseason by playing in the HSWL and training with Mike Kaplan and his team of trainers at East LI Fitness.
Last year Huntington’s offense started at the face-off X with Anthony Annunziata, but this year that changes as they bring in a huge acquisition in junior UMass commit Luca Cuozzo who transfers over from Walt Whitman to step into the role replacing the Annunziata. Two of their top returning attackmen are in the senior class in Thomas Girimonti (Wesleyan) and Brian Hrybenko (Maritime). Last season Girimonti was their leading scorer from the attack with a 27 goal, 19 assist stat line for 46 points.
Huntington has a plethora of midfielders that return this season among the junior and senior class that make this one of the deeper midfields in Suffolk Class A. Headlining their midfielders are Colin Lennon, Timmy McDonald, Tommy Kline (Loyola), Daniel McNulty, and Joey Zink, forming a group of two-way middies that will look to be a problem on both ends the field. In 2023 it was Lennon who was their second leading scorer from the midfield with 39 total points, only trailing Mikey Kline who was in the class of 2023. After averaging nine goals per game last season the Blue Devils would love to at minimum replicate that number this year. Also adding to their depth who saw action this winter is sophomore Frankie Algieri.
On defense one of their key players that they are without is now Georgetown freshman Aidan Carrello, but return key defensemen Patrick Knieriem and Keegan Malone to a defense that was among the tops in fewest goals allowed per game last year, allowing than fewer six. A huge part of that was also due to the play of 2023 graduate SammyMac Arner in the net. This season getting the nod as the starting goalie is junior Will Fallon who stepped up big in the winter league with a near 55% save percentage.
