Coming in at number 11 in the LILJ top 24 preseason rankings are the Redmen of East Islip. Since Head Coach Thomas Zummo took over the program two seasons ago, they’ve made the playoffs in consecutive seasons and last year as a four seed they went all the way to the Suffolk Class B County Finals where they played a hard fought game but were defeated by rival West Islip 10-6. With very few players in the 2023 graduating class, this is arguably East Islip’s best opportunity to get back to the county finals and win the county title with a chance to play for a Long Island Championship. Coach Zummo shared what excites him about the upcoming season and what the keys to success will be.
“Driven! These boys have been on varsity since I took the job. They are great group of teammates and they are driven to get back to the county finals and give themselves another shot at winning the title. Our team needs to continue playing for each other and not look ahead and focus on each game, one game at a time.”
The driving force for East Islip is Syracuse bound senior midfielder and captain Matt McIntee who is a pure athlete that can do damage from so many areas of the field. Last season he was virtually unstoppable between finding the back of the net 46 times and dishing out 39 assists for 85 points. Beyond McIntee, this is a midfield unit that is extremely deep, between Charlie Heffernan (Pace), Ryan Parker (Rutgers), Jack Kalinowski (Stony Brook), and Islip transfer Matt Ferraro (BU). With such a wide array of players that can play off of each other and fill up the box score, it’s hard to find many other public schools this deep at one position.
The attack features key returners in Ethan Bernardos (Sacred Heart), Matthew Baldino (Pace), Christian Ventuzelo (Belmont Abbey), and young gun Sean Hannigan in the class of 2027 who made the most of his first year on varsity last season with 11 goals and 11 assists for 22 points. In 2023 the Redmen offense averaged 10 goals per game, a number they would love to replicate this season.
Taking a look at the defense, they will be led by defensemen Charlie Kalinowski (Adelphi), Andrew Cooper, and Liam Allen, with the pipes protected by Villanova bound junior Drew Walendowski who is among the elite 2025 goalies and stood tall in the net last season with a total of 159 saves.
The buzz surrounding the East Islip makes this upcoming season a highly anticipated one to see just how far this program can go, which they hope is deep into May and early June.
