No. 23 Ranked Connetquot Thunderbirds Team Preview

Landing at number 23 in the top 25 preseason rankings are the Connetquot Thunderbirds of Suffolk Class A. The 2024 season saw them finish with a record of 9-9 with a trip to the playoffs where they won an opening round playoff game against Longwood before being defeated by Hills in the quarterfinals. In a very competitive Class A conference, Connetquot will compete for another trip to the playoffs in hopes of making some noise.

The Thunderbirds offense sees the return of their scoring leader from last season in senior Carson Turissini (Iona) who had a dominant junior year exploding for 50 goals along with 19 assists for 69 points. Turissini will be the head of the snake for their attack which did lose Jake Gallose who was part of their 2024 graduating glass. The midfield unit will be led by AJ Jeffares (St. Johns) who was third on the team in points last year with 51, scoring 27 goals with 24 assists. The Thunderbirds offense which averaged just over 10 goals per game will be hoping to replicate that number this season.

As for the defensive end of the field they return their senior defenseman John Guido (Molloy) as one of their key anchors while they will have a new starting goalie as it looks to be senior Colton Stellwagen replacing 2024 graduate Connor FitzGibbon. In limited time as a junior Stellwagen recorded 13 saves. As a team they allowed slightly more than 10 goals per game in 2024.

To get the regular season started the Thunderbirds open up with consecutive non-league matchups against Mt. Sinai on March 26th and Islip on March 28th before they play their first league game against the reigning Suffolk Class A Champions Half Hollow Hills on April 3rd.