No. 3 Ranked Half Hollow Hills Thunderbirds Team Preview
March 14, 2025
2 min read
At number three in the LILJ top 25 preseason rankings it’s Half Hollow Hills of Suffolk Class A. They enter the new season after winning the county title last year over Northport and appearing in the Long Island Championship game where they were defeated by Farmingdale. Although their run ended in the LIC, they bring back much of their core from last season which puts them in position to potentially repeat as county champs and contend for the Long Island Championship and New York State Championship. This winter Hills was once again a participant in the LILJ HSWL to get set for the spring. They are coached by Connor Hagans who is in his fourth year with the team and he shared his excitement about having the majority of his team returning for the season.
“Really excited to have a large number of the team returning. Having a large senior class helps improve the maturity and leadership of the team. Also excited to have another opportunity to build on the success from last year. These guys have been together since PAL days, now seniors, a year older with more experience.”
The offense for Hills was the number one scoring team in Suffolk County last year averaging just under 14 goals per game and back for his senior year as the engineer of their offense is the senior UNC commit Anthony Raio. As a junior Raio displayed sheer dominance with 75 goals and 44 assists for 119 points from the midfield. This team has a plethora of weapons with seniors Zach Marco (Harvard) and James Bruno (Dickinson) at attack and Ryan Chung (Bates) and Luke Bradley at midfield. Marco was second on the team in points last season with 96, scoring 68 goals with 28 assists and Bruno found the back of the net 53 times with 10 assists for 63 points. The duo of Bradley and Chung combined for 74 points with 48 from Bradley and 26 from Chung. At the face-off X is senior Nico Ghicas (Hofstra) who will be getting the ball to their high flying offense.
Defensively they return Jake Casamento (Navy), Sal Caiazzo (UVM) Ben Vogt, as their returning long poles but are without Joseph Filardi this year who is currently at Syracuse and was an impact player on both ends of the field. In the cage is senior goalie Sal Santoro (Pace) who comes into the season having led Suffolk County in saves last year with 268. As a team their defense allowed 6.6 goals per game.
Coach Hagans shared what the keys to a successful season will be in 2025.
“The keys to success will be playing with urgency and fast paced. Continuing to improve in all areas personally as well as a team. Meet and exceed the standard of play set by previous teams and seize the opportunities that present themselves”
Hills will open up the season with non-league games against Mamaroneck on March 27th and Fordham Prep on April 1st before playing their first league game against Connetquot on April 3rd.
