HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (LISN) — For four months last season the Connetquot Sayville BBP T-Birds did exactly what the standings said they would do. They beat all four teams that finished below them, twice each, eight wins out of eight. Against the six above them the margins were steeper.
Then they met St. Anthony’s on Feb. 2 and nearly ruined the whole tidy arrangement. Down 2-0 to the eventual county champion with the season running out, Ricky Ogburn scored on the power play with 2:32 left, from Paul Wagner and Joe Villani. Nobody scored again. It ended 2-1.
Nine seniors from that team have graduated. Nine more are on the roster Steve Beisel filed for 2026-27, and the biggest question is in goal: both goalies who started a game are gone. The two who take over come up from the freshman and junior varsity nets, where each of them was his team’s number one.
Last season
Eight wins, twelve losses, seventh place. Three of the twelve were a goal or two away: 6-4 to Northport/Huntington on opening night, 5-4 to St. Anthony’s on Nov. 10, 3-1 to Kings Park/Commack four days before Christmas.
The biggest win came Jan. 4 against West Islip, and it took overtime to get it. Villani scored as the second-period clock hit zero. Logan Booth-Alam completed a hat trick in overtime for a 6-5 win, the only one-goal game in the eight they won.
Eight wins was three more than the year before, and the 2-1 loss to St. Anthony’s was the third straight season to end in the quarterfinal, after 1-0 to Kings Park/Commack in 2024 and 7-0 to Smithtown/Hauppauge in 2025. It was the second of the three decided by a goal. They played it physical, too: 221 penalty minutes in the regular season, second in the division.
What graduated: Booth-Alam, who led the team with 29 points; Wagner, who had 15; defensemen Josh King and Alex Barylski; forwards Joe Jackalone, Nick Proscia and Larry Andres; and the goaltending, Mason Dorrien and Reilly Hanley. Dorrien was credited with all eight wins. Between them the nine took 22 of the team’s 74 goals out the door. The other 52 came back.
Joe Villani
Eighteen goals from a defenseman is not a normal season in this division. It was the most by any defenseman in it, ahead of Middle Country’s Nicholas Misurella and his 15, and the most on the T-Birds, two clear of Booth-Alam. Villani scored in 13 of his 19 games, had five two-goal nights, took four of his goals on the power play and one short-handed, and finished with 27 points. In April, Newsday put him on its All-Long Island team, one of 12 players from the Island.
He has been doing this a while. As an eighth-grader in 2022-23 he scored 34 goals in 15 games at the freshman level, skipped junior varsity entirely and has not left the varsity since: five points as a freshman, 17 as a sophomore, 27 as a junior. Thirty-two goals and 49 points in 49 varsity games, all of it from the back end.
He plays defense again this season, wearing No. 84. Away from the high school he plays for the PAL Blue Knights 18U AA, where he had a goal and eight assists in 19 games last season after a year with the Long Island Royals 16U AAA. He is 6-foot-1, 183 pounds, shoots left, and comes out of Ronkonkoma.
The forwards
Gavin Beisel (Sr., F/D, 5-9—14) and Ricky Ogburn (Jr., F, 8-6—14) tied for the most points among the returning group behind Villani. Beisel played all 21 games, one of three T-Birds who did, and had his biggest games against West Islip on Oct. 20 (a goal and two assists) and against Patchogue-Medford on Nov. 19 (two goals). He also played 17 games for the Dix Hills Hawks 18U A. His older brother Colin, a 2022 Connetquot graduate, plays at Rhode Island in ACHA Division 1.
Ogburn had three two-goal games as a sophomore: against West Islip on Oct. 20, where his power-play goal held up as the winner, against St. Anthony’s on Nov. 10 and against Ward Melville on Dec. 8. He added three assists in the 6-3 win over Patchogue-Medford on Jan. 28, and scored the only goal the T-Birds managed in the playoff. His travel season was spent with the Long Island Royals 15U AAA.
Logan Aiello (Sr., F, 2-7—9) set up two goals against West Islip in October and two more in the 8-1 win over Middle Country in January; his seven assists were third among the returners. James Acker (So., F, 6-2—8) made the varsity as a freshman and scored six times, third among returning skaters, with goals against Patchogue-Medford on Nov. 19 and against Middle Country on Oct. 27. The year before, he led Freshman Red with 18 goals and 29 points, and he spent last travel season with the Long Island Royals 14U AAA.
Bennett King (Sr., F, 4-3—7) opened the season with a goal and an assist against Northport/Huntington and scored an unassisted winner against Patchogue-Medford on Jan. 28; his 23 penalty minutes were the most of any returning forward. He put up seven goals in 20 games for the Peconic Wildcats 18U A. Vincent Miciletto (Sr., F, 4-1—5) scored twice in the 5-3 win over Middle Country on Oct. 27, the second with 4:25 left and enough to win it, and added a power-play goal in January. Jessie Ogburn (Sr., F, 0-1—1) played 13 games in his first season with the program; his assist came on Beisel’s power-play goal against Patchogue-Medford.
Four more come up from the junior varsity, and one of them scored more than any of the returning forwards. Milo Mazzie (Sr., F) had 13 goals in 18 JV games, with four two-goal nights and one varsity call-up. Dillon Priolo (Jr., F) had 11 points and no penalty minutes at all; his two goals and two assists against Kings Park/Commack on Oct. 24 were the biggest single-game line any of these players put up. Lucas Giordano (Jr., F) had seven assists, three of them in one game against West Islip in December, and has 16 assists against six goals across three seasons. Nik Nasta (Jr., F/D) had nine points and two varsity call-ups, and Jason Keuerleber (Jr., F) had eight points and 34 penalty minutes, the most on the JV.
Defense
Josh King and Barylski graduated, which leaves three defensemen who have played varsity minutes: Villani, Mason Petry and Carter Tomforde.
Petry (Sr., D, 2-5—7) is entering his third varsity season, up from four assists as a sophomore, and had a goal and two assists in the win over Patchogue-Medford on Jan. 28. He took six penalty minutes all year. He has also played for the PAL Sound Tigers 16U A. Tomforde (Sr., D, 3-0—3) played all 21 games and scored three times, every one of them in the first period. One was the first goal of the T-Birds’ season, with 1:10 left in the opening frame against Northport/Huntington on Sept. 17.
Ashton Petry (So., D) comes up from Freshman Red, where he had two goals and six assists and once put up a goal and two assists in a 6-2 win over West Islip Blue. He played forward there and moves to defense this season. He played travel hockey for the PAL Blue Knights 14U AA. Beisel and Nasta can both play forward or defense, which gives Beisel options he did not have last year.
In goal
Dorrien and Hanley are gone. What replaces them is a ninth-grader and a junior, and both spent last season carrying the net at their own level.
Jake Degenfelder (Fr., G) jumps straight from the freshman level, where he has two seasons behind him. He went 5-10-2 in 17 appearances in 2024-25, then won nine games against five regular-season losses last year for a Freshman Red team that finished 10-10. Five of those nine wins were by one goal: 3-2 over Ward Melville, 4-3 and 3-2 over Sachem, 5-4 over Kings Park/Commack Black, 6-5 over Longwood White. He started the playoff quarterfinal against Smithtown/Hauppauge Red and had his team ahead 2-1 through two periods before it ended 4-2. He also played for the Long Island Royals 13U AAA.
John Higgins (Jr., G) took 13 of the junior varsity’s 14 starts, more than any other goalie in the program below varsity, and beat Kings Park/Commack 5-4 on Oct. 24 and Northport/Huntington 4-3 on Nov. 16.
The staff, and what’s next
Steve Beisel is back as head coach, with Bill Acker, Darrin King and John Ree, who ran the JV last season. Two of them have sons on the roster: Steve Beisel (Gavin) and Bill Acker (James). Darrin King’s son Josh played on the blue line last season and has graduated. Captains have not been named. Villani has worn the C for two years.
The season opens Monday, Sept. 14, against Eastport South Manor, one of three programs new to a 12-team division this season, with Longwood and Gaels Ice Hockey the others and Patchogue-Medford and Middle Country no longer in it. It closes Monday, Jan. 25, against St. Anthony’s, the county champion that ended the T-Birds’ season in the quarterfinal last February, before quarterfinals Feb. 1, semifinals Feb. 3 and a best-of-three final Feb. 5-10. Every T-Birds varsity game streamed on the LI Sports Network YouTube channel last season and will again this year; the team page and the division standings update through the season.
Fifty-two of last season’s 74 goals are back, along with the defenseman who scored more goals than any other in the division. The last piece is in goal, where two goaltenders who handled a full season of their own get their turn. That is the season.
Games to circle
Mon., Sept. 14: Eastport South Manor. The season opens against one of three teams new to the division this year, a first look at Eastport South Manor before the schedule turns to familiar company.
Mon., Sept. 28: Northport/Huntington. Last season began with a 6-4 loss to Northport/Huntington, the night Carter Tomforde scored the first T-Birds goal of the year and Bennett King had a goal and an assist. Northport went from there to the semifinal.
Mon., Nov. 9: Gaels Ice Hockey. A first meeting with a program in its first varsity season, the one opponent on the schedule no team on the Island has played before.
Mon., Jan. 25: St. Anthony’s. The season closes against the county champion, the team that ended the T-Birds’ year 2-1 in the quarterfinal in February, Ricky Ogburn’s late power-play goal the only one Connetquot managed. They had lost to St. Anthony’s 5-4 in November as well, one of three games last season decided by a goal or two.
2026-27 Connetquot Sayville BBP T-Birds Varsity roster
| No. | Player | Pos. | Year | 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake Degenfelder | G | Fr. | Freshman Red, 9-5 (reg. season) |
| 4 | Mason Petry | D | Sr. | Varsity, 2-5—7 |
| 6 | Vincent Miciletto | F | Sr. | Varsity, 4-1—5 |
| 8 | Jason Keuerleber | F | Jr. | JV, 3-5—8 |
| 9 | Gavin Beisel | F/D | Sr. | Varsity, 5-9—14 |
| 11 | Ashton Petry | D | So. | Freshman Red, 2-6—8 |
| 12 | Nik Nasta | F/D | Jr. | JV, 2-7—9 |
| 21 | Carter Tomforde | D | Sr. | Varsity, 3-0—3 |
| 22 | James Acker | F | So. | Varsity, 6-2—8 |
| 30 | John Higgins | G | Jr. | JV, 13 appearances |
| 34 | Dillon Priolo | F | Jr. | JV, 4-7—11 |
| 62 | Ricky Ogburn | F | Jr. | Varsity, 8-6—14 |
| 72 | Lucas Giordano | F | Jr. | JV, 2-7—9 |
| 74 | Milo Mazzie | F | Sr. | JV, 13-3—16 |
| 84 | Joe Villani | D | Sr. | Varsity, 18-9—27 |
| 88 | Bennett King | F | Sr. | Varsity, 4-3—7 |
| 92 | Logan Aiello | F | Sr. | Varsity, 2-7—9 |
| 98 | Jessie Ogburn | F | Sr. | Varsity, 0-1—1 |
Head coach: Steve Beisel. Staff: Bill Acker, Darrin King, John Ree. Numbers, positions and class years come from the club’s 2026-27 roster filing. Scoring lines are goals-assists—points for skaters and won-lost for goalies, from lihockey.com; records and division ranks are regular season.