HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (LISN) — On Oct. 8, with 16 seconds left, East Islip beat St. Anthony’s. Only two other teams did that all season, and St. Anthony’s went on to win the county and the Long Island Championship.
That was the ceiling. The floor was steady: 15 wins, fourth place, 13-1 against the seven teams below them. Four of the five losses came against the three teams above.
Then the season ended the way it did. Northport/Huntington won the quarterfinal 7-1, four weeks after East Islip had beaten the same team 8-5, and the three players who scored the most left with it. Evan LaFata, the captain, Logan Barton and Tierny Recenello took 102 points out of the room. What comes back is the goaltender who started more games than anyone else, which in this division is worth more than it sounds.
Last season
East Islip scored 124 goals, fourth-most in the division, and allowed 73, fifth-fewest. Both of those numbers came from the same pattern: they handled everyone they were supposed to handle and could not get past the top three more than twice.
The wins that mattered were the two upsets, 3-2 over St. Anthony’s on Oct. 8 and 7-4 over Sachem on Nov. 5. East Islip also answered an October loss to Northport/Huntington by taking the Jan. 5 rematch 8-5.
Northport/Huntington were the only team below East Islip in the standings to beat them, and then they did it again where it counted, 7-1 in the quarterfinal, Jack Dolson scoring East Islip’s only goal with 1:41 left.
Fifteen wins was six more than the year before, though the 2023-24 team went 16-2 and won a playoff game, so the program knows what the next step looks like. Gone with LaFata (26 goals, 37 points), Barton (17 and 34) and Recenello (13 and 31) are Dolson, defensemen Kieran Freelin, Christopher Lawlor, Emmet Gilliar and Brady Reinhart, forwards Jack Connors and Ryan Ragusa, and goalie Dario Baerga. Between them they scored 71 of the team’s 125 goals.
Jack Fontaine
Fontaine is the leading scorer back, and it is not particularly close. He had 13 goals and 17 assists in 19 games, fourth on a team whose top three have graduated, and only Recenello, with 18, had more assists. He had a point in 14 of his 19 games.
The biggest of them came against Northport/Huntington on Jan. 5: two goals, three assists, and the power-play goal with 13:47 left in the third that stood as the winner in an 8-5 win. He scored twice in the 10-0 win over West Islip in November, twice again against Connetquot/Sayville in December and twice more against Patchogue-Medford before Christmas.
He has been on the varsity since ninth grade, and 2026-27 is his third season there. As an eighth-grader in 2023-24 he scored 31 goals and 40 points for East Islip Red at the freshman level, then went straight up: 22 points in his first varsity season, 30 last year. He plays for the Long Island Royals 15U AAA away from the high school, with 14 goals and 14 assists in 20 games there last season, after a year with the Long Island Rebels 14U AA. He shoots right and is from East Islip.
The forwards
Jordan Haines (F, 10-8—18) is next in line. He scored twice in the 6-1 win over Ward Melville on Jan. 16 and twice more a week later against Kings Park/Commack, the second of those the winner with 2:37 left in the second period, and set up three goals in the 11-3 win over Kings Park/Commack in November. The year before, at the freshman level, he had 29 goals and 64 points in 21 games, the most on that team.
Ryan Bradley (F, 8-9—17) scored twice in the 4-3 overtime win over Ward Melville on Nov. 3, one on the power play. He spent last travel season with the Long Island Royals 15U AAA (nine goals, 14 assists in 20 games) after a year with the Connecticut Jr. Rangers 14U AAA, and he is also from East Islip.
James Walsh (F, 5-9—14) put three of his five goals in the 6-1 win over Ward Melville on Jan. 16, the last of them on the power play with 5:59 left. He also had three assists in the November rout of Kings Park/Commack.
Landon Musumeci (F, 7-2—9) scored twice against West Islip on Feb. 1, one short-handed, and finished with a line identical to the one he put up the season before: seven goals and two assists in 18 games, both years. He played 47 games for the Long Island Royals 16U AAA last season. Peter Marazzito (F, 4-4—8) scored twice in the 10-0 win over West Islip, including the game’s first goal; he played defense last season and moves to forward this year.
Charles Souhrada (F, 3-7—10) played all 21 games in his first season with the program, one of three who did, scored twice against Middle Country in November and set up the only goal of the playoff loss. Last season was his first at East Islip. He came from St. Anthony’s, where he played at the freshman level in 2023-24 and on the junior varsity in 2024-25, and he appeared in four games for the Long Island Royals 16U AAA.
Three of the four coming up from the junior varsity outscored most of the varsity forwards. Collin Inga (F) led the JV with 28 goals and 38 points in 20 games, five clear of anyone else on that team, after 13 goals and 18 points in 20 JV games the season before and 16 points at the freshman level the year before that. He also put up 10 goals and seven assists in 18 games for the Long Island Sharks 16U A. Christopher Blaschuk (F) had 13 goals and a JV-leading 20 assists in 20 games, after 20 goals and 48 points in 25 games at the freshman level the year before, and eight points there the season before that. Kyle Kearney (F) had 12 goals and 27 points in 21 JV games, after 20 goals and 31 points in 24 freshman games the year before and 11 points there in 2023-24. Gregory Ozzimo (F) had three goals and five points in 16 JV games, matching his line from the season before, and played 17 games for the Sharks.
Andrew Firth (F) comes back after a season away from the league. Two years ago he scored 25 goals and 41 points in 17 junior varsity games.
Defense
Sean Damian (D, 1-1—2) is the only defenseman on the roster who played all 21 games, and he scored in the 11-1 win over Patchogue-Medford in December. Matthew Aichroth (D, 3-4—7) had two assists in the season opener and a goal and an assist against Middle Country in November; he played forward last season and moves to defense, the mirror image of the Marazzito switch.
The rest of the blue line comes up from the JV. Matthew Freisem (D) had four goals and 17 points in 20 JV games, fourth on that team, and dressed for one varsity game; he played 18 JV games the season before and a full freshman season in 2023-24. Justin LeMaire (D) had two goals and nine points in 19 JV games, up from three points in 17 the season before, and Kai Kelly (D) had six points in 20 JV games after 10 in 21 at the freshman level.
In goal
This is where East Islip is unlike almost everyone else in the division. Two goalies who have already carried a season are back.
Ryan Rauscher (G) started 11 of the 21 games and backed up eight more, splitting the net with Baerga, who has graduated. He started both of East Islip’s shutouts, the 4-0 over Patchogue-Medford on Oct. 13 and the 10-0 over West Islip on Nov. 16. Before that he played at the freshman level in 2024-25 and the developmental level in 2023-24.
Joseph Sasso (G) was the JV’s starter, in net for wins over Northport/Huntington, Ward Melville, Connetquot/Sayville, St. Anthony’s Black, Sachem, Smithtown/Hauppauge Blue and West Islip, and he backed up one varsity game in October. He was on the varsity roster last season too.
The staff, and what’s next
Chris Reinhart is the head coach, with Dan Barbarito, Nick Campo and Anthony Musumeci on the staff. Peter Marazzito is the captain, taking the C from LaFata. The alternates have not been announced.
East Islip opens Monday, Sept. 21, a week after most of the division, against Eastport South Manor, one of three teams new to a varsity division that is up to 12 this season now that Patchogue-Medford and Middle Country — a pair East Islip handled a year ago — are gone from it. The regular season closes Wednesday, Jan. 27, against Longwood, back at varsity for the first time since 2023-24, with Connetquot/Sayville and St. Anthony’s the only teams East Islip plays just once before the Feb. 1 quarterfinals. Twenty of East Islip’s 21 games streamed on the LI Sports Network YouTube channel last season and every game will stream again this year; the team page and the division standings update through the season.
Seventy goals walked out the door in June. Two goalies walked back in. Fourth place was the ceiling with the graduated group; the question is whether Fontaine, Haines and a junior varsity that outscored half the division can hold it.
Games to circle
Fri., Dec. 18: Northport/Huntington. The team that ended East Islip’s season, 7-1 in the quarterfinal, four weeks after East Islip had beaten that same team 8-5 on Jan. 5. Northport were the only team below East Islip in the standings to beat them all year, and then they did it again where it counted.
Mon., Nov. 9: St. Anthony’s. East Islip beat the eventual champion 3-2 on Oct. 8, on a goal with 16 seconds left. Only three teams beat St. Anthony’s all season, and they went on to win the county and the Long Island Championship.
Mon., Jan. 4: Sachem. The 7-4 win over Sachem on Nov. 5 was East Islip’s other upset of a top-three team. Sachem finished second and were themselves one of the three to beat St. Anthony’s.
Fri., Oct. 2: Gaels Ice Hockey. The first meeting with a team playing its first varsity season, one of three newcomers to the division this year.
2026-27 East Islip Varsity roster
| No. | Player | Pos. | 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Rauscher | G | Varsity, 11 starts |
| 6 | Peter Marazzito | F | Varsity, 4-4—8 |
| 7 | Matthew Freisem | D | JV, 4-13—17 |
| 10 | Charles Souhrada | F | Varsity, 3-7—10 |
| 16 | Christopher Blaschuk | F | JV, 13-20—33 |
| 18 | Landon Musumeci | F | Varsity, 7-2—9 |
| 20 | Joseph Sasso | G | JV, 16 appearances |
| 23 | James Walsh | F | Varsity, 5-9—14 |
| 26 | Jordan Haines | F | Varsity, 10-8—18 |
| 44 | Justin LeMaire | D | JV, 2-7—9 |
| 45 | Collin Inga | F | JV, 28-10—38 |
| 46 | Matthew Aichroth | D | Varsity, 3-4—7 |
| 52 | Gregory Ozzimo | F | JV, 3-2—5 |
| 55 | Sean Damian | D | Varsity, 1-1—2 |
| 86 | Kai Kelly | D | JV, 1-5—6 |
| 90 | Ryan Bradley | F | Varsity, 8-9—17 |
| 91 | Kyle Kearney | F | JV, 12-15—27 |
| 92 | Andrew Firth | F | Did not play |
| 96 | Jack Fontaine | F | Varsity, 13-17—30 |
Head coach: Chris Reinhart. Staff: Dan Barbarito, Nick Campo, Anthony Musumeci. Numbers and positions come from the club’s 2026-27 roster filing, which does not give class years. Scoring lines are goals-assists—points for skaters and appearances for goalies, from lihockey.com; records and division ranks are regular season.