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A Few Clouds JV Bulldogs go 19-1, capture county title
The Bellmore-Merrick junior-varsity Bulldogs hockey team captured the Nassau County High School Hockey League Championship on Feb. 23 with a 4-1 victory over Port Washington. The squad ended the year with a 19-1 record. The only loss was to Port Washington earlier in the month.
The next stop for the JV Bulldogs was the New York State High School Championship in Jamestown, N.Y. The team entered the tournament as the top seed.
At counties, the Bulldogs got on the board first at the 10:36 mark of the first period. It was a sweet two-pass play from Erik Collins at the point to Tommy Rosenthal down low, who passed the puck to Jason Agaliotis. He buried it in the back of the net.
With the first period ending, the Bulldogs made one more rush as Justin Cacciatore blasted down the left side, beating the defense to the outside. He took a slap shot, causing a big rebound off the goalie. Kevin Suarez banged it in for a 2-0 lead, giving the Bulldogs the momentum.
Bellmore-Merrick wasted no time early in the second, with a face-off win back to defenseman Vincent Cacciatore, a dump into the corner, then a pickup by Chris Brocks, who made a tape-to-tape pass to Mitchell Jarmol. He went bar down and gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead.
At that point, Port Washington changed goalies. Meanwhile, Sean Immel, the Bulldogs’ goalie, stopped three breakaways and 16 shots to keep the Vikings off the scoreboard. The score remained unchanged until the final three minutes of the game, when Rosenthal got his second goal of the night on a smooth pass by Jake Levine from the point. Rosenthal snapped a wrist shot into the upper corner to make it 4-0, ending the second period.
In the third, the Bulldogs had several scoring chances, but the Vikings’ backup goalie came up big. The Bulldogs came 3 minutes and 14 seconds away from a shutout, but gave up a power play goal late in the third. In the end, the Bulldogs took the game 4-1.
The Bulldogs’ roster
The junior-varsity Bulldogs’ goaltending duties were shared by Sean Immel and Jon Ieraci, who allowed fewer than 1.9 goals per game. The defense comprised Justin Suarez, Jake Levine, Erik Collins, Vincent Cacciatore and Robert Peterkin. Forwards were led by Matt Lofaro, Frank Karp, Chris Brocks, Justin Cacciatore and Kevin Suarez. Also contributing to the offense were Jason Agaliotis, Mitchell Jarmol, Tommy Rosenthal, William Sasson, Kevin Norton, Chris Laurelli, and out with a knee injury, Billy Mingione.
The Bulldogs’ head coach is Ed Shinnink. Assistants are Landon Cooper, and Shinnink’s son Eddie, a recent graduate of New England College, where he played hockey.
