Class B Central

1. St. Rose

The Roses have impact seniors back at every level and last year, they came together nicely down the stretch. Mark Casagrande will be the go-to-guy up front, while Sam Marx will be the man to feed him the ball. The main concern for St. Rose will be consistency, which plagued the team last year when it finished fourth in the division. Shore is down this year, so the opportunity for a B Central title is there.

Big Three: Mark Casagrande (Sr., F), Brendan Engelstad (Sr., M), Dan Holzaphel (Sr., G).

2. Rumson-Fair Haven

This is the sleeper of the division and maybe the Shore Conference. Rumson looked fantastic in the preseason and they have thrown away the scrappy style in favor of flat-out speed. With Sean Pahler in the middle and Matt Giustiani up top, they are going to try to run teams off the field, and they may have enough skill to do just that. Their first meeting with St. Rose is today, so we'll see if new head coach Jonathan Reynolds has something here.

Big Three: Sean Pahler (Sr., M), Matt Guistiani (Jr., F), Jon Portman (Sr., M).

3. Point Beach

The Gulls had a great run to the South Group I finals last year, and have a lot of key players back from that squad. The only problem is that their best player from that team, Sean Farrell, is gone. Farrell was a goal scoring machine in the postseason, so the challenge for coach Adam Curtis will be finding guys to finish at the net. Richie Baiata is plenty good enough to answer that challenge, and should fill in for Farrell for the most part.

Big Three: Richie Baiata (Sr., M), P.J. Seggel (Jr., G), Darren Erbe (Jr., D).

4. Shore

Ben Brand coached the Blue Devils to an A Central title last year, and took the Cherry Hill West job just three weeks before the season. That sent Athletic Director Jack Levy scrambling to find a coach for a team with only three impact starters returing from last year's team. Two of them - Roger Bernardino and Brian Guadagno - played on the defensive end, but new head coach Chris Gioia says he will not restrict where people play based on last year's lineup. Then again, based on last year's lineup, he doesn't have much. Keep an eye on freshman Connor McKenzie, who is ready to play right now.

Big Three: Roger Bernardino (Sr., D), Brian Guadagno (Sr., D), Roberto Novoa (Jr., F).



5. Henry Hudson

The Admirals will be able to score on most teams, with Justin Patrovich (16 goals) and Eric Devlin back from last year's team. The Admirals may run into problems keeping up with the speed of the top three teams in the division, but the skill is comparable. Coach Mike Manigrasso has seniors in key spots, including in goal (Eric Silakowski), which is a good recipe for Henry Hudson to surprise some teams this year. To do so, Manigrasso will have to get creative with how he uses his depth so that players like Patrovich and Devlin can make an impact late in the game.



Big Three: Justin Patrovich (Sr., F), Eric Devlin (Sr., M), Eric Silakowski (Sr., G).

6. Mater Dei

The Seraphs had a rough go at it last season, finishing 1-15. While things should only get better, fielding a deep enough roster is still a problem for coach Bill Miltner. Mater Dei is young, thin in numbers, and doesn't have the talent at the top of the roster to overcome its lack of depth like maybe a Henry Hudson can. Hey, at least there are those two games against Asbury Park.

Big Three: James Carroll (Sr., M), Gervin Mendoca (Sr., M), Craig DuBois (Sr., D).

7. Asbury Park

Jean Dortissant takes over a team that lost its best player in Peter Andre-Smith, and will try to replace his production with a lot of freshman and sophomores. The Blue Bishops will sport 13 combined freshman and sophomores on a 20-man opening day roster, with sophomore Irvin Gonzalez being the headliner of the bunch. Combined with Oscar Ramirez up front, Gonzalez will try to give Asbury Park a scoring puch up front to replace Andre-Smith and keep his team out of the basement of B-Central.

Big Three: Oscar Ramirez (Jr., F), Jocelyn Cadeau (Jr., D), Marco Vinas (So., M).

Fab Five

1. Matt Giustiani - Rumson-FH

2. Richie Baiata -Point Beach

3. Mark Casagrade - St. Rose

4. Sean Pahler - Rumson-FH

5. Justin Patrovich - Henry Hudson