No. 18 Ranked Smithtown West Bulls Team Preview

The Smithtown West Bulls land at number 18 in the LILJ top 25 preseason rankings. Last year they had a dominant regular season and a deep playoff run that saw them appear in the Class B County Championship where their season came to an end against East Islip. They had a large senior class last year which means they will rely on those that are returning as well as new faces to makeup the production for those that have graduated as they aim to once again be in contention in Class B.

Over the last few years Smithtown West has had one of the top face-off specialists on Long Island in Necco Cottage who is now a freshman at Stony Brook, meaning now they’ll have a new presence at the face-off  X looking to get the ball to their offense. The team does return their leader in points, senior Binghamton commit Liam Byrne at attack who found the back of the net 27 times and dished out 35 assists for 62 points as a junior. Adding to their attack is senior Cortland commit Patrick Hyland, scoring 37 goals last season, along with senior Peter Bonefant (Queens) while the midfield sees the return of senior Eric Kowalski (LIU) who added 24 goals with 16 assists as a junior. The team did graduate John Savino, Carmelo Pace, and Dylan Frank from last year’s offensive core which helped the team average over 11 goals per game which was top 10 in Suffolk County.

The defense for the Bulls also had key graduates in the 2024 class, but returns senior Donovan Rail and sophomore Daniel Hsiao at long pole. In goal as the starter this year looks to be senior Ray Sherwood replacing 2024 graduate Dylan Bonasera. In a small sample size Sherwood made 18 saves in 2024.

The Bulls will begin the regular season with their first league game on April 4th against Sayville to begin their quest for a successful 2025 season.