Howitt Middle School student Mickey Venezia and his Long Island Green Machine Stars Teammates are going to the New York State Tier II Bantam Championships for the second year in a row. The team will travel to Geneseo, NY to play for an invitation to this years USA Hockey National Championships.

Led by Captain Nick Pappas, forwards Reny Mazorra, Kyle Gentile, Danny Wall, Dan Sieger, John Campbell, Suren Grigoryan, Roy Tuccillo, John Colan and Doug Sparks provided the offense as six teams battled for the right to represent Long Island Hockey at this years State Tournament.

Pappas netted two goals and Colan one as The Green Machine clinched the League Title with a 3-2 victory over the NY Cyclones at Chelsea Piers in New York City. The victory , The Green Machine's 16th vs. 3 losses and 3 ties wrapped up the tittle with two games left to play.

Stellar Goaltending by the league's best Kevin Bolin and his worthy back -up Sophia Kokkonis made the goal mouth seem small for frustrated opponents throughout this successful season.

The key to any championship is defense, Mickey Venezia who assisted on Pappas' title clinching goal along with Brett Podolsky, Josh Powers and Pavel Barskiy sealed off opponents with key hits and impressive puck movement.

Congratulations to Coach Andy Cozzi from Newbridge Arena as he brings his fifth different team to the States in the past five years.