With a fresh core of young players, Long Beach boys\u2019 soccer was expected to enter a rebuilding phase near the top of Nassau Class AA. Early results suggest the Marines are ahead of schedule, however, leading assistant coach Sam Fiallos to assume the usual expectations in a brutally tough conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at it and you see all the history with all these schools \u2014 Jericho, Garden City, Calhoun, MacArthur, Carey,\u201d Fiallos said. \u201cAll these schools know how to win. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for us, but we’ve had a great start and we’re just looking to build on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a 4-1-1 record through six games, Fiallos and head coach Leo Palacio are hopeful that Long Beach can remain competitive after reaching the Nassau Class AA semifinals in 2025.<\/p>\n
Though they earned shutout victories over Lawrence, Jericho, MacArthur, and Calhoun, the Marines were not up to the task against Garden City, who beat them 3-0 on Sept. 5 and remain undefeated. Long Beach had a much closer game against fellow contender Mepham on Sept. 18 and settled for a 1-1 tie.<\/p>\n
Much of Long Beach\u2019s scoring so far has come from junior forward Dominic Mendoza. But despite racking up three goals in five games, including two against MacArthur on Sept. 8, the striker\u2019s role is not as clear-cut as it might seem.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not the same Dominic that we started as a freshman on the wing,\u201d Fiallos said. \u201cHe’s such a complete player. Now, if you need him to hold up the ball, relieve us of pressure when we’re defending, or if you need him to take on two, three guys, he’ll do it. He’ll make that extra pass. He’s still a very good player, but the way he’s evolved over these past four years is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fiallos credited Long Beach\u2019s four clean-sheet victories to stellar play from senior midfielder Gavin O\u2019Grady and senior goalkeeper Slee Sotelo. Sotelo has stepped into the starting role as \u201cone of the hardest workers\u201d Fiallos has seen at the high school level, while O\u2019Grady has amassed the experience necessary to lead Long Beach on both sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s a four-year starter and has two final four appearances, started in one as a freshman,\u201d Fiallos said. \u201cHe\u2019s a big piece to our defense, and without him, we wouldn’t have the start we have with all these clean sheets.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Grady is joined in the midfield by junior Camron Morin, a \u201cworkhorse\u201d who can make late runs to score and mark opponents\u2019 best players on defense. On Sept. 3, he assisted Mendoza for a game-clinching second goal against Jericho.<\/p>\n
Fiallos also highlighted senior defensemen Isaac Reyes Banegas and Daury Tineo Infante, whose massive contributions on defense go unappreciated in box scores.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have something to prove, and they think they can keep up with the best,\u201d Fiallos said. \u201cThey proved that last year against Garden City. It was 0-0 at halftime, and a big part of that was Isaac going up against an All-American player on the wing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomore Andre Roda has played multiple positions so far in 2026 and is likely to improve when he settles into a firmer role. He earned a crucial assist in a 1-0 win over Lawrence on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a fresh core of young players, Long Beach boys\u2019 soccer was expected to enter a rebuilding phase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-471831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}