For the first time since 2014, East Hampton High School's boys soccer team will play in a county final.
The team will play Harborfields, the Class A tournament's third seed, at Diamond in the Pines in Coram on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Fourth-seeded East Hampton triumphed over the county's top seed, Half Hollow Hills West, in a 5-1 rout on the Colts' field Wednesday afternoon.
Don McGovern's well-tuned crew had defeated second-seeded Amityville 1-0 in a league game on March 31.
McGovern likened Hills West's style of play to that of Hauppauge, the team East Hampton defeated 1-0 in the first round -- a tall, physical team that likes to put the ball in the air and is particularly dangerous when presented with a free kick within the 50-yard line or with a corner kick.
And yet, Hills West was no match for the Bonackers in Wednesday's semifinal, as goals by Eric Armijos and Nico Cifuentes-Diaz in the first half -- Armijos from the top of the box after receiving a through pass from Christopher Pintado, and Cifuentes-Diaz by way of a rocketed free kick over a "wall" of defenders -- and goals by Matt McGovern, Pintado, and Michael Figueroa in the second half left the Colts in the dust.
"The last time we were in a final was when Nick West, Brian Oreamuno, and Nick Tulp were playing," the elder McGovern during by phone upon the team's return here. "We beat Comsewogue that year and went upstate."
Because of Covid protocols, there won't be a state tournament this time, and there will be no Long Island championship game, but, said the coach, "Just having had the chance to play this season has been great for the kids -- a godsend, really. They're such a good, tight group -- they play hard, they play well. And they'll be one of two Class A teams in Suffolk playing on the last possible day."