East Hampton High School’s football team lost 20-13 to Amityville here on Saturday, dropping its record to 1-4, but the Bonackers made some big plays, and led 13-12 early in the fourth quarter.
Joe McKee, East Hampton’s coach, said the visitors, who also came in at 1-3, were a better team than he thought they’d be, yet he was confident that his players would continue to battle and work hard. It was one of the best groups he’d ever had, he said. Two games remain, with Harborfields on Saturday morning and with Half Hollow Hills West the following Saturday. Both are home games, with the Harborfields one to start at 9:30 a.m. and Hills West at 2 p.m.
The Warriors got on the scoreboard first, on a 4-yard run by Tyree Jones midway through the first period. Amityville tried to run it in for 2 extra points, but the ball-carrier, Dajon Clinton, fumbled.
The game was delayed for about 20 minutes when an Amityville runner, Amari Alcindor, suffered an elbow injury, prompting an ambulance call, after he’d rushed for a first down at East Hampton’s 41-yard line with a minute and a half left in the first quarter.
Spectators on both sides of the field applauded as he was taken off on a stretcher after having been tended to by Randi Cherill, subbing as the team’s trainer that afternoon for Nick Jarboe.
The hometown crowd had something to cheer about when Danny Lester forced a fumble and recovered the ball when the second quarter began at East Hampton’s 25-yard line, and, soon after, when Charlie Corwin, the quarterback, connected with an unmarked Will Darrell for a 73-yard touchdown catch and run. Aryan Chugh’s point-after kick was good for a 7-6 East Hampton lead.
The visitors came right back, however, as the result of a 72-yard, six-play drive capped by Jermaine Jackson’s 8-yard touchdown run. Again Amityville tried to run the ball over for 2 extra points, but Corwin knocked the ball-carrier out of bounds before he’d crossed the goal line, and so, with no further scoring in the final five and a half minutes leading up to the break, Amityville led 12-7 at halftime.
Chugh’s onside kickoff beginning the third quarter was alertly gathered in by Lester at Amityville’s 40, but the Bonackers couldn’t capitalize, nor could they during the remainder of the third period, which was scoreless.
The visitors were forced to punt on their first possession in the fourth, from Amityville’s 36, but Darrell, who was rushing from his linebacker spot, blocked the quarterback Joshua Garrett’s punt and, after catching up with the ball, ran with it unmolested into Amityville’s end zone, a touchdown that put East Hampton ahead 13-12 with just over nine minutes to play, Chugh’s point-after attempt having sailed wide.
Midway through the fourth, Amityville’s Jones scored on a 7-yard carry into East Hampton’s end zone, his second TD of the day, putting the visitors up 18-13, after which, following a 5-yard false-start penalty, Garrett curled around and ran the ball in for 2 more points, extending the Warriors’ lead to 20-13, which proved to be the final margin.
The Bonackers, despite a Corwin keeper that presented East Hampton with a first down at midfield, could make no real headway in the final five minutes. Facing a fourth-and-13 at their 35 in the final minute and a half, Corwin threw long for a well-defended Mikhail Feaster at Amityville’s 30, the ball sailing just over his outstretched hands. That was to be East Hampton’s last chance.