The East Hampton High School boys soccer and field hockey teams enjoyed big wins this past week. Don McGovern’s boys, in beating East Islip 5-2 in an away game last Thursday, put themselves in contention to win the League VI championship on Monday, and Danielle Schuster’s field hockey team, which had recently lost four straight after winning its first seven games, continued on the upswing that day with a 3-2 win here over Shoreham-Wading River, which had come in at 11-1.
It was the second time in eight days that the boys soccer team had defeated East Islip, but what made the win all the more notable was the fact that Bonac’s chief defender, Kevin Hilario, was not in the lineup because of the two yellow cards he received during the hard-fought 1-0 victory over East Islip here on Oct. 5. Moreover, said McGovern, a number of other players who ordinarily don’t get much playing time stepped up at East Islip, Kevin Lucero, Steven Ortiz, Jake Espana, and Cassius Hokanson, who narrowly missed scoring, among them.
Knowing that he can go to his bench without worrying about a falloff in effectiveness was a nice thing to know heading into the county’s Class AA playoffs, which are to begin next week, the coach said. As of Monday, there were four AA teams with 10 wins — East Hampton, Harborfields, Amityville, and Kings Park.
McGovern moved Brian Tacuri over from the right side of the backs to fill in at center back for Hilario last Thursday, without a drop in defensive strength. Even though, thanks to goals by Eduardo Calle, David Armijos, Michael Chimbo, Filiph Garcia-Ayala, and Gary Gutama, McGovern said, “We didn’t feel we had it in hand until about 15 to 10 minutes to go. We led 3-2 at the half, and scored our fourth goal eight minutes into the second. Our fifth goal came about five minutes later.”
No, the win didn’t clinch the league title for East Hampton, the coach said Sunday. “East Islip’s still in first place. If we beat Westhampton at home [Monday], we’ll clinch. If we lose, East Islip will win. If we tie, we’ll share the title with East Islip.”
As for the coming playoffs, “I believe we have a good chance . . . especially if we play the way we played at East Islip.”
“The kids were ecstatic,” he added, when asked how his charges had reacted to last Thursday’s big win.
Field Hockey Resurgent
As for the resurgent field hockey team, which, after beginning the season on fire, got knocked around a bit, Danielle Schuster, when asked at Friday’s practice to summarize the big win the day before over Shoreham, said, “We were down 2-0 at the half — we had nothing on the board, though we were playing beautifully and looked great. We told them at the half to just keep doing what they were doing.”
Kerri O’Donnell, assisted by Emma McGrory, put the Bonackers on the scoreboard in the third quarter, and an open field score by McGrory, with an assist from Siena Link-Morse, evened things up before that period was over. “The fourth quarter was scoreless, and it went to a shootout,” the coach said. “Five shooters on a side. Caeleigh [her daughter] stopped three of theirs, and three of ours — Kerri, Ally Schaefer, and Ava Tintle — scored. Ava’s was the game-winner, her first varsity goal.”
East Hampton’s other two shooters, McGrory and Melina Sarlo, were parried in the eight-second duel with Shoreham’s goalie. “Emma, after dribbling in from the 25, got three shots off in those eight seconds, but didn’t score,” said the coach, adding that “Mel got off two shots. . . . That was a big win for us. We needed that — it was the best game we’ve played.”
As for the 1-0 win over East Islip on Oct. 10, a game in which Caeleigh Schuster wasn’t called upon to make a save, her mother said, “Nobody got near her — we were in their end of the field the whole game. We must have had 12 or 13 corner plays. Finally, with about five minutes left, we scored on one of them. The ball went from Kerri to Emma to Melina, who buried it from the top of the circle.”
East Hampton (9-4 as of Monday) was to have played its last game of the regular season at Greenport-Southold Tuesday. The county Class B playoffs are to begin with an outbracket game today.