Wonderful to tell, East Hampton High’s girls flag football team won a game over the spring vacation, coming back from a 20-0 halftime deficit on April 24 to defeat Riverhead Charter 21-20.
Josh Brussell, one of the second-year team’s coaches, said before the girls lacrosse game between Eastport-South Manor and East Hampton began Friday that “during the half we made some defensive adjustments, and it was pretty much all us after that. We scored a touchdown when play resumed and then went for a three-point conversion, which we made. You get one point for scoring from the two-yardline, two for scoring from the 10, and three for scoring from the 20, which is what we did. That made it 20-9.”
Quarterbacked by Jocelyn Garcia, East Hampton scored three TDs in the second half. Kerri O’Donnell was on the receiving end of two of them, and Garcia rushed for one. Garcia and Clio McCarty combined for the three-point conversion. The Bonackers didn’t convert the third touchdown, but they were up 21-20 at that point. A subsequent interception by Natalia Neil preserved the win.
“Oh yes, they were happy to have won,” said Brussell, adding that “we’ve got 22 on the squad, no seniors. We’re very young.”
A Lacrosse Loss
The girls lacrosse game that day wasn’t much to write home about. Turnovers by East Hampton led to a number of Eastport-South Manor’s 14 goals, while the Sharks, who moved the ball well, very rarely turned it over. Sadie Campsey, Bonac’s goalie, deserved better. Often she faced opposing shooters in close, one on one. The Sharks’ goaltender, Ashley Langdon, who made some terrific saves, is to play at Johns Hopkins University. Four teammates of hers are committed to the University of Cincinnati, Loyola University Maryland, Lock Haven University, and the University of Florida.
The visitors, “one of the county’s top teams,” according to East Hampton’s coach, Joe DiGirolomo, clamped down on Melina Sarlo, East Hampton’s high-scorer, often triple-teaming her. Sarlo, who will attend Hofstra in the fall, finally scored a goal on a free position shot in the second half. East Hampton’s other goal was scored by Ava Tintle, assisted by Emma McGrory.
As of Monday, DiGirolomo’s team was 4-6 (6-6), in the bottom third of the 27-team Division II, and was probably out of playoff contention. “We’ve got four more games, all on the road -- this was our last home game,” DiGirolomo said.
The Track Report
Meanwhile, East Hampton’s track teams, the girls team especially, have been doing well. The girls, coached by Yani Cuesta, were 3-1 in League V as of Monday, behind 5-0 East Islip. The boys were 1-2, having lost 68-60 to Westhampton Beach on April 19, and 61-49 to Rocky Point on April 22.
“It was a tough loss,” Sean Knight, East Hampton’s coach, said of the Westhampton meet, adding that “it was really unfortunate that we were missing some athletes. It all came down to the relays. We had to win all three, and almost did!”
Among Bonac’s best performers that day were David Armijos, who placed second in the shot-put and discus; Chris Chimbo, who won the long jump and was second in the triple jump; Thomas Cardenas, who was on the winning 4-by-100 relay with Eduardo Calle, Jai Feaster, and Isaac Rodriguez and was the runner-up in the 100 and 200; Benson Edman and Corey Peters who went one-two in the 800; Edmar Gonzalez-Nateras, who won the 1,600; Liam Knight, who was second in the 400; Sebastian Beech, who was third in the 400; Aiden Schmitz, who was second in the 400 intermediate hurdles, and Gonzalez-Nateras, Edman, Peters, and Jasper Samuelson, who won the 4-by-800 relay.
Despite the loss to Rocky Point, “we had lots of best times,” Knight said. His son, Liam, was the 400’s runner-up in 54.47 seconds. Cardenas, Knight said, “won the 100 and 200, breaking the 24-second mark with a 23.9.”
Other winners were Brayan Rivera in the 1,600, in 4:54, and Gonzalez-Nateras in the 800.
At Port Jefferson’s Steeplefest on April 24, Liam Knight placed fourth and Edman fifth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, and, in the freshman-sophomore race, Samuelson was fifth and Watts Comly-Bolick 12th.
As for the girls, the following were among the top finishers at the Westhampton Beach invitational on Friday: Dylan Cashin, who was second in the 1,500-meter racewalk in a personal best time of 7:41.05 seconds; KK Moore, who was second in the shot-put with a personal-best heave of 33 feet 5 inches; Sierra Stumpf, who was second in the novice section of the long jump; Vicky Chen, who was second in the novice section of the 100-meter dash; Laura Martinez, who was second in the freshman section of the 1,500-meter race; Ryleigh O’Donnell, who placed third in the 800, and the second-place 4-by-800 relay team of Martinez, Cashin, Greylynn Guyer, and O’Donnell.
Guyer won the novice 2,000-meter steeplechase, with Bennett Greene second, at Port Jeff’s Steeplefest; O’Donnell won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles there in a personal-best time of 68.36 seconds, and Martinez was fourth in the freshman 2,000 steeplechase.