Joe McKee, East Hampton’s head football coach, had nothing but good things to say about his team in its 31-28 loss to West Islip High School on Saturday.
“We were two really good teams just going at it,” McKee said the next day. “They had the top defense in our league. The game could’ve gone either way. We proved that we can play with anybody.”
In fact, he said, it felt more like a playoff game, with the way the lead changed multiple times. East Hampton had a 14-7 lead at halftime, but the second half got a little more interesting, and the fourth quarter was an outright battle.
East Hampton’s Livs Kuplins had a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that gave his team a 21-14 lead, but West Islip tied the score a few minutes later. A Bonac fumble led to a West Islip field goal for a 24-21 lead, but then Alex Davis, a Bridgehampton High School powerhouse, put Bonac up 28-24 with a 44-yard touchdown run. West Islip’s successful 70-yard screen play with four minutes left gave it the 31-28 lead it needed to clinch the win.
McKee took no issue with how his team played. “It was a great game,” he said.
Next up is another toughie: the undefeated Golden Flashes of Sayville, the reigning county champions with a quarterback headed to Division-I Lehigh University, Friday at 6 p.m. at Sayville. “We’ve got our work cut out for us,” McKee said.
Field Hockey
The East Hampton field hockey team took a couple of tough losses over the weekend, by 5-1 to Eastport-South Manor and a 3-2 heartbreaker against Shoreham-Wading River. Katherine Corwin, a senior, scored her first-ever varsity goal against E.S.M. on an assist from Sabrina Texis.
