East Hampton scored six touchdowns in a dominant 48-7 win over Islip in the Suffolk County Division III quarterfinals on Friday. It was the first playoff victory in Coach Joe McKee’s 29-year career, and the first for Bonac since 1994.
“I don’t know if there’s ever been an East Hampton football team that’s made back-to-back playoffs. Now to go into the second round, definitely pretty huge,” McKee said. “We got a good team, fun team, and they’re enjoying themselves and playing hard. They’re physical.”
East Hampton entered the game as the sixth seed, taking on third-seeded Islip on the road, but there was no home-field advantage for the Buccaneers. Bonac’s defense quieted Islip’s Jack Rao, the top quarterback on Long Island in both passing yards (2,266) and touchdowns (29) this season. On offense, the Bonackers scored three touchdowns in the second quarter to lead 20-0 by the half.
Jackson Ronick scored the first touchdown from the 3-yard line six seconds into the second quarter. Just nine seconds later, Bonac scored again, when Charlie Stern recovered the kickoff on the 29-yard line, and Alex Davis ran the ball in to score on the next play. Davis would score one more before the half, a 24-yard TD.
Davis scored two more touchdowns before leaving the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury. The senior running back was able to walk off the field and said he’d be ready to take on Sayville in the next round.
“I just gotta ice up and rest it,” he said. “The key to next week: play hard, don’t worry about losing or winning, just come out with the same energy we came out with today.”
Sayville, the No. 1 seed coming off a 41-21 playoff win over Westhampton Beach, was undefeated in the regular season. When the Bonackers and Golden Flashes last met, on Oct. 24, East Hampton lost 28-14, but Coach McKee thinks his team can play even better this time around.
“We’re definitely going to have to make some adjustments offensively, and figure out how to attack that really good defense, and we gotta shut ’em down a little bit more,” McKee said. “We’ll see what we can do. We got nothing to lose.”
East Hampton will play the semifinal at Sayville tomorrow at 6 p.m.
