The defense is driving East Hampton High School’s girls varsity soccer team to its best start in nearly a decade. Its four wheels are Gabby Montes, Melanie Vizcaino, Samantha Leon, and Meera Kelley, who played “lights-out defense” in Bonac’s 1-0 home-field win over Riverhead on Friday, according to Cara Nelson, the head coach.
Not only was the team undefeated in six games through Friday, but Amy Salto and Leah McCarron, Bonac’s two goalies, had yet to allow even a single goal by an opponent all season long.
“We’ve had great goalkeeping and great defense all around this year,” said Nelson, who’s in her ninth year as coach. “We’ve got a very young team. Some of them played together on a travel team, so they already had a great rapport, and it shows out on the field.”
Salto, a sophomore, started the last three games in goal, standing in for McCarron, a senior who has been out with an injury. In those three contests Salto totaled 15 saves, including four in the second half against Riverhead to preserve East Hampton’s lead. “She was unbelievable,” Nelson said.
Elle Reidlinger, a sophomore who’s in her third year on varsity, scored Bonac’s lone goal against Riverhead on a penalty kick with 16:51 left to play. “We were able to hold on for the win,” Nelson said. “That was some of the best soccer that we played this year.”
Reidlinger has scored five goals so far this season, while Amy Torres, a freshman who played varsity as an eighth grader, is leading the team with 11 goals. Torres, who did not play against Riverhead because she was busy trying out for the Ecuadorian under-15 national team, broke Bonac’s all-time girls soccer scoring record last season with 14 goals. With nine games left to play this season, including three this week, Torres is well on her way to a new team record.
“They both play tougher than their age,” Nelson said. “They have never shied away from anything — even a 5-foot-11 senior who is twice their size.”
East Hampton was 5-2-1 in league play last year and graduated 12 seniors, a loss that could have devastated a program under normal circumstances. To boot, Nelson said, “We had some of the smallest numbers we’ve ever had for tryouts this year, and this is the smallest varsity team I’ve had since I started coaching.”
East Hampton was to play Monday at Copiague High School — a rematch of Bonac’s 2-0 win against that team earlier this season — which Nelson expected to be a tough game. And Wednesday, East Hampton and Riverhead are set to play each other again. The next home game at East Hampton is Saturday at 10 a.m. against Wyandanch.
“We are really hoping we can win out as a team and make a statement about the direction that Bonac girls soccer is going in,” Nelson said. “We will be a formidable opponent for anybody, right now and in the future.”
