Fresh off two scoreless double-overtime ties, East Hampton boys soccer scored a win over Harborfields at home on Saturday, 3-1, as students, parents, and fans filled the stadium seating for the Bonackers' first playoff game.
East Hampton came out strong, with Esteban Diaz, a midfielder and the senior captain, scoring on a penalty shot, setting the Bonackers up for a dominant half over a scoreless Harborfields.
"Harborfields kept the pressure on us as we still kept creating chances. Harborfields had a very good chance to equalize at the end of the first half, so we were fortunate to go into the half up 1-0," Don McGivern, the boys coach, said after the game.
Defense played hard at the East Hampton goal in those last minutes of the first half and managed to keep Harborfields at bay.
The crowd was on its feet for much of the second half, with Harborfields scoring its only goal in the first six minutes of that half. That seemed to energize East Hampton.
"We responded well and created some very good chances over a good span of time, and James Velez found the back of the net with a brilliantly placed ball into the side netting," Coach McGovern said. Diaz played a supporting role in that goal too, having fed the ball to Velez, a junior midfielder.
While that ended up being the final goal needed for the win, it didn't stop the boys from scoring one more time. A perfectly placed pass from Liam Wilson to Colton Everett, both senior forwards, proved to be the third and final goal for Bonac.
"Harborfields did not stop working to get themselves back into the match, but the boys held things together and had a great celebration with each other and with all the supporters who were at the high school yesterday afternoon," Coach McGovern said Sunday.
East Hampton finished the regular season with an overall record of 12-1-2, and 9-1-2 in league play. In the second game of the playoffs, the Bonackers will face Amityville on the road on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Amityville is the only team to win outright over Bonac this season.
Should the Bonackers win that matchup, they will play the winner of Tuesday's Kings Park and Elwood-John Glenn game on Friday.
