Golf, Boys Soccer Among Contenders
Though the East Hampton High School football team lost 53-13 to fourth-place Comsewogue here Saturday, there were several things to write home about in the second quarter, to wit an 80-yard touchdown pass in which the quarterback, Cort Heneveld, and Pete Vaziri combined, an onsides kick fumble recovery by Juan Varon, and an interception by Sergio Betancur.
Comsewogue, which improved to 3-1 as a result of the victory, was rated sixth among the small-school teams on Long Island by Newsday Tuesday. Today, at 3:30, the Bonackers are to play at Islip, whose record is 2-2.
In other sports here there was better news: the golf team led League VIII with a 5-0 record; the boys volleyball team was in second place in League III with a 4-1 record; the boys soccer team, which flattened Mount Sinai 7-0 here Monday, was third in League VI, though it had the league’s best overall record at 5-1-1 (and probably had the best goals for-against ratio, at 27-2); the girls soccer team likewise was in third place, at 2-1 (5-1-1), and the girls volleyball team also was in third, in League VI, with a 4-2 mark, along with Westhampton and Sayville. Elwood-John Glenn led the league at 6-0, but Glenn is a Class B school, not an A school as is the case with East Hampton.
Claude Beudert, the golf team’s coach, who lost last year’s top two, Zach Grossman and John Nolan, to graduation, was happy to be undefeated as of Tuesday, “though we need,” he said, “to get better. . . . We barely beat Pierson on our home course at South Fork by six shots, and we bested Southampton by 14. Now we’ve got to play some tough matches on the road. We’ll be at Southampton on Tuesday, and then we have to play Pierson away too.”
Ian Lynch, his junior number-one, has been averaging around 40 strokes in the nine-hole matches. Cameron Yusko, the number-two, has been averaging 41. Yusko, by the way, had a hole-in-one in a recent practice session, on the par-three, 150-yard sixth hole, using a 9 iron.
Jim McMullan, at three, and John Pizzo, at four, would have to kick it up a notch if the Bonackers are to remain undefeated, Beudert continued. “I’ve been telling them that if they shot in the mid to high 40s at Bethpage Black [ as they did in the Long Island championship last spring], they can do it on these courses too.”
The team has been playing on South Fork’s front nine this fall, which “is much more difficult than the back nine, where we played our home matches last year. We shot a total of 213 in the match with Southampton, but 230 in the one with Pierson.”
East Hampton played Shelter Island at the Gardiner’s Bay Country Club Monday. “It was a wonderful day, and it was great to play on another course — we get into a pattern at South Fork. Ian lost his first match of the year, to Jay Card, who’s one of the top golfers in the county. Cameron led the way with a 42. Par was 35. They’d played a pro-pro tournament there that morning — they’re playing at The Bridge today — and the greens had been cut twice. They were like a pool table, soft but slick. It was a treat — the kids loved them.”
In other sports contests Monday, boys soccer, as aforesaid, shut out Mount Sinai here 7-0. Mario Olaya led the way with three goals. Christian Calle, Esteban Vargas, Nick West, and Esteban Valverde also scored. Esteban Aguilar started in the goal; Nicholas Tulp played some in the second half.
Olaya, after scoring the first three goals, sat out most of the second half. Rich King, Bonac’s coach, said the senior striker is “one of the top five in the county in scoring,” a fact that is even more striking given the fact that he has spent about 90 minutes looking on from the sidelines.
“At one point in Monday’s game we had six freshmen on the field,” said King. “Three of our goals in the second half were scored with six freshmen playing, the same as it was when we played Amityville.”
As for a 2-1 loss recently at Westhampton Beach, East Hampton’s first of the season, King said, “We had some really good chances, but couldn’t finish. They scored the winning goal with three minutes to go. There was a breakdown at midfield on a counter, and their kid got off a low shot to the near post from about 15 yards out.” The Bonackers outshot the Hurricanes that day, but it was little consolation.
East Hampton and Shoreham-Wading River, which at 2-0-1 led League VI as of Tuesday, played to a scoreless tie on Sept. 21.
East Hampton was to have played at Elwood-John Glenn Tuesday. “If we win,” said King, we’ll at least have a share of first place. Glenn is the defending league champion and county finalist. Any time we play them it’s huge.”
King added that he’s excited about the program here. “There’s a lot that still could happen — we’re near the halfway point — but I think,” he said, “that we have a legitimate shot at the county championship. . . . Our jayvee [coached by Steve Tseperkas] is undefeated, and, as I said, we’ve got all these freshmen on the varsity who play well.”
Along that line, he said that on Saturday, Oct. 15, from noon until 2 p.m., “there will be a clinic — the first such we’ve had here — for the junior high teams from Montauk, Springs, and East Hampton.”
The junior high players will be asked to stay on to see Bonac’s junior varsity and varsity play their Shoreham-Wading River counterparts. The jayvee will play on the grass that day, and the varsity on the turf.
Bonac’s girls soccer team, at 5-1-1, had the second-best overall record in its league as of Tuesday. Sayville, which as of that day shared the lead with Miller Place, which also was undefeated, had the best overall record at 7-0-0.