LACROSSE: Girls Are Finding the Net Often

   As Matt Maloney had predicted, the East Hampton High School girls lacrosse team was well tuned for its league opener at Center Moriches Friday.

    The Bonackers, who had prevailed, thanks to Amanda Seekamp’s last-minute goal, 13-12 in a nonleaguer at Westhampton Beach two days before, routed the Red Devils 14-2 behind Maggie Pizzo’s five-goal, two-assist performance. The all-county midfielder was joined in the scoring column by Amanda Seekamp, who had two goals and four assists, Carly Seekamp, who had two goals and two assists, and by Melanie Mackin (one and one), Cassidy Walsh (two and one), and Gabriella Penati (one and two). Allison Charde, the goalie, was credited with eight saves.

    “We only took 25 shots,” said Maloney, “and made good on more than half of them. . . . We started off strong, playing well in all phases of the game.”

    Admittedly, Center Moriches was “not that strong a team, they’re a new program,” Maloney said, adding that “from now on we’ll be facing tougher competition.” His charges were to have played Bellport earlier this week, and are to play at top-ranked Hauppauge this afternoon.

    As for the nonleaguer at Westhampton, Maloney said that Seekamp scored the game-winner following a penalty assessed the home team. “She went one on one with their goalie, and put a right-handed shot into the lower left corner.”

    East Hampton led 9-7 at the half, “but we didn’t play too much defense in the second half. . . . Allison made 13 saves, a couple of them coming at the end of the game after Amanda’s shot. Still, a win’s a win. Bronte Marino [a midfielder] had her first goal as a varsity player. She was on our team last year but didn’t score. She finished with two goals and one assist.”

    Carly Seekamp finished with five goals and one assist; Pizzo had three goals; Mackin had two and two, and Amanda Seekamp had one and four.

The Boys

    Turning to East Hampton’s boys, their coach, Mike Vitulli, said they played well in the first half of a nonleaguer here with William Floyd Friday. The Bonackers, thanks to goals by Drew Griffiths, Bryan Seekamp, and Drew Harvey, led 3-1 at the half, but stumbled in the second frame on the way to a 5-4 loss.

    “We failed to clear the ball in the second half,” Vitulli said. “We played a lot of defense that day and I think we got a little tired. It was 3-3 after three quarters. We took the lead on a man-up goal by Jaime Wolf. They tied it with five minutes to play, scoring on a fast break off a turnover, and they got the game-winner with about a minute left.”

    “We’ve got to take more shots and we’ve got to play better between the boxes,” the coach said in parting. “We’ve got to improve.”

    The league opener for the boys was to have been played here yesterday with Rocky Point.