Not the Homecoming, but a Winning Day for Bonac

While Monday wasn’t homecoming — this coming weekend is — it seemed as if it were: Five of East Hampton High School’s teams played here that day, with three of them, girls volleyball, field hockey, and boys soccer, winning, and with two of them, girls tennis, which had been undefeated, and junior varsity football, losing.

All in all, it looks as if it will be a winning fall for the great majority of East Hampton’s 11 fall teams.

Girls volleyball and golf appear to be especially strong, and girls swimming, girls tennis, field hockey, and boys soccer don’t seem to be far behind. The cross-country teams — Kevin Barry, with more than two dozen, has the largest boys team he’s ever had — were to have made their debuts in multi-team meets at Cedar Point County Park Tuesday.

The junior varsity football team made its home debut Monday, losing 26-12 to Bayport’s jayvee, though Joe McKee, East Hampton’s coach, said, making allowances for some mistakes owing to inexperience, the young Bonackers, who trailed 14-12 at the half, played well. 

Christian Johnson, a running back on offense and an outside linebacker on defense, scored one of East Hampton’s touchdowns as the result of a long pass reception, and Danny Ortiz, also a running back, scored the other, on a short run up the middle. 

“In the second half,” said McKee, “they returned an interception for a touchdown, which put them up 20-12, and then they scored late in the game after we’d had several opportunities that we couldn’t capitalize on.”

Topher Cullen, the lefty quarterback, “had a good game,” the coach added.

McKee’s squad, which numbers 22, is to play this week’s homecoming game tomorrow on the turf field at 6:30 p.m. with William Floyd.

The girls tennis team, which had been 6-0 over all, met its match in Westhampton Beach, with the Hurricanes winning 6-1. Of those who lost, Juliana Barahona, a recent arrival from Colombia who goes to Pierson High School in Sag Harbor and plays second singles for East Hampton, put up the best fight, in a match that went all the way.

Rose Hayes, a Westhampton ninth grader — and an all-state player — who won among the females in the Great Bonac 5K in Springs on Labor Day, defeated Becca Kuperschmid at number-one. In the exchanges it was clear that Kuperschmid could stay with her younger opponent, but repeated unforced errors did her in.

Boys soccer, in a nonleaguer, shut out Babylon 2-0 with Alex Vanegas, a midfielder, getting both goals, one in the first half and one in the second.

The girls volleyball team easily defeated Amityville 3-1. Kathy McGeehan, East Hampton’s coach, put subs on the court in the third set, which East Hampton wound up losing 25-17. With the starters back in, the high-flying Bonackers won the fourth 25-11.

Field hockey’s 4-0 win over Hampton Bays was pretty much a rout, with Grace Myer (two), Emily Hugo, and Catherine Wicker getting the goals, three of which came in the second half.

It was the third straight win for Nicole Ficeto’s team. Since losing in a shootout to Port Jefferson on Sept. 7, the Bonackers have defeated Babylon (2-1), Southampton (2-1), and, as aforesaid, Hampton Bays.

Following East Hampton’s win over Southampton here on Sept. 12, Ficeto, who’s in her first year coaching the team, agreed that it was “huge,” inasmuch as the Mariners and Bonackers go way back as rivals. 

“We scored off a corner!” Wicker was heard to say in the postgame huddle.

Versus Babylon, Myer got the first goal, with an assist from Emily Hugo, and Hanna Medler, a ninth grader, got the game-winner, with an assist from Kailey Marmeno.

“We’ve got a lot of speed,” Ficeto said when questioned. “We used to hold the ball, but now we play a two-touch game . . . now we pass and cut. And we’re playing together, exchanging positions at times, so backs become attackers and vice versa.”

And finally, golf. Rich King, the former boys soccer coach, who has taken over from Claude Beudert, a recent retiree following a very successful coaching career, said Monday that as his top three he’s got Turner Foster, a senior who won the county championship two years ago, Nate Wright, also a senior, and James Bradley, a very promising seventh grader.

Ryan Bahel, a senior, Zach Barzilay, a senior, Aiden Cooper, a sophomore, Charles Goldsmith, a sophomore, and Trevor Stachecki and J.P. Amaden, eighth graders, are vying for the three, four, and five positions.

The team was 2-0 as of Monday, with wins over Center Moriches and Southampton.