Soccer, Field Hockey Battles Waged on East Hampton Turf

Two of East Hampton High’s teams, field hockey and boys soccer, engaged in riveting battles on the high school’s turf field this past week, the boys versus Amityville, the League VI leader, and the girls versus Shoreham-Wading River, which came in as Division II’s runner-up.

The boys wound up losing 3-2 and the girls wound up winning 1-0, though, as aforesaid, both contests merited the spectators’ attention.

“That was a big win,” Robyn Mott, the field hockey coach, told her delighted charges after Saturday morning’s tilt with Shoreham, whose league record, as a result, dropped to 3-2 while East Hampton’s overall mark improved to 4-1. (The Bonackers were 2-1 in league play as of Monday.)

Cate Wicker was the heroine, banging in a cross from Emily Nicholson with somewhat less than a minute and a half left to play in regulation. 

It was the second win in two days for the Bonackers, who had on Friday shut out Babylon 3-0 in an away match. Lina Bistrian and E. Bistrian scored the goals with Maya Schultz and Wicker getting assists. Of that game Mott said, “We had 37 shots on goal, but only put three in. We’re working on finishing.”

As for the team’s sole loss, to Sayville, by a score of 2-1, she said, “It was 1-1 going into the half — they scored on a penalty corner with time expired. They scored again in the early minutes of the second, and while we dominated after that we couldn’t score.”

E. Bistrian, with her free hit lifts that sail over opponents’ heads, long strides, and deft ball-handling, was the best player on the field Saturday. “She does all the work while others get the glory,” Mott said, with a laugh. 

The teams matched up well. Shoreham was awarded three straight corner plays about 10 minutes into the first 30-minute half, but came away empty. Schultz broke in on the visitors’ goal midway through the period, but shot wide to the right. That was the Bonackers’ best chance in the first frame, which ended scoreless.

“We have to get moving,” Mott said during a timeout with 13:37 left on the clock. “We haven’t had a corner play in this half. We have to move the ball faster. It’s now or never.”

Apparently her charges listened, for they were awarded a penalty corner several minutes later, but Shoreham’s goalie made the save. 

East Hampton’s defenders meanwhile continued to feed Bistrian and other forwards after having poked the ball from attackers’ sticks, keeping the pressure on as the clock wound down. Finally, Wicker’s shot, which thudded against the backboard, gave East Hampton the victory, with 1:21 left to play.

“They were exhausted,” Mott said in the postgame huddle. “We were not, because we’ve done the extra 101 yards.”

In answer to a question, Mott said Maddie Schenck, a senior who is tending East Hampton’s goal, had been called on to make a couple of saves.

“In all my years of coaching this is one of my better all-around teams,” the coach added. “Our depth helps — everybody plays.”

As for the boys soccer game, played here last Thursday, Amityville, a well-organized team (as is East Hampton) broke the ice about two and a half minutes in as Oscar Hernandez, after beating an East Hampton defender, put a hard shot by Kurt Matthews, East Hampton’s junior goaltender.

Justin Carpio, a senior midfielder, was taken down in the box by an Amityville defender with 18 minutes to go in the half, and cashed in on the subsequent penalty kick, sending the ball into the left corner of the nets as the Warriors’ goalie dived toward the right.

Matthews, with the score tied at 1-1, was called on to make two diving saves about midway through the period, keeping the Bonackers in the game, but a high kick over the defense with 11:16 to play in the first period landed on the feet of Kymani Hines, the center forward, who sped toward Matthews, beating him easily from in close.

The visitors clearly had the best of it in the first half, though in the second East Hampton, which went into the break down 2-1, adjusted, dropping back rather than chasing the ball, and thus creating more chances. 

The change in tactics produced the hoped-for breaks, and, in the 55th minute, Wilmur Guzman capped one of them with a diving header that converted a right-to-left cross from Carpio and tied the score at 2-2.

The game was very evenly played from there on in. Manfred Barros, one of East Hampton’s defenders, kicked away a shot headed for a temporarily empty goal with about 17 minutes left to play, though Amityville was to capitalize soon after as Hernandez fired in a right-to-left shot through a crowd from about 15 yards out to wrest the lead back for the visitors, at 3-2.

East Hampton did not quit, however. Its defenders — Noah Gualtieri, Zane Musnicki, and Barros in particular — and its forwards continued to play spiritedly. Bonac’s last best chance came with 8:18 left when Alberto Gallegos, who had come off the bench, was stopped by Amityville’s keeper at point-blank range.

Afterward, McGovern, who has taken over the head-coaching reins from Rich King, said, “There’s a reason they’re in first place.”

As for East Hampton, “We’ve been playing well — our losses have been by one goal. We’re just not finishing. . . . We need a win.”

The team got it at Mount Sinai the next day. Miller Place, winless as of Monday, was to have played here Tuesday.