There was doubly good news Saturday afternoon: It didn’t rain and East Hampton High School’s football team ran through Amityville’s line like a knife through warm butter. Bonac’s quarterback, Charlie Corwin, took to the air a few times too, throwing touchdown strikes in the second quarter to Jason Lester and Charlie Stern on the way to a resounding 42-0 win.
The six touchdowns, five of which were tallied in the first half, were followed by six Emmanuel Morales extra-point kicks.
“It was a great team effort,” Joe McKee, East Hampton’s coach, said afterward. “Amityville’s a decent team, but, because of the way we played, they couldn’t do anything — even when their coaches knew what we were running, they couldn’t stop us. Our offensive line blocked well, and our D-line was dominant. No question the kids wanted this game. It’s a bought-in team, a team that’s fun to coach.”
East Hampton began the game with an 80-yard, 13-play touchdown drive during which Corwin, Eddie Cobb (two), and Alex Davis (two) ran for first downs before Corwin carried the ball into the visitors’ end zone from the 1-yard line. Morales’s extra-point kick was good for a 7-0 lead.
Amityville, which wasn’t to gain a first down until the third quarter, went three-and-out in its first possession. The Bonackers took over on their 40 and were soon in the Warriors’ end zone again, following long runs by Corwin and Davis, and a scoring run by Cobb from the 8. Morales’s point-after kick upped the lead to 14-0 by the end of the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Corwin, facing a third-and-eight from Amityville’s 25, and after faking a handoff, turned and threw a touchdown strike to Lester, who, unmarked, gathered the pass in just before crossing the goal line.
A bad snap with second-and-goal at the visitors’ 10-yard line was chased down by Davis at the 30, but Stern, on the next play, hauled in a Corwin pass for East Hampton’s third touchdown of the afternoon.
About a minute was left until the halftime break, but it was eventful: An Amityville player was ejected for having thrown three punches after a referee had tagged him and Jai Feaster, who did not retaliate, and whose helmet received the blows, with personal fouls. When play resumed, Cobb broke through Amityville’s line to tackle the runner at the 1-yard line, forcing the visitors to punt from their end zone.
The punt was a bad one, going out of bounds at the 15. Davis carried to the 8 on first down. A five-yard penalty assessed the Bonackers put the ball back at the 13, from which point Corwin threw for Jai Feaster in the end zone, though an Amityville defender knocked it away. Corwin, however, connected with Stern on the next play, for a first-and-goal at the 2-yard line, and Cobb, with four seconds left until the break, bulled his way over the goal line for the home team’s fifth score of the day. Morales’s subsequent kick made it 35-0 East Hampton with a half yet to play.
There was one more touchdown to come, in the form of a 16-yard carry by Davis near the end of the third quarter.
With many Bonac subs rotating in and out, the Bonackers, nevertheless, blanked the Warriors in the final 12 minutes. The game ended with one of them, Ollie Maio, sacking Amityville’s quarterback.
Among other defenders who came up big for Bonac that afternoon, either with sacks or with tackles of runners way behind the line, were Vincent Franzone, Bowie Pipino, William McGuire, and Thinley Edwards.
Asked how he thought his charges might do at Comsewogue this Saturday, McKee said, “We’ve got a triple monster — Eddie inside, Alex inside and outside, and Charlie, with his running and throwing. We’re not bad — we’ve been competitive with everybody.”