East Hampton High’s field hockey team, which had been sailing along undefeated, lost its first game of the season at Bayport-Blue Point on Sept. 27 by a score of 4-2. Also on that day, the girls swimming team bested West Babylon 79-68 at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, and last Thursday, the boys soccer team, playing at home, defeated Eastport-South Manor 1-0 thanks to a second-half goal by Chris Guallpa.
In other action, the 2-5 boys volleyball team defeated East Islip 3-1 on Friday; the girls volleyball team bageled Comsewogue 3-0 last Thursday, evening its record at 4-4; the girls soccer team defeated Hampton Bays 2-1 on Sept. 27, and the girls cross-country team lost a close one at Hauppauge, the undefeated League V leader as of Monday, by a score of 28-29.
The 5-1-1 (7-1-1) boys soccer team was, as of Monday, the runner-up to 5-0-2 (6-2-2) East Islip in League VI. The 1-0 win here over Eastport-South Manor was the team’s fifth straight since losing 2-0 here to Comsewogue on Sept. 8.
Keeping the ball on the ground and passing deftly, Don McGovern’s charges utterly dominated the Sharks, although, largely because the visitors were such tenacious defenders, especially in the goal area, the Bonackers couldn’t put the ball in the net until Guallpa, alertly pouncing on a rebound in the goal mouth, did in the 62nd minute of play. That score was all that East Hampton needed to put Eastport-South Manor away.
The team was to have played at Comsewogue Tuesday and at Rocky Point today. East Islip is to play here at noon Saturday.
Field Hockey’s Tough One
As for the field hockey loss, Danielle Schuster, the team’s coach — and the mother of its sophomore goalie, Caeleigh Schuster — said, “It was a tough game — it was a lot closer than the score indicated. They scored on a corner play in the first quarter, and Emma McGrory scored on one for us in the second quarter. It was 1-1 at the half.”
But, in the end, said Schuster, “they outplayed us. They were faster and very well coached. They came out firing in the third quarter, scoring on another corner. We tied it at 2-2 on another corner-play goal by Emma at the end of the third, but we were tired going into the fourth. Their third goal, scored as the result of another corner play, took the wind out of our sails. Their fourth came in the final seconds, after Caeleigh had made three saves.”
Her daughter, the coach said, finished with 22 saves, “and stopped a penalty stroke too.” Ava Tintle, who backs up Schuster when she’s out of the cage, was credited with a save too.
The coach added that on Friday Shoreham-Wading River defeated Bayport-Blue Point 1-0, “on a penalty stroke,” which led her to think that any of Division II’s top teams could beat any other on a given day. Shoreham, as of Monday, was the sole unbeaten team in D-II play; Bayport, East Hampton, Rocky Point, and Harborfields had one loss each.
East Hampton was to have played at Miller Place yesterday. Rocky Point is to play here tomorrow at 4 p.m.
The Swimming Report
Winning nine of 11 events, the East Hampton High School girls swimming team easily won its league-opener here on Sept. 27, defeating West Babylon 79-68. As of Monday, Craig Brierley’s team was 3-0 over all.
Among Sept. 27’s winners were Ava Castillo in the 100-yard butterfly and in the 100 breaststroke, Ashley Leon in the 200 freestyle, Lizzy Daniels in the 200 individual medley, Izzy Caplin in the 100 free, and Lily Early in the 500 free. The 200 medley relay team of Vanessa Rizzo, Lily Griffin, Ginger Griffin, and Maya Dias, the 200 freestyle relay team of Daniels, Mia Luna, Rizzo, and Griffin, and the 400 freestyle relay team of Daniels, Leon, Caplin, and Griffin were also winners.
The team was to have swum at West Islip Tuesday. Sayville-Bayport is to swim here next Thursday.
A Win for Girls Soccer
Cara Nelson, the girls soccer team’s coach, asked to expound on her team’s 2-1 win over Hampton Bays, said, “Rihanna Pinos put in the rebound of a shot Hailey Benenaula took from outside the box in the first half, and then, in the second, Elle Reidlinger played a ball to Shayla Buestan, who, after beating two defenders, buried the ball in the right corner of Hampton Bays’ net, putting us up 2-0.”
“I was very proud of the girls. They’ve been working hard day in and day out in practice. It all came together in this game. They’ve been giving it their all, and we’ve got a couple of winnable games coming up,” presumably with Mount Sinai, which East Hampton was to have played here Tuesday, and with Amityville, which is to play here on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
