East Hampton High's football team improved its record to 4-3 by virtue of a 20-7 win at Hauppauge Friday night, a game under the lights in which Theo Ball, Bonac's quarterback, threw for two touchdowns and Alex Davis, the team's star running back from Bridgehampton, ran for one. The home team's sole score came in the fourth quarter.
The Bonackers are to end the season at home Saturday with Eastport-South Manor. Gametime is 1 p.m.
The girls swimming team wound up the regular season as the runner-up in League III to 4-0 Sayville-Bayport with a 3-1 record as the result of winning 49-42 at Lindenhurst on Oct. 23. Craig Brierley, the coach, said East Hampton swimmers — in whose number were Lily Caplin, Mia Milazzo, Vanessa Rizzo, Cybelle Curry, Ashley Leon, Molly Grande, and Ava Castillo — won 10 of the 11 events. "And there were a number of best times, which is difficult to do in a pool without diving blocks," he added.
A Pierson eighth-grader, Kate Deleski, was named swimmer of the meet by the captains, who were impressed, Brierley said, with her efforts in the 200 freestyle, the 100 free, and in the 4-by-100 relay.
The league championship meet is to be held tomorrow at Sachem East High School; the county championship meet is to be held at Stony Brook University on Nov. 10.
Field Hockey, Volleyball
In other high school competition last week, East Hampton's field hockey and boys volleyball teams lost first-round playoff games, the girls by a 1-0 score last Thursday to East Islip, and the boys, who had won six of their last seven to make the playoffs, by 3-2 to East Islip on Saturday. Josh Brussell's energetic volleyball team won the first two sets, but lost the next three, the pivotal one by a score of 15-13.
The boys won four straight leading up to the playoffs, defeating Center Moriches 3-0 on Oct. 16, West Babylon 3-0 on the 18th, Commack 3-2 on the 22nd, and Comsewogue 3-1 last Thursday — a must-win insofar as the playoffs were concerned. East Hampton overcame a 2-0 deficit against Commack.
As for field hockey, the Bonackers were outplayed by the visitors in the first half, during which Caeleigh Schuster, the team's impressive goalie, who had given up a corner-play goal in the first quarter, made nine saves.
"We woke up too late," Danielle Schuster, the team's coach, said afterward. "If we'd played the entire game with the intensity we showed in the fourth quarter, we would have had a chance. East Islip never let up."
The Bonackers were on the move with two and a half minutes remaining thanks to a long feed up to Addi Barletta by Ava Tintle, who had stopped a breakaway, but a ref's whistle put the kibosh on what seemed to be a promising attack.
Asked to comment later, Coach Schuster said, "the play was called dead because the ball was played in the air. We didn't think it was played illegally, but refs at this level tend not to allow that elite level of play, which is frustrating. There were no opposing players around and the ball was batted down, not forward. . . ."
Cassie Ceva, Kerri O'Donnell, Hailey Welsch, and Tintle had "left it all on the field," Schuster said, adding that "the game, unfortunately, was a typical one for us — we just couldn't finish on offense. . . . We have a strong junior class returning, so, if they want it they should get to work now."
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team lost 5-2 to Commack in a county team tournament quarterfinal match on Oct. 23. Its winners were Stella Peterson, at third singles, and the fourth doubles team of Molly Stillman and Sophia Sanchez Cleary. Sienna Hummel, at first singles, and Natalie Yellen, at second singles, lost in straight sets, as did the first (Ella Menu and Ava Mintz), second (Caleigh Barletta and Colleen McKee), and third (Dylan and Fallon Centalonza) doubles teams.
Only the 2015 girls tennis team coached by Katie Helfand, which advanced to the county team tournament's semifinal round, fared better in recent years than this one coached by Pablo Montesi.
Boys Cross-Country
The season came to an end for the boys cross-country team at Sunken Meadow State Park Friday. "The boys ran well in the division meet," Kevin Barry, East Hampton's coach, said, "but our ninth-place finish among the Class B schools kept us out of the county championships. To get in we would have had to finish in the top eight."
The Bonackers were led over the difficult 5K course by Liam Knight, a junior, who placed 14th in 19 minutes and 9 seconds. Jasper Samuelson, a freshman, was East Hampton's second runner — and 22nd over all — in 19:25, after which came Benson Edman, the team's captain, in 19:49, Watts Comly-Bolick in 19:54, and Alistair Ramsey in 20:38.
"Our team is very young, and yet we finished with a 3-2 record, good for third place in our league," said Barry, adding that "I was proud of the way they competed -- there's a promising future ahead."
Knight and Edman were named to the all-League VI first team; Samuelson and Wyatt Smith were named to its second team. Samuelson, Comly-Bolick, Ramsey, Augie Swain are to run tomorrow in the county's freshman-sophomore meet at Sunken Meadow.
