East Hampton High’s boys soccer team got off on the right foot here on Sept. 4, defeating Eastport-South Manor 5-1 in its season-opener.
Ariel Garcia, a senior forward who came off Don McGovern’s bench last year, scored four of the goals; Jonathan Armijos, a senior forward who often smiles when he plays, netted the other.
The visitors were credited with having taken five shots on goal in a Newsday account the next day, but that seems generous: The visitors rarely mounted a serious attack. It was pretty much all East Hampton from the get-go as Garcia, whose first name might remind one of Shakespeare’s spirit in “The Tempest,” began working his magic early. The slim, slick ball-handler put the Bonackers on the scoreboard within the first minute, converting a pass he’d received from Eduardo Calle, a junior midfielder, who had rushed up the left sideline.
At the four-minute mark, after Calle himself had just missed scoring, Garcia again beat Eastport-South Manor’s goalie for a 2-0 lead, and, in the 22nd minute, Calle and Garcia teamed up for Garcia’s third score of the afternoon, giving him a hat trick with almost half of the first half yet to play.
McGovern began subbing in earnest a few minutes later, sending Christopher Deleon in for Yandel Parra, and Matias Gonzalez in for Garcia. After the game, Bonac’s coach said that he had played just about everyone on his 31-man roster, which comprises 11 seniors, 18 juniors, and two sophomores.
The Sharks netted their sole goal in the very last second of the first half, the ball, launched from about 30 yards out, coming to rest just under the crossbar at the far post.
During the break, McGovern urged his players to kill Eastport-South Manor’s will in the second half, i.e., to “make them not want to play anymore.” And, to avoid offside whistles, which were blown a few times in the first half, he asked that the forward-most attacking forward freeze (give himself up) so that the ball could be played through.
When the second half began, a ground-hugger by Parra rolled just wide to the left of Eastport’s goal, though, moments later, Armijos made it 4-1 East Hampton after a free kick rebounded off the near post into a scrum that had formed in front of the cage.
A breakaway by Garcia with 14 minutes left to play capped the scoring.
A Big Win
Two days later, the Bonackers drew a far tougher opponent in Comsewogue, which had begun the season by shellacking Westhampton Beach 7-0.
But McGovern’s crew, despite giving up a height advantage pretty much across the board, posing problems whenever there was a set play, was quite up to the occasion. Randy Japa, East Hampton’s senior goalie, was a wonder, parrying shot after shot, as were his fellow defenders, Johnny Gonzalez, Calle, and Michael Chimbo among them.
The midfielders and forwards were eye-catching, too, contending for every ball throughout the fray and cashing in twice in dazzling fashion. Gonzalez got the Bonackers on the scoreboard in the 30th minute as his free kick from about 40 yards out bounced high over the head of the Warriors’ goalie, who paid dearly for coming out too far.
Gonzalez’s shocker prompted much celebrating by his teammates and by the sizable crowd that had turned out for the game. Seven minutes later, there was another uproar as Garcia, having gathered in a pass from Deleon, who had come down the right side, blasted a shoulder-high shot into the cage that the keeper had no chance to stop. And just before the half ended, Japa made a great save on a Comsewogue free kick to send the Bonackers into the halftime break up 2-0.
And that was all the scoring that day as Japa, who was hugged by his coach and applauded by his teammates in the postgame huddle, continued to be astounding and his fellow defenders continued to be tenacious.
The big win put East Hampton solely at the top of League VI with a 2-0 record.
“That was a great game against a tough opponent, but every game is going to be like that,” McGovern told his delighted charges. “Every game will be tough. . . . Meanwhile, let’s hear it for Randy, the man of the match!”
