Rocky Point picked East Hampton as its homecoming opponent. Big mistake. The Bonackers on Saturday wreaked havoc at the North Shore school on their way to a 40-7 rout of the Eagles, giving the sizable hometown crowd little to crow about.
Joe McKee, East Hampton’s coach, said afterward that he didn’t remember such a lopsided Bonac win “in recent history. . . . I expected us to win, I knew we were the better team, but, aside from that one glitch, when they had that long drive going into the half, we dominated. I was very pleased.”
Going into the break, the Bonackers were up 20-7, and continued to play with the same determination in the second half.
East Hampton scored the first time it had the ball, a three-play drive from Rocky Point’s 38-yard line that was capped by Alex Davis’s 13-yard scoring scamper. Manny Morales’s point-after kick soared through the uprights for a 7-0 lead.
The home team could make no headway when the second quarter began inasmuch as Bonac’s linemen were stuffing runs and getting to the quarterback. Taking over at their 44 following a Rocky Point punt, East Hampton launched a nine-play scoring drive during which Davis, James Corwin, and Jackson Ronick reeled off gains, with Davis finishing the drive off with a plunge into the end zone from the 1-yard line.
There was no point-after this time, as the snap sailed high over Morales’s head. Happily, the kicker got to the ball before any Rocky Pointers did. Moments later, Ronick intercepted a first-down pass from Rocky Point’s 32 and ran it back for East Hampton’s third touchdown of the game. Morales’s extra-point kick made it 20-0.
The Eagles’ fans finally had something to cheer about when, on the ensuing possession, a long pass was hauled in at East Hampton’s 36-yard line. And, after a sack by Bowie Pipino and a pass deflection by Charlie Stern, another completed pass advanced the ball to East Hampton’s 20, with 16 seconds remaining to play until halftime. With four ticks left, Rocky Point’s quarterback snuck in on first-and-goal from the 3, and the kick was good, sending the teams into the locker rooms with the Bonackers up by 13.
Rocky Point began the third quarter with an onside kick, but Corwin corralled it at the home team’s 47. Four plays later, it seemed that East Hampton had scored again, though the 19-yard run by Davis — who was to wind up with 123 yards gained on 15 carries, an impressive 8.2-yard average — was called back.
Moments later, with East Hampton facing a fourth-and-goal from the 1, Corwin bulled his way into the end zone. Morales added the extra point, extending East Hampton’s already-commanding lead to 27-7.
The Bonackers were to score yet another TD before the third quarter ended — the result of a beautiful 44-yard Theo Ball-to-Livs Kuplins pass that was called back the first time, but clicked on the subsequent try. Again, Morales’s kick was good, upping Bonac’s lead to 34-7.
One more touchdown was yet to come — a dazzling 67-yard jaunt five minutes into the fourth quarter by Jai Feaster, who, after shrugging off would-be tacklers, cut back and found daylight.
Rocky Point was the 10th preseason seed in the 12-team Division III — East Hampton was the 11th. Kings Park, the ninth seed, is to play here Saturday at 1:30 p.m. “Kings Park lost a tough one to Amityville this week — I can’t remember the last time we beat them in the past 20 years,” said McKee. “It will be a challenge.”
