9 Photos
East Hampton's Salome Galindo disrupts a player in the ESM backfield. DREW BUDD
East Hampton's Salome Galindo disrupts a player in the ESM backfield. DREW BUDD
East Hampton's Salome Galindo gets the flag of an ESM player. DREW BUDD
East Hampton's Jameson Grant passes. DREW BUDD
East Hampton's Jocelyn Prieto passes after taking a toss in the backfield. DREW BUDD
Bonacker Addison Barletta catches a pass from Jocelyn Prieto. DREW BUDD
Bonacker Jocelyn Prieto gains some yards. DREW BUDD
Bonacker Jameson Grant tries to avoid some ESM defenders. DREW BUDD
East Hampton head coach Jonathan Augi. DREW BUDD
The East Hampton girls flag football team’s inaugural season hasn’t been easy.
The Bonackers are winless after seven games, following losses in their latest pair of games to Longwood (21-0) and Eastport-South Manor (19-0), on Monday and Saturday, respectively, at home.
They’re averaging less than five points per game, but head coach Jonathan Augi said after Saturday’s loss to ESM that his team continues to make strides and they’re going to surprise some teams over the season’s final three weeks.
“It’s been a rocky start with the girls,” he said. “The amount of improvements they have made over the past few weeks — we are a good team, we are a solid team.”
Augi said that the improvements from the first week of practice until now have been remarkable, and with the improvements they continue to make, he’s confident his team will come through with a victory.
“These girls are working their butts off,” he said. “They are working every single day. They’ll go home, continue drilling, preparing. They’re starting to put it together on the field. You can see at the end of the game the momentum shifted. They just have to bring that momentum at the start. We’ll be hard to beat.”
ESM built up a 19-0 lead over East Hampton on Saturday, but the Bonackers were able to turn the momentum on a few big plays late in the game. As per rules, if a team is down 18 points or more with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, the game is over, so Augi and his players showed a huge sense of urgency as the clock ticked down to the final minutes. With 5:03 remaining in the game, Augi used a timeout to draw up a final play with the Bonackers threatening to score to keep the game going. They were unable to come up with a score so the game did, in fact, come to an end a little early. But Augi really liked the fight he saw in his girls down the final stretch of the game.
Following the final whistle, Augi met with his players and nearly all of them had something to say reflecting on the game which shows they’re all in.
“They all took something away from today’s game. In fact they asked me for a rematch. They said, ‘Can you talk to that coach? We want to play them again,’” he said. “But they’re all working hard together, coming together as a team. It is coming together real quick and we’ll be hard to beat the rest of the season.”
The Bonackers will play at Center Moriches this Saturday, April 29, at 2 p.m. and then will have nearly a week off before they host Ward Melville on Friday, May 5, at 5 p.m.
