East Hampton Boys Soccer in the Thick of League VI Battle

League VI in boys soccer this season looks to be a barn burner, and the East Hampton boys soccer team is ready for battle.

Although the Bonackers are coming off a 2-0 loss at Hauppauge on Monday, and a hard-fought 3-3 tie at home with Amityville on Thursday, September 19, they’ve shown they can more than play with both teams, which, as of Tuesday morning, were the top two teams in the league. Hauppauge is 6-1 at the moment, and its one loss was to Amityville, which is in second place with a 4-1-2 record, its first loss coming on Monday to Harborfields (4-3), and ties with previously mentioned East Hampton and Half Hollow Hills West (4-2-1).

It could come down to the wire, and East Hampton is battle-tested from years of highly competitive games.

“We have a great group of boys who are passionate about the game and come to training and matches with a positive attitude and a great work ethic,” head coach Don McGovern said. “The boys realize they are part of something larger than themselves, as previous groups have as well, and they want to strive for success and achieve the program’s goals and dreams.

“If we continue to work hard each day, the boys will put themselves in a good position,” he added.

Last week’s tilt between East Hampton and Amityville was a classic regular season matchup. Amityville jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, the second goal coming on a penalty kick just six minutes in when an Amityville player was brought down in the box by a Bonacker, or so was the call. The ball was clearly heading out of bounds to be a goal kick. To the Amityville player’s credit, he hustled down the field and appeared to draw the call himself by going down.

Facing a two-goal deficit to the Class A county finalists from a year ago seemed to be a daunting task for the Bonackers, but they clawed their way back. Just minutes after the PK, Nolan Serrano corralled a bouncing ball in the box and fired off a shot that hit the back of the net to make it a 2-1, which was the score at halftime.

“The goal we scored a little over a minute after the PK was important because it gave the boys a sense of belief that good things can happen if they stick to how they play,” McGovern said. “The boys settled down as well after the goal, and during halftime we communicated about how we needed to keep playing smart when not in possession and when winning possession of the ball to keep moving the ball quickly into the attacking third. We felt if we did that, good things would happen, and as you saw, we generated some good opportunities and capitalized on two of them.”

Just over five minutes into the second half, the Bonackers were awarded a free kick just outside the box. Senior co-captain Jonathan Armijos sent the ball in. It hit the crossbar that Serrano quickly headed in to tie the game. Then, with 20 minutes remaining in the game, Bonac scored its third unanswered goal to take the lead when junior Yandel Parra settled the ball in the box, avoided a pair of Amityville defenders then scooted a ground ball by the goalie to make it a 3-2 game.

But with just over nine minutes remaining in regulation, Amityville was awarded a free kick just outside of East Hampton’s box and it scored off of it to tie the game, 3-3. After a pair of overtimes, which included some close calls for a golden goal from both sides, the game finished a tie; shootouts are only done in the playoffs. Randy Japa played well in goal for Bonac making a half dozen saves.

“It was a great match to be a part of as both teams played tremendously,” McGovern said.

East Hampton will play at Eastport-South Manor on Thursday, September 26, at 4:30 p.m. and then will play at Comsewogue on Tuesday, October 1, at 5 p.m. before hosting Babylon in a nonleague game on October 5 at 10 a.m.