East Hampton Field Hockey Drops Fourth Straight With 3-0 Loss to Rocky Point

Despite a string of four straight losses, this East Hampton field hockey team hasn’t lost its focus on making it back to the Suffolk County championship.

And even after its recent 3-0 defeat at the hands of rival Rocky Point on Friday, senior midfielder Emma McGrory said her 7-4 Bonackers are still just as skilled and unified as they were at the start of the season.

“I think we’re handling the adversity well,” said the five-year varsity standout. “We have great talent on our team, and if we can put it all together, we hope to achieve our goal of making it back.”

The winless spurt started with a 4-2 loss to Bayport-Blue Point, where McGrory scored both goals and sophomore goalkeeper Caeleigh Schuster made 22 saves. It was followed by a 4-1 loss to Eastport-South Manor. Senior forward Siena Link-Morse recorded the lone goal and her shot was assisted by senior midfielder and defender Melina Sarlo, who also picked up an assist the game prior. Schuster made 18 stops against the Sharks, followed it up with 17 in a 1-0 loss to Miller Place on October 4 and picked up 17 against Rocky Point on October 6.

Sarlo said her younger teammates have continued to step up to fill the shoes of the seven seniors who graduated from last year’s team.

“[They] have loads of potential. I’ve enjoyed helping them grow throughout the season,” said the five-year varsity player. “Collectively, we want to keep improving and need to become more confident in ourselves and the team as a whole. There are things we can do better to create more scoring opportunities, so we have to stay focused and place emphasis on our foundations to prepare for playoffs.”

Some of that, Sarlo said, is maintaining space on the field, winning 50/50 balls and keeping an eye on the common goal. McGrory said part of that is also playing as a unit and utilizing a two-touch game.

“Since preseason, we focused on working as a team, and it really showed in our early season,” McGrory said. “There are some good teams in our division, yes, but I don’t feel we are lacking. We just need to push the momentum.”

The Bonackers hoped to pick up some steam to carry them through the end of the regular season when they traveled to East Islip on Tuesday, results of which were not available by press time. East Hampton hosts Shoreham-Wading River on Thursday, October 12, at 5 p.m. before a regular season finale at Greenport/Southold Tuesday, October 17, at 4:30 p.m.

“[Our coaches] have taught us that we are family, and that’s how we treat each other. When your family faces a tough situation, you do everything you can to help,” McGrory said. “When our team faces a difficult team, we need to do our best to support each other and come together.”