East Hampton Field Hockey Drops Playoff Opener, 1-0, at Rocky Point

The Class B field hockey playoff bracket is so competitive that no matter what the seed, just about any team can win the county title, evident in the fact that just about all of the top five teams had beaten one another.

Having been just a year removed from being a county finalist, East Hampton thought it had just as good a shot to win it all as anyone else. But it was going to have to deal with a tough Rocky Point team in the opening round on Tuesday.

Although the Bonackers played better than they did in their previous game against Rocky Point during the regular season, which was a 3-0 loss, they came up shorthanded on Tuesday again, this time with a close 1-0 loss.

The game was scoreless at the half, but Rocky Point broke through halfway through the third quarter when Sarah May sent in a ball from the top of the circle that Nicole Spadafina tipped in to make it 1-0. From that point on, the game just had the feeling as if the one goal was going to be the difference as East Hampton had a hard time generating any type of offense. With about two minutes left in the game, a Rocky Point player was carded, putting the Bonackers on the man-advantage. They threated in the offensive third, but still couldn’t get anything going before time ran out.

Rocky Point advanced to play top-seeded Bayport-Blue Point this Saturday after the Phantoms defeated Sayville, 3-0, in their quarterfinal matchup.

Team stats at the end of Tuesday’s game pretty much summed it up for East Hampton — it didn’t get a shot on goal and only generated one penalty corner to Rocky Point’s 14. East Hampton sophomore goalie Caeleigh Schuster made 16 saves in the game and was very active throughout.

East Hampton first-year head coach Danielle Schuster said that, at the end of the day, her team didn’t find the back of the cage.

“We knew it was going to be a close game,” she said. “The girls came back and fought hard. They beat us, 3-0, in regular season and at this level, all these top five teams, they’re so closely matched.

“Sometimes a little bit of luck helps,” Schuster added. “You hope the ball rolls your way and we just couldn’t get enough shots off. Their midfielders are really fast. Once we got through that midfield line, we had a couple of opportunities where we could have scored, but we didn’t pull enough corners and we just didn’t put the ball in the goal.”

After the game, both Schuster and assistant coach Nicole Ficeto received many hugs from their players. The team will be graduating six seniors, including Siena Link-Morse, Emma McGrory, Gracie Rasi, Melina Sarlo, Ally Schaefer and Sara Stuckart. Many of those girls had been on the team since eighth grade, Schuster said, and they’ll be sorely missed.

“They played with a lot heart,” she said. “Losing them is tough, but they’re a team, they’re a family, they work well together. And when they play together, they did a great job.”