East Hampton Field Hockey Drops Suffolk County Title Game in Overtime

The East Hampton field hockey team may have been down several times in the Suffolk County Class B championship game, but the Bonackers never counted themselves out.

Battling back to be down 3-2 with 55.6 seconds remaining, sophomore Kerri O’Donnell found the back of the goal off an assist from junior defender Ally Schaefer to send the game into overtime. Unfortunately, Rocky Point’s Sarah May scored halfway through the 10-minute sudden-death overtime Saturday to lift the Eagles to the title, but senior defender Chloe Coleman said her team has taken away a lot from the loss, and this season altogether.

“At the beginning of this year we were considered the underdogs, although as the season progressed it seemed that other teams might have underestimated us,” Coleman said. “This team has shown so much growth, and through our determination we’ve learned to never give up — to always remember that it’s anyone’s game. Although we didn’t come out on top, we played so hard and fought for each point.”

Senior Sadie Cober helped ensure her Bonackers’ opponents didn’t get any of those in the first quarter. The defender made back-to-back saves after freshman goalkeeper Caeleigh Schuster’s own stop to open the contest, and the defenses on both sides remained staunch through the first quarter.

But Rocky Point’s Tia Fusco punched one through for the game’s first goal off an assist from Sydney Woods in the second. That wasn’t going to silence East Hampton, though, with junior forward Emma McGrory neutralizing things just two minutes later, to knot the score at 1-1 with 23.9 seconds left in the first half.

“I’m so proud of them,” East Hampton’s first-year head coach Samantha James said of her team’s fight. “They played incredible. They played their absolute hearts out, and that’s all I can ask for.”

And it didn’t stop there. Morgan Feinberg and Woods each scored early in the second half to put Rocky Point (13-4-1) up, 3-1, but on the Bonackers’ third straight corner attempt, junior midfielder Melina Sarlo rocked the box off a feed from Coleman to make it a one-goal game.

“We knew that it would be a battle, but we knew we were capable of winning it,” Coleman said. “We definitely had first-quarter jitters, but we all played our hearts out and left everything on the field, which is something that I’m proud of.”

And the Bonackers weren’t about to quit any time soon. The Eagles grabbed corner after corner after corner, but Schuster made several of her game-high 26 saves to keep East Hampton (12-4-1) in it.

“They really rallied around each other and kept their heads up,” James said. “They led with their hearts and they found their fire.”

With 55.9 seconds left in regulation, she was rewarded when Schaefer hit O’Donnell on a corner.

“I wanted to vomit. It was an incredible play,” James said, laughing. “I never not believed in my girls. I knew the game wasn’t over.”

“In the Class A final we watched Northport score with eight seconds left, so we held our heads high and we told ourselves anything is possible,” Cober added. “We were in this. We’re a great team, and we deserved to win.”

Rocky Point had one last corner, but Schuster stopped a shot from the 15-yard line to send the game into the 10-minute 7-v-7 sudden-death overtime.

“Our team has been put in this position so many times that we came out positive and confident,” Coleman said, pointing to extra minutes the team competed across that led to six shootouts this season. “We wanted to represent our school in the best way possible.”

McGrory had a chance on a break and Schuster made four more saves in the session, but a rebound off back-to-back stops was stuffed in by May with 5:04 left on the clock.

“We tried our best — we just couldn’t finish,” James said. “But they held it together and they stayed together — they didn’t crumble with the pressure.”

Cober said the loss does not take away from what her history-making East Hampton team was able to accomplish, reaching the Suffolk County finals for the first time since 2003.

“I’ve never connected this much with a team before — we’re a unit — and it feels really great seeing us make it this far,” Cober said, looking down at the Bonackers’ commemorative consolation prize. “This plaque is not nothing.”

Coleman said she could not have asked for anything more from this season, thanking the school administration and fans for their support, and adding she’s grateful for James, coach Nicole Ficeto and first-year Athletic Director Kathy Masterson.

“They all pushed us to the max and brought out the best in all of us,” Coleman said. “It feels surreal to see this all come to an end, but the team as a whole made this year so memorable for me and all of the seniors. We haven’t made it here for the first time in a long time, and our bonds and friendships on and off the field are so tight that I think that’s what helped us get this far. Our resilience and perseverance pushed us to the next level.”