Guallpa's Overtime Goal Sends East Hampton Boys Soccer to County Semis

Just over a minute or so into the first overtime of last week’s Suffolk County Class AA quarterfinal between host East Hampton and West Islip on October 26, senior Bonacker Christopher Guallpa received a fantastic lead pass at midfield from teammate Filiph Garcia. The pass led Guallpa down the wing and allowed him to beat his one defender easily, eventually leading to a one-on-one with West Islip goalie Daniel Von Thaden.

“I was, like, ‘Should I pass it? Should I cross it? Should I try taking him on?’” Guallpa said he asked himself in that moment. “But then I was, like, ‘I’m going to trust myself on this. I’m just going to go down the wing and I’m going to shoot one, see what happens.’”

Von Thaden came out of his goal crease to aggressively play Guallpa, who had already decided a second or two before that to get the shot off. He snuck the shot right under Von Thaden, giving the Bonackers the 1-0 victory just 2:40 into the first overtime period.

No. 2 East Hampton advanced to the semifinals with the victory where it hosted No. 3 Huntington this Monday (see separate story). The Blue Devils needed overtime themselves to dispatch No. 6 Comsewogue, 4-3, in their quarterfinal matchup also played on October 26.

“I felt a relief, biggest relief. I was up here and then all the way down. Felt amazing,” Guallpa said of his game-winning strike.

East Hampton senior co-captain Brian Tacuri said once he saw Guallpa take the pass from Garcia down the wing, it’s almost like he knew he was going to score.

“A lot of emotions came through me, but when I saw him run down the line, it’s one of those feelings I felt relief even before he got the ball because I just had this weird feeling that he was going to score on that,” he explained. “I saw him run down the line and I saw him poke it through the goalie. It hit the back of the net, I just sprinted toward him and we celebrated.”

East Hampton head coach Don McGovern said after the game that anyone watching it could obviously see there were two distinct styles of play going on throughout the game. West Islip, to its credit, pushed East Hampton thoroughly in the first half, but in the second half, Bonac had so many opportunities to score it easily could have been up two or three goals — but it hit a few crossbars, a post, a wide shot here and there.

Mix in unseasonably warm temperatures, especially on the field, with hard fought play, and it made for a tough game on both sides.

“Hard work, that’s it. On and off the pitch,” Guallpa said of outlasting their opponent. “After practice, during practice, just have to work hard off the pitch so that when you get on the pitch, you can outwork your opponent.”

“It’s also our mentality,” Tacuri added. “From the first whistle, I told them I don’t want to make this our last game I ever play with these guys. Because some of these kids, I’ve grown up with these guys since I was little. I just told them, ‘Let’s keep it going, let’s make our mentality strong, and if we get to overtime our mentality stays the same. Even if your legs are tired, I want everyone to push themselves until you physically can’t run anymore.’ And that’s exactly what everyone showed today.”

East Hampton didn’t play Huntington during the regular season, with the Blue Devils playing in League V, where it placed second to top-seed Smithtown West. No matter how good Huntington may or may not be, East Hampton has a lot going for it, including a five-game winning streak that has sparked a tremendous amount of confidence in the team. And for the simple fact that it doesn’t have to travel for Monday’s game.

“Today, if anyone watched the game, we completely dominated them,” Tacuri said. “We got really unlucky with the ball not finding the goal. They didn’t generate much, they just tried to play long. They couldn’t get past me or Kevin [Hilario].

“No disrespect, though, they were a great team,” Guallpa interjected. “They were aggressive and they worked as a team. But, yet again, it’s soccer. Whoever scores, wins.”