Bonac Football Announces It's To Be Taken Seriously After Another Lopsided Victory, This Time Over Kings Park

The cat is officially out of the bag — this Bonac football team is for real.

The East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton football team defeated Kings Park, 47-7, in its home opener on Saturday afternoon, and after a 2-1 start to the season, which included a close 7-6 loss at Comsewogue in the season opener, then a 40-7 drubbing of host Rocky Point in week two, it’s now clear the Bonackers can compete in Division III.

“They came in from day one just working hard and they’re into it, man,” head coach Joe McKee said after the game. “They’re a fun group to coach and their football IQ is just off the charts. They know what’s going on, they express things to us and see things on the field and make calls according to that. It’s a lot fun.”

It looked like Bonac was going to kick things off right away from the opening kicking when Bridgehampton standout Alex Davis took the ball 80 yard for a touchdown. But it was negated on a holding penalty. Davis and the Bonackers wouldn’t be denied, though, as they methodically drove the ball down the field and capitalized on their opening drive when Davis barreled his way through and stiff armed his way in from 22 yards out. After Manny Morales’s successful point-after attempt, East Hampton led, 7-0, and it didn’t take long for it to add to that lead.

An interception at midfield by Cole Dunchik gave the Bonackers the ball back, and with .44 seconds remaining in the first quarter, junior Livs Kuplins shook his defender at the line of scrimmage leaving him wide open along the sideline and junior quarterback Theo Ball hit him in stride for the easy touchdown. Morales’s extra point made it 14-0 and the Bonackers were rolling.

After Kings Park shanked a punt that went out of bounds around Bonac’s 40, Davis ran the ball 30-plus yards to put his team deep into Kingsmen territory, then, on the very next play, Davis hit pay dirt with another 30-yard run to give East Hampton a commanding 21-0 lead after another successful extra point by Morales.

On the ensuing drive by Kings Park, Aidan Barbosa ran 50 yards for what wound up being the biggest play of the game for the Kingsmen. He would have ran it all the way into the end zone had it not been from Davis who tracked him down. A few minutes later, Barbosa tried to score by putting the ball over the goal line but the ball popped out of his hands on what was mostly a rainy day, and scooted up the field where Jake Rivera recovered the football on Bonac’s own 15-yard line.

After their offensive drive went nowhere, the Bonackers attempted to do what appeared to be a fake punt play that was botched when Morales slipped and felt on the slick turf, giving the Kingsmen prime real estate at the East Hampton 11. Just two plays later, Kings Park capitalized on a scoring pass play and after the extra point it was a 21-7 game, which was the score at halftime.

East Hampton started to involve a few other players in the offense to start the second half. On 4th and short, Ball found Charlie Stern to convert a first down, and not long after that, Ball found Jackson Ronick who caught the ball and took it up the sideline 34 yards for a touchdown. Later in the third quarter, Ball found Kuplins in the end zone again for another touchdown and Bonac led, 33-7, heading into the fourth.

Kings Park recovered an East Hampton fumble on Bonac’s 15-yard line, but just a few plays later, the Kingsmen botched a shotgun snap that East Hampton recovered. Later in the fourth, Davis, who had a pick-6 called back inexplicably toward the end of the third quarter, tackled a player that jarred the ball loose, recovered his own fumble and scampered 40 yards for a touchdown, which was not long after scoring an 80-yard touchdown run on offense.

Davis finished the game with 209 yards on the ground and four total touchdowns, three rushing, one the fumble recovery. Ball completed eight of his nine passes for 152 yards with three touchdowns, two of which were to Kuplins. Bowie Pepino led the team with nine tackles.

After this latest game, Davis is now up there in the county with some of the top scorers, but he gave a lot of credit to his teammates for his early-season success thus far.

“Couldn’t do anything without my QB right here,” Davis said as he patted the shoulder pads of Ball, “and also my linemen who are working their butts off. A bunch of kids just moved up to varsity. It’s their first year up here and we’re playing against kids our own age now, so we can ball.”

McKee said with so many skilled players up and down the roster he’s had a hard time getting everyone involved.

“I’ve been telling them, as an offensive coordinator I have a hard time getting the ball to everybody,” McKee said. “Cole Dunchik is a threat. Charlie Stern is a threat. We didn’t get the ball much to Henry Butler today. He’s a great threat. It’s a good problem to have.”

While it was the second game in a row in which the team scored 40 or more points, the Bonackers seemed more excited about their defensive play, which has been just as impressive through three games thus far, allowing a total of 20 points.

“We just put in some hard-nosed defense,” Stern said. “I think we knew coming into it our defense was going to have to really step up and that’s what got it done for us.”

“Three games in a row the defense has been pretty dominate. It’s starting to be a habit,” McKee added. “We have a bunch of kids that fly around the ball. They’re very well coached. Jaron Greenidge does a fabulous job changing up his defenses and giving teams different looks. They’re all doing a great job.”

East Hampton will play this Saturday, October 5, at Islip at 6 p.m. The Buccaneers are coming off a game in which they defeated host Westhampton Beach, 40-35, and now that opposing teams will not take them so lightly anymore, the Bonackers know it won’t be easy but a win could go a long way in solidifying their playoff hopes.

“That game is going to be a big game,” Stern said. “Our schedule’s tough but we’re going to get it done.”

“They’ve got some athletes over there,” McKee said. “They’ve got a good QB, skill guys, pretty solid guys up front. So it’s going to be a tall order.”