Bonac Football Loses Fourth-Quarter Lead at Islip

Leading by 13 with one quarter to go at Islip, the East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton football team eventually succumbed to the onslaught of what was a potent Buccaneers attack, leading to a 28-20 defeat and the first tough game of the season for the resurgent Bonackers.

To that point, Bonac head coach Joe McKee said that while in previous years he and his team would have been happy just to compete with a team such as Islip, this year, and this team, is different.

“Where we’re at with this team, it’s a winning football team. They’ve got a chance to make the playoffs, maybe a make a little noise,” he said. “The kids are turning the corner. We lost a tough one.”

East Hampton opened the game on offense and churned up quite bit of the clock thanks to a three-pronged running attack with East Hampton junior James Corwin and Bridgehampton juniors Alex Davis and Jai Feaster. Eventually, the drive stalled in Islip territory, though, and on their second play of the game on offense, the Buccaneers struck when quarterback Brady Nash connected with Jack Rao on a 55-yard touchdown pass, leading to a successful point-after attempt by Carver Mason for a 7-0 lead.

The Bonackers, to their credit, took over the game from that point on. On their ensuing possession, junior quarterback Theo Ball threw a pass up from junior receiver Livs Kuplins, who leaped up high for the ball and came down with it to keep a drive going deep into Islip territory. That eventually led to a 14-yard touchdown run by Davis for Bonac’s first score of the night, and after Manny Morales’s extra point attempt, the game was tied and East Hampton would score 20 unanswered points.

After a quick scramble, Ball found classmate Charlie Stern wide open in the end zone for a touchdown with 1:39 remaining in the first half to give East Hampton a 13-7 lead. After stopping Nash on 4th and 3 to force a turnover on downs, giving the Bonackers the ball on the Bucs 39-yard line, it was clear Islip was getting frustrated. It was called for multiple unsportsmanlike personal foul calls that helped lead East Hampton to its next score. Ball eventually found Corwin for a quick 3-yard pass play, and after Morales’s extra point, Bonac led, 20-7, and was in the driver’s seat with 4:26 remaining in the third.

On its ensuing drive, it was clear Islip was going to switch gears from whatever it tried doing offensively for much of the first three quarters and instead just kept the ball in their quarterback’s hands, and Nash obliged. He scored his first of three rushing touchdowns of the quarter just three seconds into the fourth, added his second with 4:27 remaining in the game, then capped the game’s scoring with 3:16 left on a strong 20-yard run to give his team its first lead since the deep pass and catch with Rao in the first quarter.

Nash, who has helped run one of the division’s most potent offenses to 27 points per game, ran for 102 yards on 13 carries and completed 9 of 13 passes for 166 yards. McKee said he was a force to be reckoned with in the latter half of the game and his team simply couldn’t stop him.

“We had a hard time stopping them there in the last quarter. They had momentum on their side and they just kept riding it,” he said. “We had a couple opportunities even after he scored, still up by one touchdown. We just couldn’t sustain a drive. We had a good chance, we had good field position. Have to go back on film and see what happened.”

Despite the loss, it’s certainly a game the Bonackers, who now sit at 2-2 in Division III, can build off. Davis finished the game with 97 yards on the ground on 20 carries.

“I still think we’re building. I also think we’re almost at the point where we have to learn how to win,” McKee said. “I just get the feeling, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but when you don’t win many football games you’re almost, like, hoping to win instead of a team like that, they expect to win. That’s a program that’s used to winning and we’ve got to get there.”

McKee added that if his team wants to get where it wants to go, which is the playoffs, it’s going to have to start beating good teams. That could start this week, but on a short week due to Yom Kippur. East Hampton hosts Westhampton Beach this Thursday, October 10, at 3 p.m. The Hurricanes have had a down year thus far, having lost its last two games to Islip and then Sayville this past week and are 1-3 this season. Because they were ranked third this preseason, though, a win over the ’Canes could give the Bonackers a boost in their quest to punch a ticket to the postseason.

Despite things perhaps pointing in Bonac’s way in their upcoming game, McKee is not taking this Westhampton Beach team for granted.

“That’s a good football team. It’s well coached on both sides of the ball,” he said. “This is the meat of our schedule. Today was Islip, next game is Westhampton, then Amityville and Hauppauge, so we’re in the meat of our schedule against the higher ranked teams.”