Bonac Boys Boys Soccer Claims League VI Title

The East Hampton boys soccer team fired the opening salvo in its battle with East Islip for the League VI title with a 1-0 victory at home on October 7. After that game, Bonackers head coach Don McGovern said the next time the two teams would meet, merely days later in East Islip on October 12, it would be another war.

With league title rights on the line, both teams played hard, but due to how well Bonac played, it was a mere skirmish compared to an all-out war.

Taking what it had learned the first time the two teams played each other less than a week earlier, East Hampton scored early and often in what wound up being a 5-2 victory. A subsequent 7-0 victory at home over Westhampton Beach on Monday officially clinched the league title for Bonac, which finished the regular season, 9-2-1, in league play (11-2-1 overall).

“The first game was very tough. East Islip gave us our best game this season, but we went out there today and played our hearts out. It’s all passion and love,” junior co-captain Jonathan Armijos said after the win.

“Like Jonathan said, from the first game, it felt like a playoff game,” senior Christopher Chimbo added. “The intensity was there. East Islip is the best, most talented team that we played this season so far, and we prepared for this win since last night, since the practice that we had. We took care of our bodies, we woke up, went to school, focused on school, and then we played our hearts out on this field.”

Chimbo said after rewatching tape from the first time the two teams played, he recognized that East Islip’s defenders were easy to split.

“So all we had to do was pull a defender and send a through ball, and that worked five times for us today,” he said.

East Hampton got the scoring started just 10 minutes into the game, when sophomore Filiph Garcia Ayala was taken down in the box, awarding the Bonackers a penalty kick that Armijos took. He buried the ball easily into the back of the net to make it a 1-0 game.

East Hampton had scored somewhat early when the first two teams met, and sat on that close one-goal lead all game. That wasn’t going to be the case this time as East Islip was awarded a free kick from just outside the box near the right corner just seven minutes or so after East Hampton scored. Jared Kelly took the kick and sent a bending ball into the top left corner to even the game at 1-1.

But just mere minutes later, the Bonackers were awarded a free kick of their own that senior co-captain Gary Gutama took from about 30 yards out. He sent a long ball into the box that the East Islip goalie must have been screened on, because he made no attempt at it as it went easily into the goal to make a it 2-1 game.

Ten minutes later, East Hampton broke out on a little bit of a fast break where senior John Bustamante pulled in the defense as he dribbled the ball into the box. He passed it to Garcia Ayala, who scored easily and the Bonackers now held a 3-1 lead with 9:35 remaining in the first half.

With six minutes remaining in the half, East Islip was awarded another free kick that Kelly again took. He sent another bending ball that this time went off the cross bar. His teammate, Dylan Gaulrapp, found the rebound and scored easily to make it a one-goal game at halftime.

East Hampton didn’t waste much time going on the offensive in the second half. Junior Ariel Garcia quickly sent a transition ball from about midfield to Garcia Ayala, who then found junior Michael Chimbo at the top of the box. The junior ripped a shot off and scored to make it 4-2. About five minutes later, Armijos found the ball out of a scrum in front of the net off a corner kick and he scored to make it 5-2 and the eventual final score.

“I tell you what, we played a great game tonight,” McGovern said. “Everyone stepped up. We asked guys to do some things that they may not typically do, and they did it. And so, I’m really proud of that effort. It was a great team effort.

“We tried to play a possession-based game, and I think we did and were very effective with it,” he added. “We were more dangerous today in the attacking third, and we were able to finish the ball. We haven’t been able to do that consistently. We’re always in games, but this game we were able to do it. Whether it was Chris Chimbo, or Filiph Garcia or Jonathan Armijos, we did a good job of breaking the lines and finding the seams and finding the back of the net.”

Making the move up this season from a Class A school to Class AA, winning the league title and therefore getting a good high seed in the upcoming playoffs should come in handy when facing teams the Bonackers haven’t faced in some time, like Smithtown West, Huntington and Centereach. The Class AA playoffs are tentatively expected to start this Monday, October 23, but if East Hampton gets a seed it’s hoping for, it should get a first-round bye and host a quarterfinal game on October 26.

Many of the Bonackers that reached the Class A semifinals last year remain and are excited to be in a good position for another shot at a county title.

“Since we were in the semifinal last year, we’re just hungry,” Chris Chimbo said. “We’re hungry to win the county final, hungry for everything. We’re trying to win. We’re not trying to lose or tie. We’re out here trying to win, and that’s it.”

“The big difference between this year and last year is that we’re all intensity, all passion this year,” Armijos said. “We’ve all had our minds right from day one.”