East Hampton Boys Soccer Looks To Continue Winning Tradition

There may be only three returning starters from last year’s county finalist East Hampton boys soccer team, but the program has a winning pedigree ingrained from continued successful seasons for well over a decade now, and that doesn’t seem to be waning any time soon.

That was apparent last week when the Bonackers blanked a talented Westhampton Beach squad, 5-0, in what was the non-league season opener for both teams in East Hampton on September 2. They used a little bit of the old — returning senior Eric Armijos scored a pair of goals — and a little bit of the somewhat new — John Quizphe, a returning senior who didn’t get much playing time last season — scored a hat trick.

“They’re a new group,” East Hampton head coach Don McGovern said after his team’s victory last week. “Robert Rea, Manuel Ruiz and Eric Armijos are the only three starters who are retuning, so these guys stepped up today. The question is, can we do it next week when we start up our league at Kings Park. Can we do it that day? We’ll see how it goes and see if we can be consistent. It’s great that we start up this way. The spirits are good. We definitely have stuff that we’re going to work on.”

McGovern said that while a lot of the names on the current roster may be not recognizable at first, many of them are returning — they were just playing behind what was a senior-laden team last season. That means, he said, many of them are out to prove they can continue the program’s winning legacy.

Along with Rea, Ruiz and Armijos, Gary Gutama, who was called up for the team’s playoff run and got some key playing time as a freshman, is back with the team as well. Senior Neyser Dutan was expected to be the team’s starting goalie this season, but he suffered a cut above one of eyes during a preseason practice that required stitches, which have since been removed, but he was awaiting medical clearance from a doctor. McGovern said Josh Villaplana, who is typically a forward, volunteered to take Dutan’s place in goal for the game against Westhampton Beach, and all he did was make five saves for the shutout.

“In all fairness, everyone who was a starter today was on the varsity last year,” McGovern said. “They know what it’s about. They pushed the guys, and they competed every day last year, so hopefully we can continue that competition.”

East Hampton will play within League V this season, which includes Harborfields, the team that defeated the Bonackers for the county title. Amityville, Kings Park, Sayville, Islip and Rocky Point are also in the league.

East Hampton opens its league schedule at Kings Park this Thursday, September 9, at 6:30 p.m. and will play Jericho in a non-league game this Saturday, September 11, at 5 p.m.

Information on the East Hampton/Pierson girls soccer team was not provided.