East Hampton Boys Soccer Tops East Islip, 2-1, to Advance to County Semifinals

Eric Armijos and Michael Figueroa each scored a goal to send the East Hampton boys soccer team to the Suffolk County Class A semifinals after defeating East Islip, 2-1, in the quarterfinals at home on Thursday. While the pair tend to get a lot of the spotlight for their offensive prowess, both players and their head coach Don McGovern preached after the victory that it was a team win more than anything else.

“This season I feel like it’s not just one individual,” Figueroa, who scored the Bonacker’s first goal of Thursday’s game 30 seconds in, said. “It’s like we all have that bond on the team. Hard work just beats talent.

“Beating a team like East Islip, we matched their physicality and their intensity in the second half of the game,” Armijos added. “We just have to keep going forward. We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

The Bonackers, who earned a first-round bye into the playoffs with their second seed, will host No. 3 Half Hollow Hills West in the semifinals this Monday, October 31, tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m. Hills West defeated No. 11 Kings Park, 2-0, to advance. The winner on Monday advances to the county championship against the winner of No. 1 Amityville/No. 4 Elwood/John Glenn on Thursday, November 3, at Comsewogue High School at 5:30 p.m.

Both Armijos and Figueroa said after Thursday's hard fought victory over East Islip that the plan at the onset was to pressure East Islip’s defense and score a quick goal to build up some quick momentum, and that’s exactly what they did. Gary Gutama fought for possession of the ball deep into East Islip’s back-third, and the junior quickly found Armijos who quickly pulled in the defense. With East Islip goalie Nick Shields out of position, Armijos quickly found Figueroa in the middle who basically had a wide open goal and he didn’t miss to make it a quick 1-0 game 29 seconds into the game.

“It was like an instant connection,” Armijos said of the goal. “I just knew he was there. Like, if you look at the play, I had my back turned the whole time. I look up and I just knew he would be there.”

But that momentum didn’t last for long.

Just two minutes later, East Islip pressured Bonac’s defense creating a big scrum in front of the goal. Eventually Anthony Mariani was credited with the goal after there was some initial debate with the officials on whether or not it was an actual goal or offsides was called. The goal was ruled good and the two teams played even the rest of the first half and well into the second half.

East Islip pressured early and often in the second half. Just two and a half minutes in, East Islip caught Bonac goalie Nicholas Guerrero out of position and got an awkward angle shot off that most likely would have went in had it not been for Bonac defender Kevin Hilario standing on the goal line and making a save with his knees, clearing the ball at the same time.

With just over 30 minutes remaining the game, Armijos took a pass from teammate Brian Tacuri that an East Islip defender initially deflected, but Arimijos played through the ball, brought it deep into East Islip’s back-third and somehow got an unsaveable shot off a very awkward angle — top shelf no less — into the goal, giving the Bonackers a 2-1 lead.

“I saw Brian on the right flank and I just knew, again, another instant connection, he saw me across the field,” Armijos said of the goal. “I took that touch, saw the opening and I just ripped it. Obviously the defender deflected it but I kept going.”

Figueroa said Armijos’s goal was a big lift to the team.

“They're a very talented team. I have to give them that,” he said of East Islip. “It was very tough holding them up. Once Eric scored that second goal, we knew we just had to give it our all, give everything we could with our heart, because our goal is to keep going and going. To do that we just have to give it our all, push each other, and it paid off.”

After the game, McGovern highlighted the defense, which was playing shorthanded with usual starter Christopher Guallpa nursing an injury and not playing. A committee, he said, of Steve Ortiz and David Criollo did a very admirable job filling in.

McGovern also lauded the work of Jeremy Ortiz, Jonathan Armjios and Jose Calderon for handling tough tasks out on the field and more minutes.

“We had some guys who really hadn’t gotten some minutes come off the bench and they rose to the occasion, he said. “They stepped up, stepped in. So you see it’s these two guys who get talked about lot,” McGovern said, referring to Eric Armijos and Figueroa, “but it’s more than that. It’s 30 of them doing it every day together, and they love each other.”

McGovern also gave a lot of credit to his trio of goalies. Guerrero, who made five saves in the win and was very active, is the team’s starter, but with Adiran Arango and Aldo Zhagui also in the mix, they all push each other in practice, McGovern said, and feed off one another, leading to that team theme once again.

“Adrian and I were talking on the bench during the game and I was like, ‘Adrian, we got to talk to Nick,’ and he was like, ‘No, I already got it. This is what I’m going to do, this is what I’m going to say,’ and that helped Nick,” McGovern explained. “I think Nick maybe lacked a little confidence and then I think he got that through the second half through the whole team coming together and knowing they have confidence in him.”