East Hampton Field Hockey Eyeing Possible Playoff Spot

Prior to the fall season being canceled by the coronavirus pandemic, the East Hampton field hockey team was preparing last summer as it was going to have a normal — well, at least somewhat normal — season. Players were showing up to practices and workouts and the players got the sense that the team could vie for a postseason berth.

The county decided to push the season back to the early spring, though, which led to some of the Bonac players to drop off and decide not to play, leaving the team with an unusually thin roster. But the players that remain still have playoffs on their mind, and after a 2-0 victory at home over Shoreham-Wading River this past Saturday, their goal is still very much attainable.

Due to COVID-19, Section XI, the governing body of Suffolk County high school athletics, decided to do away with the power point system that usually decides which teams make the playoffs. Instead, teams must finish with a .500 record or better to qualify, and as of Tuesday morning, East Hampton sat at 4-3, with six games remaining on its schedule.

“We’re definitely hoping for playoffs,” East Hampton senior Rorey Murphy, who captains the team along with fellow seniors Lucie Sarrazin and Anna Hugo, said on Monday. “We do have a good shot at it. We put a lot of work in over the summer, and then again over the winter when the season was canceled. It was upsetting to lose the numbers that we had, but we’ve been working together as a team and it’s still doable and we’re still very much looking forward to achieving that.”

East Hampton freshman Emma McGrory, off a pass from Hugo, scored the first goal early in the first quarter in the win over Shoreham. Sophomore Chloe Coleman picked up a rebound off the keeper’s pads and added the second goal with only 30 seconds remaining in the first half to make it 2-0, then Bonac’s defense went to work. Senior Lilia Schaefer made 10 saves in goal for East Hampton leading to the shut out.

East Hampton had nine offensive corners compared to Shoreham’s four, leading head coach Nicole Ficeto expecting to see more offense from her team. But she liked the overall effort.

“[They] did a good job of moving the ball to the outside and utilizing the outside of the field,” she said. “Defense did a good job of double teaming and dictating Shoreham’s movement on offense.”

East Hampton suffered a 7-0 loss at home to undefeated Harborfields on March 25. The players chalked it up to the Tornadoes being a great team and obviously responded nicely with the win over Shoreham. The win over the Wildcats was the Bonackers fourth in their past five matches, and the players feel that after missing some players the first few games, and some of the younger players getting a feel for the varsity game, the team has gotten back on track.

“Missing one of our players was certainly a contributing factor in those first two losses,” Sarrazin explained. “We weren’t feeling as strong as a team and we were still playing around with our lineup, and we’re still figuring it out exactly.

"We’ve had a pretty good season so far,” Murphy said. “We just have to clean up the rest of it with wins and hopefully we’ll continue to do well.”