Bonac Football Drops Homecoming Game to Harborfields

The weather may have canceled homecoming festivities and East Hampton Town’s 375th anniversary parade over the weekend, but a little rain and wind wasn’t going to cancel the East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton homecoming football game on Saturday against Harborfields.

After all, that is football weather.

Things got off to a great start early on for the Bonackers. After stopping the Tornadoes on the opening drive of the game, Bridgehampton sophomore Alex Davis blocked the ensuing punt, scooped up the loose ball and ran it 24 yards into the end zone for the first score of the game, bringing a needed energetic boost to the Bonac sidelines on a dreary day.

Harborfields, to its credit, didn’t allow that to be how the rest of the game would go. In fact, the Tornadoes scored the next 32 points of the game, going on to the 32-13 victory and improving to 2-2 on the season, while dropping the Bonackers to 1-3 in Division III.

Following the loss, a disappointed Joe McKee said the loss came down to two simple things: offensive and defensive line play.

“Their offensive and defensive lines controlled the game,” the Bonac head coach said. “We couldn’t move the ball on offense, and they definitely moved the ball on offense. Their offensive line and defensive line were better than ours today.”

After Davis’s blocked punt for a touchdown, Harborfields came right back and scored on its next ensuing drive when quarterback Jack Weiss ran 24 yards for a score. The Tornadoes were successful on their two-point conversion to take an 8-6 lead into the second quarter.

The Tornadoes were driving into East Hampton territory early on in the second when East Hampton junior Bowie Pipino intercepted a deep pass at the 1-yard line. With not much room to work with, the Bonackers tried a toss play to Bridgehampton sophomore Jai Feaster, who was tackled in the end zone for a safety, giving Harborfields a 10-6 lead and possession of the ball.

Weiss then connected with Vincent Bolognino on a 43-yard touchdown pass that gave the Tornadoes a 17-6 lead.

With 1:25 remaining in the first half, Harborfields ran basically the same pass play, and Weiss and Bolognino connected once again, this time for 41 yards, to make it a 24-6 game at halftime.

“We gave up the two long touchdown passes — that hurt us,” McKee said. “The first one was kind of a back-breaker, because it was, like, 4th and 15, and we had them, we just let up that big touchdown pass, and that hurt.”

After a scoreless third quarter, Weiss tacked on another six points for Harborfields with a 21-yard scoring run. East Hampton senior quarterback Charlie Corwin then fought his way into the end zone from 22 yards out. Senior Julian Hoepfner’s successful extra point created the final score.

While no game in Division III is an easy win, the Bonackers had penciled in the game against Harborfields as a possible winnable game. Halfway through the season already, McKee said his team has gotten through its toughest part of its schedule, and there are more winnable games on the horizon, starting next weekend when East Hampton hosts Amityville on Saturday, September 30, at 1 p.m.

“Harborfields was a higher-ranked team. I think they were one of the top six teams, and I think it showed today,” McKee said. “Amityville is on the lower end of the rankings, with us, so I definitely see that as another winnable game, but they’re a physical football team. They’ve got a lot of talent, a lot of speed over there. They have a really big tailback. He’s a load at almost 240 pounds. So we’ve got our work cut out for us.

“Our record is not where we want it,” he continued. “We’re 1-3 and we played three of those losses against the higher-ranked teams that we play this season, so we’ve gotten all of those out of the way, and I think we’ve been competitive in all three of the losses.

“Our last four games are winnable games, and we’ll have to do our best and see what we can do.”