East Hampton Football With an About-Face, Tramples Amityville for Its Second Win of the Season

What a difference a week makes.

After a 32-13 loss to Harborfields at home on September 23, the East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton football team looked like a completely different team, for the better, in its 42-0 victory over visiting Amityville this past Saturday.

The victory improved the Bonackers to 2-3 in Division III and with a renewed sense of confidence going into their next game, which will be this Saturday, October 7, at Comsewogue at 4 p.m.

“After a tough game last week, we definitely knew we had to bounce back and that started off in practice,” said senior Eddie Cobb, who scored twice on Saturday. “We adjusted to what didn’t work against Harborfields and came out here and put it against Amityville. We definitely succeeded. It feels good to be out here with the guys in a big win.”

Amityville came in as a winless team, but had put up some points, including 22 against a formidable Half Hollow Hills West team, and had beaten Bonac on its home turf just last year. But it couldn’t get anything going against a stout Bonac defense, all game.

East Hampton started the game with the ball and capped what was about an 80-yard drive when senior quarterback Charlie Corwin scored 6:30 into the game. Just before the end of the first quarter, Cobb scored his first touchdown of the game, and Bonac was off and running.

Early in the second quarter, Amityville decided to go for it on 4th and short, but senior defensive lineman William McGuire blasted through Amityville’s offensive line and tackled the ball carrier for a loss, turning the ball over on downs.

Just a few plays later, East Hampton executed a perfect play when Corwin faked a toss left and instead found a wide-open Jason Lester 25 yards downfield, and the senior easily walked into the end zone for the score. Manny Morales, who was 5 for 5 on extra points throughout the game, successfully kicked the ball through the uprights to make it 21-0.

A little later in the quarter, Corwin, who finished with 150 total yards on the day, had to scramble a bit to avoid getting sacked, but he kept his composure and eventually found freshman Charlie Stern wide open for a 30-yard touchdown strike. Corwin and Stern connected once again late in the first half that set up Cobb for an easy 2-yard scoring run and East Hampton led, 35-0, at halftime.

“It’s about coming together as a team,” Lester said of the team’s latest victory. “We have to all have that aggression, that spirit to fight and throw down every play. I think it was the way we came out mentally. We knew after a tough loss last week that we definitely had to bounce back, but the other thing was we worked a lot on passing. We started the game throwing two touchdown passes. We needed that confidence booster to get our passing up and going throughout the rest of the season.”

Bridgehampton sophomore Alex Davis had the only score of the second half, a 16-yard run. Amityville was threatening to score late in the game, but the Bonac defense snuffed out the final play with a sack to put the finishing touches on what may have been the program’s biggest victory in quite a while. East Hampton head coach Joe McKee said it was good to see his team win and be as successful as it was even though the Amityville coaching staff had his plays down to a T.

“Coming off the ball, their coaching staff was screaming the play. I couldn’t tell you how many times I heard the coach yelling the play, and he was right, and we were still able to run for five, six yards,” he said. “It was a great team effort. The defensive line did a good job, but our outside guys, our linebackers, contained the outside run, and inside run. They couldn’t do anything.

“I think it’s a really bought-in team,” McKee continued. “They’re into it, and when they’re all bought in and they work hard, it’s a pretty fun group. They’re fun to coach, they really are.”

Comsewogue is 3-1 this season coming off a bye week and has really turned things around from a winless campaign a season ago. But Lester said there shouldn’t be any reason why he and his teammates can’t go there and play a competitive game.

“They were an 0-8 team last year, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to come out there and compete with them as well,” he said. “That being said, they’re no a joke this year. They have a great quarterback, great running back. I think we have everything we need. We’re a physical football team, and we’ll go out there and play hardnosed football.”