Tintle's Goal Gives East Hampton Field Hockey Much-Needed Victory Over Pierson/Bridgehampton

Ava Tintle’s goal just a few minutes into the fourth quarter gave the East Hampton field hockey team a 2-1 lead that held up in what was a much-needed victory over Pierson/Bridgehampton on Friday.

With the win, the Bonackers kept their playoff chances alive with three games remaining on the schedule. After playing at Miller Place on Tuesday, results of which occurred too late to appear in this week’s issue, East Hampton is scheduled to host East Islip this Thursday, October 17, at 4 p.m., before closing out the regular season on Saturday, October 19, at Comsewogue at noon.

East Hampton head coach Danielle Schuster said that after Friday’s win improved her team’s record to 7-6, now just a single win should get her team into the Suffolk County Class B playoffs.

“We’ve got three big games coming up … none of them are givens so these girls are going to have to dig hard, keep up that intensity,” she said. “They can do it.”

While Division II seems to be a bit top heavy this season, with five teams having won 10 or more games already, Schuster conversely said each one of those teams does have a loss this season, some multiple losses, and the recent past has shown that anyone can be beaten.

“You just never know,” she said. “Any given day, whoever comes with the most grit, the most heart, can pull it out. There have been games this year where teams have been toppled. Bayport-Blue Point just took down Harborfields. Last year, we took down Shoreham when it was undefeated. So there’s a lot of back and forth and you can’t take any team for granted.”

Since that’s the case, the girls are just looking to get into the playoffs and take things from there.

“We need a foot in the door,” Shuster said. “We would like more than a foot in the door, but hopefully we’ll be able to.”

Tintle scored what wound up being the game-winning goal on Friday off of a play that was set up off a penalty corner. The senior said junior Hailey Welsch had a good read on the play, in which she saw no defense around Tintle, so she passed her the ball and tried to direct the pass into the goal as best she could.

On top of it being a key game, it was also Senior Day for East Hampton, so the team honored all nine upperclassmen just prior to the start of the game. Tintle has been on the team since her freshman year.

“The team has changed a lot, but I think this year is really special since we’re all very close in age, so our team really gels,” she said. “Today, we put it together … it’s really awesome.”

East Hampton trailed early on, when Pierson senior Cali Wilson sent a ball to goal from about 20 yards out, which junior Shelby Casey was able to get a stick on and deflect into the goal with 6:03 remaining in the first quarter. Pierson head coach Laura DeSario said the long send-in from Wilson had been something her team had been working on, and it worked to near perfection early on in the game.

“We’ve been working on just staying low, keeping our sticks in the circle so that they could get those balls,” she said. “Cali has a tremendous hit, whether she’s sending it up the field or sending it across the field. So we were looking to capitalize on that in the circle. And with [East Hampton junior goalie] Caeleigh Schuster, you have to. You can’t just send it right at the goal. She’s going to stop it.”

The Whalers led, 1-0, for much of the game, until Tintle found fellow senior Addison Barletta, who finally broke through for Bonac with a goal with 18.1 seconds left in the third quarter.

Barletta was down by the left post when Tintle sent the ball toward the goal. Barletta tipped it in, she said.

“I just wanted to get it in the circle,” Tintle said of the play. “I know Addi has a really good stick, so if I could get it in she would get it in the goal.”

“It was a relief,” to score, Barletta added, with a smile.

Barletta is in her second year on varsity and said there was an adjustment period making the jump last year from junior varsity.

“It’s been a lot of fun playing with all of my friends this year,” she said.

Being one of the smallest schools in Division II, there aren’t a ton of “easy” games, but the Whalers’ final third of their schedule is particularly tough. Prior to playing East Hampton on Friday, Pierson played Miller Place and East Islip, which are a combined 20-5 so far this season. They finish up against West Babylon, Shoreham-Wading River and Eastport-South Manor this week.

DeSario said playing the bigger, deeper teams can be tough for her team since it doesn’t have a ton of depth. That was clearly evident on Friday, when the Whalers started the game with just two players on their bench, until about five minutes into the game, when four players came running onto the field from the parking lot. DeSario said those players were on a school trip and took a special train back from the city. A parent picked them up from the Ronkonkoma train station to get them to the game.

“They’ve been playing with a lot of heart,” she said of her team. “It’s hard because they don’t have a deep bench, so their legs are going for the full hour of the game. That’s something we’ve been working on all season, trying to keep that intensity up all game and they’ve been getting better with it. Fourth quarter was a good fight, just didn’t come out on top.”

All of that being said, Pierson is the clear favorite to win the Suffolk County Class C Championship this season, barring any major setbacks, which would make it the program’s 10th straight.

“We’ve been pretty — knock on wood — healthy this season, so hoping to keep that going,” DeSario sad. “Our goal has been to get 1 percent better every day, so that’s what we keep working on, breaking it down to the little things.”