Bonackers Run Through Islip To Set Up Playoff Showdown With Sayville

It’s been called the black-and-blue division of Suffolk County high school football, and the Bonackers on Friday delivered a playoff beatdown for the ages.

Playing on the road at third-seeded Islip, sixth-seeded East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton pounded the Buccaneers early and often on the way to a 48-7 Division III opening-round victory.

Bridgehampton senior Alex Davis rushed 24 times for 216 yards and four touchdowns, all in less than three quarters of play, having left the game with a minor ankle sprain with 4:48 remaining in the third quarter. His teammates picked up where he left off, though, with his Bridgehampton classmate Jai Feaster and East Hampton junior Jackson Ronick combining for 142 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.

“My coach wanted me to have the mindset of not worrying about next week,” Davis said afterward, assuring worried onlookers that he would be ready to play going forward. “This is the best team I’ve ever played with in my whole career.”

The Bonackers (6-3) will travel to face top-seeded Sayville — the defending Suffolk County Division III champion — in a semifinal on Friday, November 14, at 6 p.m. The winner will advance to the county championship game where it will play the winner of West Islip/Smithtown West on Thursday, November 20, at Stony Brook University.

Friday’s win was the first playoff victory for the East Hampton program since 1994, a stretch of 31 years and a lot of growing pains, including a 52-6 quarterfinal loss to Half Hollow Hills West in the playoffs last season. In the aftermath of Friday’s victory, Bonac’s longtime head coach Joey McKee, who numerous times has fought to keep the program alive, was all smiles.

“I don’t know if there’s ever been an East Hampton football team that made the playoffs in consecutive years,” said McKee, whose current crop of players got their start with him playing flag football a decade ago. “Now we’re in the second round. It’s definitely huge, and we’re playing with house money. We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve got a good team, a fun team, and they’re playing hard.”

Sayville (9-0) beat East Hampton, 28-14, on October 24 in a game that players and coaches said could have gone either way.

“We’re going to have to make some adjustments,” McKee said about playing Sayville, which beat Westhampton Beach, 41-21, on Friday night. “Our offense definitely struggled. We had two touchdowns — one was a kickoff return and one was a 70-yard jet run — and, other than that, we couldn’t really move the ball. So, I think we’re going to have to make some adjustments offensively and figure out how to attack that really, really good defense.”

On a windy night on the turf at Islip, senior receiver Livs Kuplins caught a 37-yard pass from senior quarterback Theo Ball early in the second quarter to set up Ronick for the first score of the game. On the ensuing kickoff, Bonac’s Manny Morales kicked the ball high into the wind and it landed in no-man’s land, allowing Bonac’s Charlie Stern to recover the ball at the Islip 29. Davis took the ball off left tackle for a touchdown on the very next play, and the Bonackers were up, 13-0, in a span of just 11 seconds.

Davis carried the ball eight times for 53 yards on East Hampton’s next possession, capping the drive off with a dynamic 24-yard touchdown run that put the Bonackers up, 20-0, at the half.

“In practice, about two weeks ago, he made a couple runs, and I said ‘uh-oh, that’s the kid we had last year who’s just a dynamic runner,’” McKee said about Davis, who also suffered a hamstring injury earlier this season. “I knew we could move the ball on them. We started with him inside, set him up outside, and the offensive line did a great job.”

Davis kept his foot on the gas early in the third quarter, and his 32-yard run, combined with a pair of Islip unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, set the Bonac offense up at the four yard line. Davis walked into the end zone for his third score of the game, and East Hampton was up, 27-0, less than two minutes into the second half.

Davis went down with his ankle injury on the team’s next possession, and Feaster broke free on a 39-yard run followed by a touchdown and two-point conversion that essentially put the game out of reach at 41-7.

“I knew we could move the ball on them. I rarely tell people, ‘yes, we’re going to win,’ but I had a feeling today,” McKee said. “This team has been so focused. I feel like after the Sayville game, even though we lost, I just feel like it woke us up, like wow, we can really play with anyone. Their focus and their energy from that point on … they’re not afraid of anything.”

Davis and his fellow running backs sang the praises of their offensive line — Sully Matthews, Tiger Brew, James Corwin, Jake Rivera and Tyler Rodgers — immediately after the game.

“I want to thank everyone on the line,” Davis said. “They were doing the job, and I was hitting the holes hard and scoring touchdowns.”

McKee took the moment to praise his entire unit, especially the impressive class of 15 seniors.

“It’s a rare breed,” he said. “They’re really smart kids, academically. They’re really super nice kids — polite, they’re gentlemen. But they’re also tough and scrappy and hard-nosed. They’re a lot of fun to coach.”

The players are clearly having fun as well, with perhaps more to come in the near future.

“This is the best feeling in the world,” Kuplins said before boarding the bus back to East Hampton. “Alex killed it, we can’t ask for more from him, but we have a bunch of skilled guys ready to come in. Everyone can score, everyone’s a threat.

“You just can’t beat this,” he added. “There really is nothing better and we’ll be ready to go.”