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Updated: October 12, 2009, 2:06 pm	Share    Print    Email

East Hampton quarterback Austin Heneveld scored touchdowns from 80 and 14 yards, and twice more from a yard out, to power Bonac to a 35-21 win over Westhampton. Photos by Brett Mauser

Westhampton Beach - For all the planning teams do during the week and all the reps performed in practice, there comes a time where a player has to make a play himself, to improvise. Austin Heneveld, quarterback of the East Hampton football team, is one of the Island's best at doing so, and he put forth a virtuoso performance in helping the Bonackers get back on the winning track.

East Hampton's Brendan Mott gets the corner and tries to escape the grasp of Westhampton's Mike Ramos (35).

On the first drive of the second half, the Navy-bound senior turned a broken play into a big one, and that was just the beginning of a massive day. Heneveld scored four times on Friday night, including three times in the second half, to lead East Hampton to a 35-21 win over Westhampton. The Bonackers had lost to the Hurricanes all seven times they played since the switch to the divisional format. That includes a 50-0 loss in their 2005 opener, the last time the teams squared off at Hansen Field. More recently, Bonac hoped to rebound from its first loss of the season a week earlier to Comsewogue.

"We try and learn something every day," Head Coach Bill Barbour said. "We've been saying that since day one - to continue to get better and learn something from each experience. Certainly having that opportunity slip away from us last week gave us a taste of what the possibilities are. I think a lot of guys realized just how badly they want to be successful."

Trailing 15-7 at the half, Westhampton was in prime position to make it eight straight in the series, but Heneveld wouldn't have it. Seconds after intermission, Heneveld took the snap from the Bonac 20 and dropped back to hand the ball off, only the play wasn't being carried out. He instead darted up the center of the field and kicked it to the left sideline where he completed his 80-yard dash to the end zone. The point-after gave East Hampton a two-score lead.

Westhampton quarterback Cory Schulz rolls to his right and throws downfield.

"It was just kind of a broken play," Heneveld said. " I just looked around, Nick [Jarboe] came up and made a nice block, I was able to get free for a second, went straight down the middle, followed my line and broke free."

Heneveld capped two other second-half drives with touchdown runs - the first from 4 yards out and the second necessitating a second effort on 4th-and-goal from the Hurricane 1-yard line. They came after he scored on a 1-yarder in the the second quarter to go up 15-0.

"The key for us this week was establishing the pace early and coming out with some fire, especially defensively," Barbour said. "We didn't want to give away any third-and-longs or fourth-and-longs. We wanted to make sure that we set the tone defensively early."

Westhampton (2-3) wasn't easily disposed of. After Heneveld's long-distance delivery, the Bonackers looked to put the game away on their next drive. Instead, the Hurricanes made a fourth-down stop at their own 33 and went 67 yards in the other direction for a score. Cory Schulz made completion after completion to move into the red zone, and then finished it with his feet, running 8 yards for a TD. East Hampton opened its lead to 21 midway through the fourth; Cory Hubbard, replacing Schulz late, added a 3-yard touchdown late.

East Hampton, which fell behind 21-0 in last year's 34-19 loss to Comsewogue, fixed the issue by scoring the first 15 against Westhampton. First, it notched a safety and the defense pitched in again when Joe Dowling scooped up a fumble and scored to put the Bonackers up 8-0.

On Saturday, Bonac takes on visiting Deer Park, which has dropped its last three contests. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.. Westhampton travels to Hauppauge for its final road game of the season on Friday (5 p.m.); the Hurricanes then host Comsewogue and Eastport-South Manor to close out the year.

The Hampton Bays defense kept Port Jefferson out of the end zone in crunch time to move to 5-0 on the season.

Baymen Moves Up To 5-0; Southampton Drops Heartbreaker At Greenport
Any critics of Hampton Bays' early-season success might have re-evaluated their assessment on Saturday after the Baymen rolled over host Port Jefferson 35-21 to improve their record to 5-0 on the season.

Entering the day, Hampton Bays' opponents through the midway point of the season had a combined record of 2-14; the Baymen had outscored those adversaries by a combined 166-35 margin. The Royals, a six-win squad a year ago, were quite a different test, coming in at 2-2 and off a thrilling one-point win at Center Moriches the week before. Nevertheless, the Baymen escaped and take their perfect mark back home where they'll welcome Bayport-Blue Point on Saturday afternoon (2 p.m.).

Hampton Bays cornerback Robbie King jumps in front of a Dan Serignese pass and records a huge interception in the fourth quarter.

Even with the win, Head Coach Mike Oestreicher believes the jury may still be out on Hampton Bays.

"Port Jeff is a good team," Oestreicher said. "That's not a team that's going away. We may end up seeing them again. They're tough, they fight, but I still think people are going to look at us and say we haven't beaten anybody yet, and that's OK."

Hampton Bays appeared to be in trouble when quarterback Robbie King threw interceptions on back-to-back possessions; both, however, were deep in Port Jeff territory, and that factored in before the game was over. Kevin Lunn picked off a King pass at the Royal 3-yard line with 6:05 left in the game. Three plays later, King jumped the route and intercepted a Dan Serignese pass at the Port Jeff 11 to put Hampton Bays in position to put the game away. That's just what it did as Oskar Ramirez plowed in from the 1 to stake the Baymen to a 35-21 lead.

"He stepped in front, reached with one hand and caught the ball with one hand," Oestrecher said of the King interception. "He made it at the right time and the right place when the game is right on that fence. That was an amazing football play."

A balanced HB attack kept Port Jeff guessing all day long. Beyond the interceptions, King was magnificent, going 8 for 12 for 173 yards and two touchdowns. He led a long drive to open the third quarter and connected on a 16-yard touchdown pass with Ryan Lynch at the 9:44 mark. Serignese converted

Running back Igor Leite runs through traffic before finally being tripped up.

two fourth-downs on the ensuing drive and finished it off with an 18-yard strike to Grant Greenhalgh. A King pass to Aaron Besch went for 18 yards and the situation improved when Port Jeff was called for bringing Besch down via a horse-collar tackle. John Havens took it from there on a counter trap, winning a foot race down the left sideline for a 51-yard touchdown run with 1:59 left in the third. The Royals again drew within a touchdown on Serignese's 13-yarder to Dillon Wyatt.

A defensive struggle began to deteriorate late in the first half when the offenses began trading touchdowns. Oskar Ramirez rumbled in for a 4-yard score to put the Baymen up 14-7 going into the break, answering a short TD run by the Royals' Patrick O'Sullivan on the other end. Even though the fireworks began, Hampton Bays wasn't without defensive highlights. With two sacks, junior Perri Gitto broke the school record for sacks in a season with 11; the previous record was 9.5. With 16.5 for his career, he needs just two more to set the all-time mark at Hampton Bays.

Elsewhere in Division IV, Southampton fell to 2-3 on the year with a heartbreaking 26-20 loss at Greenport. With the game tied at 20, the Mariners were poised to break that tie in the final minutes. However, the Porters' Antoine Carter returned an interception 82 yards for a score to put the hosts ahead for good. Southampton drove into the red zone on the ensuing drive but couldn't tally the equalizer.

Isaiah Thomas roared into the end zone for a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns, first from 19 yards out and then from the 8-yard line; two failed two-point conversions kept the game tied at 20. Southampton, which beat Stony Brook last week 30-0, continued that momentum in the opening quarter against the Porters as Onajja Browning ran in for an 8-yard touchdown and Thomas added a two-point run. However, Greenport scored the next 20 points spanning the second and third quarters to go ahead 20-12.

The Mariners face a tough road ahead with a visit to 3-2 Amityville on Saturday afternoon. They'll face winless Mercy the following week before meeting with John Glenn, which is undefeated heading into this weekend's clash with fellow unbeaten Babylon.