Hampton Bays - The Hampton Bays football team has always been a little undermanned and a little outsized, and those are two difficult qualities to win with on the gridiron. Those facts remained in 2009, but the Baymen had been able to overcome them and put together one of their finest seasons ever.

Overcoming what they were asked to in Saturday's Division IV playoff game, the first held on school grounds in 25 years, was too difficult even for this group. Fourth-seeded Hampton Bays not only had to solve perennially strong Mount Sinai, the five seed, but it had to do so without eight key varsity players who were suspended for their involvement in a vandalism incident on Halloween night.

The Hampton Bays defense held Mount Sinai to a single touchdown in the first half despite playing without several key players from throughout the 7-1 regular season.

The Baymen were game for a half, but the visiting Mustangs used a 28-point third quarter to blow the game open en route to a 34-16 victory. That puts Mount Sinai in the divisional semifinals while Hampton Bays closed the books on its storybook season. HB won started the season 6-0, won seven games altogether, and hosted its first playoff game since 1984.

In a postgame speech in the north end zone, Head Coach Mike Oestreicher addressed his squad and said "It was a hell of a ride. To me, it's been an absolute pleasure to come out here every single day. I'm proud of my boys. I always will be. If you want to talk about our legacy, this is our legacy. You have character, values, you hosted a playoff game for the first time in 25 years – you've done everything right. That's why you should be proud of yourselves."

On Tuesday, the aforementioned eight players were suspended for the duration of the playoffs for their role in the incident, thus shortening the roster to just 17 players and led the coaching staff to spend significant time teaching the basics to those forced to play out of position to compensate. It proved to be too tall an order to carry out, particularly with the Mustangs lining up across from them. Nevertheless, Oestreicher was comfortable with the move to slice his roster by a third.

"There was behavior that was detrimental to my team and a public embarrassment to the program, and for that reason I removed the players from the football team," Oestreicher said. "It's always tough when you're dealing with boys. I'm not going to say it wasn't tough. It was tremendously difficult, but [if you believe in character, morals and core values], it was the right decision."

Asked how he believed the personnel shortage affected the result, Oestreicher said, "I'd be foolish to say that it didn't have an impact, but I'm comfortable with the team that I put out there today."

The Mount Sinai defense kept Oskar Ramirez and Hampton Bays running game at bay for much of the afternoon.

Hampton Bays led by a point before things began to unravel in the third quarter. Mount Sinai took the opening kickoff of the second half and grinded out the go-ahead score as Jesse Baldassare rumbled around the right end for a 12-yard TD. HB couldn't move the ball on its next possession and, to make matters worse, a bad snap on the punt put the Mustangs in prime position to extend their lead. It took just one play as Baldassare busted through for a 23-yard score and a 21-8 lead. Before long, it was clear that Mount Sinai and not this year's Cinderella squad would advance to the division semifinals. Two more Baymen fumbles led to a pair of TD runs and in the span of 12 minutes, the Mustangs turned a deficit into a 26-point lead.

"I think what happened in the second half was we just got outmanned," Oestreicher said. "We didn't do anything different schematically – our strategy was the same, our approach was the same, the kids were the same – but I think they just wore on us."

Playing for pride, the Baymen rode senior Oskar Ramirez to the end zone one last time. He fittingly tallied the final TD of their season, scoring from a short distance, and Perri Gitto tacked on the two-pointer to make the score 34-16. On the season, Hampton Bays averaged nearly 32 points per game and had more wins (7) than the last three seasons combined (6).

"What I saw on the football field today was everything that Hampton Bays football is all about – 17 kids up against the odds battling with every nth of their body, giving everything they had for a greater cause than themselves," Oestreicher said. "They went out there to play as a team, play together and battle together, and that's what they accomplished."

That Hampton Bays held an 8-7 lead at the break was a coup in itself. John Havens ignited the offense with a 23-yard punt return that set his team up at the Mount Sinai 37-yard line. He nearly finished the drive himself as well. First, Havens hauled in a Robbie King pass for a 19-yard connection, and on third-and-11 at the Mustang 18, Havens outran a host of defenders to sneak inside the left pylon for the score. Without their ordinary kicker, the Baymen went for two and converted as King found senior Nolan Leeman for the one-point lead.

The victory propelled Mount Sinai into the Division IV semifinals where it will meet No. 3 seed Amityville, which blew past Center Moriches 34-14. Due to a major upset in the 2/7 game – Bayport-Blue Point stunning Babylon – the teams were reseeded, thus BBP and not Mount Sinai, which was originally on the top side of the bracket, will face No. 1 seed John Glenn, which blasted Eastport-South Manor in their first-round bout. As for Hampton Bays, it will try to replace a 13-player senior class when it returns to action next fall. This year's squad will go down as one of the school's best ever.

Bonac quarterback Austin Heneveld escape the pocket and a would-be tackler as well in roaming out to the left side.

Bonackers Bounced From D-III Playoffs In Sayville
It will go down as one of the finer seasons in recent East Hampton football history, but that didn't take the sting off a 17-6 defeat at the hands of Sayville in the Division III playoffs. The Bonackers hung with the defending Long Island champions for four quarters but couldn't quite crack the Golden Flash defense in the end.

The Bonacker defense did well to keep the game within reach in the first half. On three occasions, they halted a Sayville charge inside their red zone – twice with stops on fourth down and again by forcing a fumble inside their own 5-yard line. However, the offense's inability to move the ball in the first half continually gave the hosts a short field, and eventually they cashed in. After an East Hampton punt, Sayville was set up on Bonac's half of the field with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the second. It took just one play for the Golden Flashes to double their lead as quarterback Steven Ferreira hit a streaking Pat O'Connor on the left seam for a 43-yard touchdown pass. Mike Byrnes connected on the point-after for a 14-point edge.

Brendan Mott grabs ahold of the quarterback and prevents him from scampering for plus yardage.

Miraculously, Sayville had the ball twice more before the half closed out. First, O'Connor blocked a Bonacker punt and Sayville began the ensuing drive at the East Hampton 8 only to have tailback Nick Stover cough up the ball on the first play. The Flashes forced another three-and-out and, in part courtesy of a pass interference penalty, raced into position for Byrnes to boom a 27-yard field goal as time expired in the half. East Hampton finished the half with 12 yards from scrimmage and zero first downs.

Their 17 points ended up being all the Golden Flashes scored on the day, but also proved to be more than they needed too. East Hampton did strike on the first drive of the second half, driving 62 yards to the Sayville 1, from where Austin Heneveld plunged in on fourth down to break the ice.

The Bonac D, led by the likes of Tyler Buckley (13 tackles), Nick Jarboe (8 tackles), Joe Dowling (2 sacks) and Jake Beyer (2 sacks), kept Sayville off the board despite a dramatic disparity in roster size. The unit's stout effort allowed Heneveld and the Bonacker offense to go to work. The Navy-bound senior threw for 119 yards in his final high school game; Sayville's D kept the fleet-footed QB from breaking free for significant yardage on the ground as he'd been apt to do. Nevertheless, East Hampton had its opportunities in the second half but two drives that had crept into Sayville territory were snuffed out, and the potent Flashes offense ran out the last six minutes of the clock to secure the win and a date with third-seeded Hauppauge, which defeated Comsewogue on Friday night. In the other semifinal, No. 1 Half Hollow Hills West faces No. 5 Kings Park.

As for East Hampton, it finished its season with three straight losses, but Bonac's six wins were more than the five it had accumulated in the previous three seasons combined. The senior class that carried much of the load included Heneveld, Buckley, Jarboe, Dowling, Beyer, Brandon Mott, Rob Aaronson, Jorge Barros, Eric Bartman, Dayshawn Boynton, Brian Eddy, Chris Gamble, Joel Metzger and Freddie Stephens.