Football: First win still evades Monarchs in final home game
BONACKERS 34, MONARCHS 13
Desperate for a win, the Bishop McGann-Mercy football team may very well have been looking forward to its final home game on Saturday against East Hampton/Bridgehampton. The Monarchs must have sensed an opportunity to finally get into the win column in the Suffolk County Division IV contest between two teams that had one win between them. So, the Monarchs might have planned on things finally going their way.
The Bonackers had other ideas.
After dropping its first four games of the season, East Hampton/Bridgehampton suddenly has a two-game winning streak. Just like that.
R. J. Notel, a hard-nosed player who played with a broken nose he suffered a week earlier against Southampton, ran for two touchdowns, as did Cortland Heneveld in East Hampton/Bridgehampton’s 34-13 victory.
East Hampton/Bridgehampton’s ground game got the job done. The Bonackers (2-4) ran the ball on 39 of their 46 offensive snaps and did not commit a turnover. They attempted only one pass in the second half.
While the Monarchs focused on stopping East Hampton/Bridgehampton’s quarterback, Heneveld (nine carries, 77 yards), it was the senior fullback, Notel, who really hurt them. Notel ran for 139 yards on 15 carries as 249 of East Hampton/Bridgehampton’s 305 yards came on the ground.
Notel was also a force on defense. In addition to making 8 tackles (all solo), he blocked an extra-point attempt.
The game started promisingly for McGann-Mercy. On the Monarchs’ first touch of the game, Reggie Archer broke to the outside and sprinted down the right side for a 56-yard touchdown run. Archer finished with 144 rushing yards from 29 attempts.
The teams traded touchdowns after that. Notel slipped through a few tacklers for a 14-yard dash to the end zone. Then, the Monarchs pulled in front again. One of McGann-Mercy’s 10 seniors playing their final game at Harold T. Murray Memorial Field in Riverhead, quarterback Mike Frosina, delivered a 34-yard touchdown pass to Marco Sciarra on a fourth-down play. Sciarra, a sophomore, played his first game of the season after recovering from a broken foot.
On the ensuing kickoff, Jordan Johnson evaded tacklers on an 80-yard return for a touchdown. Lucas Escobar’s extra point gave East Hampton/Bridgehampton a 14-13 lead with 9 minutes 50 seconds left in the second quarter.
A Thomas Nelson interception set up a 7-yard touchdown run by Heneveld for a 20-13 lead by halftime.
The Monarchs opened the third quarter with an impressive 15-play drive, only to see it stall at the East Hampton/Bridgehampton 27-yard line.
Heneveld and Notel both scored their second touchdowns of the game in the fourth quarter, Notel’s coming on a 40-yarder.
The result left the Monarchs looking at an 0-6 record, with remaining games at Babylon and Southampton.
