By Mike Letendre

Moving its city series game up two days due to impending bad weather, the Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern girls soccer teams put together another classic on Wednesday, Oct. 28. 

And in the scoreless affair, with the match on the line, Eastern’s Ciara Collins had a chance to kick in the game-winning goal midway through the final half. 

With the outcome hanging in the balance, the outstanding junior seized her best opportunity to score. 

From nearly 35 yards out, and a stone’s throw away from the Lancers’ bench, Collins blasted a ball into the Central net – just slipping the ball by the keeper – as Eastern secured a 1-0 Central Connecticut Conference, Region B victory from the front field at Bristol Eastern high school on King St.  

“She has a flare for the dramatic, that’s for sure,” said Eastern coach Scott Redman of Collins. “She did the same thing in the first game [against Central]. That’s how we scored in the first game, off a penalty, off a reset, off a free kick. It was from distance but she drove it.” 

It was an even-steven battle into the second half, but with about 25 minutes to play, a foul gave the Lancers a free kick and Collins was tasked to take it. 

The blast was on the mark, Central keeper Maddy Corcoran got her mitts on the ball, but it just slipped through her grasp as the Lancers’ goal was the only score of the affair.

“There was a lot of effort that led up to [the goal] by the whole team,” said Collins. “Coach told me to drive it and that’s just what I did. A lot of my other [attempts] we like chip-shots so I had to drive it and it ended up just going right through [the keeper’s] hands.” 

“Our team worked hard so that’s all that mattered.” 

With the win, Eastern moved to 5-4-1 overall while Central fell to 3-5-2, but the visiting aggressors had several chances to score as the Rams’ offense moved the ball with zest over the entire 80-minute affair. 

“It’s very [frustrating] especially, you know, we were talking about it at halftime. I think we had control of the game,” said Central coach Ginny Godbout. “Even in the second half, it wasn’t like we lost control. I think it’s just that one thing has to happen.” 

Even in the muddy and wet conditions of Eastern’s grass field, Central’s Bella Bosco was tough to slow down, making attack after attack against the Kingstreeters stingy defense. 

Central’s Christina Browne also brought intensity offensively as did Rachel Wygant – who was everywhere on the field – while Lily Hansen and her backline impressed once again. 

But Eastern keeper Grace D’Amato was the star of the show, stopping over a dozen Central chances to earn 13 saves and the shutout win. 

She directed traffic at the net, came out to challenge offenders, and cut off crosses and corner kick chances to help seal the deal. 

Coupled with the outstanding effort by D’Amato was the backline of Audra Porowski, Maura Cyr, Cecelia Gilbert, Mikayla Gonzalez, and captain Kate Kozikowski – all tasked in slowing down Bosco, Browne, Wygant, Ashlee Crumrine and that speedy Central offensive push.  

That defensive effort also included a key stop by Eastern’s Emily Nelson late in fray.

“I thought, starting with Gracie in the goal who played absolutely sensational, we get Emily Nelson who on a corner kick saves the goal in the middle of the goal area, and then the five girls who played on the back-line did a fantastic job of limiting [Central’s] high-quality chances,” commented Coach Redman.

“It looks like shots are even and everything and it was a fairly even game but we limited their high-quality chances.” 

D’Amato stopped early Bosco chances to open up play and Eastern used Collins as a conduit, running plenty of offense through the junior, but Corcoran (11 saves) stopped everything – coming out of the box several times to halt Eastern drives – and kept the event scoreless. 

Crumrine continued the havoc on Eastern’s side of the field and Browne and Bosco nearly connected on a sweet chance in the middle of the box midway through the first half but D’Amato continued to step up and stop shots. 

Bosco just kept firing away, but Central was just one pass away – especially on corner kick tries as Central had nine of those chances in the match – from making the right connection and putting the ball by the Eastern keeper. 

“We saw the field today so well and we had the right thought,” said Godbout. “We knew exactly what we wanted to do. I think sometimes, we just put a little too much on the ball.” 

Late in the first half, Eastern’s Lili Morneault attempted to blast a ball by Corcoran but the goalie made the save, doing a fantastic job leaving the goal, intercepting the ball, and controlling play. 

That effort was fueled by Central’s defense of Christine Attle, Maddie Ross, Crumrine and Hansen. 

“On many occasions, you’ve seen where they saved us,” said Godbout of her backline. “Again, I thought the communication was so much better today. We’ve been really kind of stressing that. They need to be able to see what’s going on and be able to talk to each other. I thought it was so much better today.” 

“You really can’t do too much more of just the effort [out of] that back four.” 

Even as Central outshot Eastern by a two-to-one margin and by a 6-1 tally in corner kicks over first half, Eastern ended the first forty on Central’s side of the field, but the teams were deadlocked with no score at the break. 

“In the first half, I liked our intensity. I liked our physicality,” said Redman. “But we forgot to play soccer after we won [the ball]. We kind of won the ball, kicked it up and kind of just prayed. In the second half, we won the ball and we possessed. We found feet and we found the open players a little bit better.” 

That back and forth play continued into the second half with both keepers making saves, Bosco pressing the attack, and the Eastern offense challenging Corcoran. 

While tensions started to rise about 10 minutes into the final period, Corcoran scooped in a free kick by Kozikowski from midfield but with 25 minutes or so to go, the scoreless event would not be scoreless anymore. 

From the far right of midfield, a foul led to the free kick and goal by Collins – making it a 1-0 game, but the Central offense remained in attack mode. 

Minutes after the Collins tally, a Central corner kick almost produced a game-tying goal as a cross by Wygant saw D’Amato come out to stop the ball but the keeper only gloved the ball. 

With the ball free for anyone to kick into the net, Nelson headed the ball out of the goal area – saving the game for the home team – and that 1-0 push remained the score of the game. 

“Bella Bosco had a couple different chances,” said Godbout. “Rachel Wygant had a couple different chances. Even just at the end, Christina was right in the mix of everything. Hannah [Aldieri] made those runs on the outside…they just all put it in there. It’s just tough to take.” 

Browne continued to attack with time running out, a Wygant blast from 30 yards out was saved by D’Amato while Porowski made stops late as Central had its entire team over midfield in an attempt for a game-tying goal that never came. 

“I thought our defense played their best game of the year today,” said Redman.  

To end the fray, Eastern kept the ball on Central’s side of the field, and time eventually expired as the Lancers came away with a huge 1-0 victory over its crosstown rival. 

Girls Soccer 

Bristol Eastern 1, Bristol Central 0 

from the Lancerdome – the front field at Bristol Eastern 

Scoring                       1          2                      F 

Bristol Central          0          0          –           0 

Bristol Eastern          0          1          –           1 

Goals – Ciara Collins (BE). 

Saves – Madison Corcoran (BC), 11; Grace D’Amato (BE) 13. 

Corner kicks – Bristol Central 9; Bristol Eastern 1 

Records – Bristol Eastern 5-4-1 overall; Bristol Central 3-5-2.