By Michael Letendre
HARTFORD – Needing one last big play, the Hartford Public football team was twenty-five yards away from the Bristol Central end zone last Saturday, looking to steal away the game from the Rams.
The Owls were down to its final play with just 11.1 seconds remaining on the clock, trailing 52-48.
And when Public’s Christian Garcia took the snap, the quarterback went on the attack in what turned into the final play of the afternoon.
He slipped by four or five Central defenders and juked his way to the 10 yard line.
The path was there for a possible Garcia sprint into the end zone – but it was open only for an instant.
As Garcia was streaking over the five, he crashed and burned at the Central two as time expired, ending the contest with the Rams getting to the pay window over the four-point victory.
But who made the final stop for Central?
What player ended up earning the game-winning tackle for the Rams?
Senior Victor Rosa, Mr. Everything for Central, was being interviewed about 10 feet away from head coach Jeff Papazian after the game and the veteran coach asked his star a critical question.
“Vic, who had the last stop?” asked Papazian.
Rosa, who didn’t miss a beat on the question, immediately said it was him.
Papazian said of course Rosa was going to say that he made that game-saving tackle with a chuckle.
“I promise you, I got it,” retorted Rosa with a smile.
Well, what did the instant replay show?
Someone had filmed the final play and everyone got to see the last seconds of the gridiron bout unfold one more time.
It showed that it was indeed Rosa – along with teammate Justin Despins – who tackled Garcia two yards short of the Central end zone.
Rosa smiled as Papazian just shook his head.
“Get out of here!” said Papazian to Rosa with a big grin.
It was a great moment between a player and coach of a team that’s clearly finding its stride as the Rams are currently on a four-game winning streak (4-1).
However, the best may be yet to come for Central’s surging football program.
“As crazy as this is going to sound, the exciting part is that we’re not even close to the team that we could be now,” said Papazian after the Hartford Public win. “[And] we’re 4-1. Between last week and this week, we were able to squeak out a couple wins.”
Defensively, things have been a little crazy over the last five quarters for Central but bye weeks are great for retooling and getting back to basics.
In the fourth quarter of the Rams 35-29 win at Farmington during Week 4, the locals gave up 23 points – never seeing the ball over the final period of the showdown.
And the Owls, who also did not play much defense last weekend, managed to keep up with Central on the scoreboard to the tune of 48 points.
But throwing out those 71 points over the last five quarters, the Rams defense has been really good this season.
And the bye week will help the Rams shake out any of those defensive cobwebs.
“We have two weeks now to kind of really work on trying to finish up the way we know we can because we’re not playing to our full potential,” said Papazian. “But, we’re still 4-1.”
Rosa got a bit banged up during second period play and was forced to work without running with the ball.
The UCONN bound stud then showed off the rest of his game, making connections with Tre Blair (four receptions, 112 yards) and handing the ball off to Despins (108 rushing yards) and the duo shouldered the offensive load for Central.
“Both those guys are a little banged up,” said Papazian of Blair and Despins. “Listen, we’re halfway through [the season and] everybody’s a little sore. That’s why it was so important to get this one going into the week off and rest up.”
Big Line
Central has some studs on both of its lines – a hungry bunch of athletes who are getting experience on the fly and have its squad in playoff contention.
The offense includes the likes of Dan Lauretti, Mason Stokes, Jack Jones and Julius Powell at 6-foot-8 and 270 pounds.
Malachi Jones, Damian Glasper, Jaden Goulbourne, Ashton Zabka, Nick Salinas, Blair and Rosa make up an opposing offensive unit.
On the flip side, many of those same names apply on defensive side.
Jon Gomez is also a defensive standout along with Johnny Rios, and Zach Vanasse.
This group is talented and only getting better as the year goes on.
Rosa’s has his 1,000…and looking for more
Rosa is once again in the 1,000-yard club, snaring that total of 1,156 yards to date.
Over the second half of the campaign, he’ll be working on the second 1,000.
To get into the top ten season rushing records book at Bristol Central, he’ll have to top Dathan Hickey’s total in 2017 – currently sitting in tenth place at 1,402 yards.
It is conceivable that Rosa could end the season in the third all-time spot and he’ll need a total of 2,153 yards to do it.
Garry Pearson is in that third slot but no matter how many yards Rosa ends up churning out, he’s putting together one heck of a senior campaign in 2021.
Bye, Bye
No matter how you slice it, Central was looking forward to the bye week – preparing for a huge Week 7 showdown against Tolland in Bristol this coming Friday.
“Between some of the work we need to do, drill wise and getting healthy, we’ll 100-percent take the bye,” said Papazian. “We’ll regroup a little bit, get healthy, and towards the end of the week, start getting ready for Tolland coming in after the bye week. [They’re] really a good team.”
One more time on Rosa
Straight from the Bristol Central website, here’s the programs all-time leading rushers with Rosa making the list twice and moving up the rankings by the game:
BRISTOL CENTRAL’S 1,000 YARD SEASON RUSHERS
Tim Washington (BC), 3,005 in 2000
Tim Washington (BC), 2,711 in 2001
Garry Pearson (BC), 2,153 in 1978
Tim Washington (BC), 1,990 in 1999
Garry Pearson (BC), 1,931 in 1977
Karl Hall (BC), 1,872 in 1979
D.J. Hernandez (BC), 1,599 in 2002
Kiernan Thurston (BC), 1,433 in 1987
D’Andre Conaway (BC), 1,412 in 2014
Dathan Hickey (BC), 1,402 in 2017
Craig Capurso (BC), 1,372 in 1998
Brian Godbout (BC), 1,371 in 1974
Gerry Ouellette (BC), 1,335 in 1984
Gregg Vontell (BC), 1,322 in 1982
D.J. Hernandez (BC), 1,312 in 2003
Tyler Burrow (BC), 1,298 in 2013Luis Medina (BC), 1,264 in 2015
Rich Godbout (BC), 1,246 in 1972
Dymetric Maisonet (BC), 1,234 in 2008
Jeff Castolene (BC), 1,223 in 1971
Doug Jackson (BC), 1,210 in 1970
Billy Parks (BC), 1,204 in 1981
Billy Parks (BC), 1,157 in 1980
Victor Rosa (BC), 1,156 in 2021#
Victor Rosa (BC), 1,146 in 2019
Brian Godbout (BC), 1,071 in 1975
Dennis Hernandez (BC), 1,044 in 1974
Luis Medina (BC), 1,031 in 2016
Craig Capurso (BC), 1,027 in 1997
Dustin Tucker (BC), 1,002 in 2006
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