By Michael Letendre

MANCHESTER – After the Bristol Eastern football team handily defeated Eastern Catholic by twenty points on a special edition of Thursday night football, senior Alex Marshall was grinning from ear to ear.

The Lancers belted the Eagles by a 38-18 final and along the way, Marshall nabbed his 1,000th yard – joining an elite group of athletes to achieve that amazing feat at Eastern. 

“It feels great,” said Marshall about the feat. “I wasn’t able to hit it my sophomore year. I got stuck at 980 [yards]. And if felt really good to get it tonight knowing I was going to secure this win.”

For those who’ve watched Marshall grow with the Eastern football program over the years, the milestone wasn’t much of a surprise.

He just missed that special four-figure total two years ago and Eastern didn’t play its usual 11v11 format in 2020 due to the pandemic.

So in the end, this was simply a pleasure deferred and there was little doubt where the outstanding Marshall would end up once his senior year came rolling around.

It did take a little time over 2019 for Marshall to become the team’s top running option but once the dust settled, he took to the position with passion, guile and ability.

Originally, Marshall shared reps with then senior Dylan Garcia to start the 2019 campaign, netting 110 yards on 28 carries for a touchdown over Eastern’s first two games.

But Marshall stayed ready, continued to put the work in and by the time Week 3 rolled around, his role was greatly expanded.

Marshall had a 51 yard sprint against Pomperaug, picking up 132 yards on 24 carries overall in Eastern’s 14-0 win.

The following week, Marshall slammed Hartford Public for 214 yards on 26 tough rushes as the Owls were blanked, 35-0.

There were ups and downs after that game in Hartford as he became ‘the man’ and ended the season against Central with three rushing TD’s, squaring off 157 yards on 37 carries over a tough 34-32 overtime loss.

Overall as a sophomore, Marshall racked up 217 rushes for 977 yards and 10 touchdowns.

But where does he stack up this season?

To date, Marshall has four 200-plus rushing yardage games to his name and has rumbled up 1,189 yards (on 184 carries) and 13 rushing TDs.

That’s a season-and-a-half total of 2,166 yards with at least four more games to go this season.

“Alex does what Alex does,” said Eastern coach Anthony Julius of Marshall after the East Catholic victory. “He’s a big time player.”

Marshall, as he’s shown on the wrestling mats, has balance and power and once he makes his move, it’s tough to stop him once he’s hit the seams and holes his offensive lines provides for him.

And he has plenty of quickness to boot, adept in changing directions, and doesn’t mind a head-on confrontation with an opponent.

More importantly, Marshall is achieving these milestones as the Bristol Eastern football team is easily having its best season since 2014 when the program went 7-4 overall.

“Oh, it means so much more,” said Marshall of his earning his milestone in an Eastern win. “It will be easy to remember, I can tell you that – especially the four touchdowns that got added along with it.”

Marshall is one of the team’s leaders in tackles and tackles-for-losses and truly is one of the finest players each time the Lancers hit the field.

The well-rounded and very likable young man is not just one of the four  captains on the squad, but – perhaps – the heart and soul of the Eastern program.

And his outstanding play has helped his mates break a three game losing streak – starting with that twenty-point demolition of East Catholic and Eastern is looking for more against South Windsor this coming Friday.

“It just feels really good that our team can overcome adversity,” said Marshall. “We stumbled pretty hard in that three game losing streak. But we brought it back tonight and I think we’re going to have a lot of confidence going into next week.”

Soto, Zeigler, Ouellette, and Casanova

Marshall is in some pretty good company in terms of all-time rushing totals, considering a lot of Eastern’s past success in the 1970s and 1980s came from the long bomb.

But if Marshall can keep his current rushing rate up, he could finish up around 1,985 yards – maybe more.

That would be an all-time single season record at Bristol Eastern.

And it’s not that farfetched that he could wrangle up 2,000 yards by the completion of Eastern’s final regular season contest against Bristol Central.

Reinaldo Soto rushed for a school record 1,713 yards back in 1996 and Marshall has a shot at breaking that 25 year old record.

The four running backs that have the most yardage in school history are Soto (5,161 yards from 1995-1998), Gerry Ouellette (2,978 yards from 2012-2014), Mike Zeigler (2,615 yards from 2005-2008), and David Casanova (2,497 yards from 2005-2007).

Marshall had a better sophomore season than both Zeigler and Casanova and it appears the senior could reach as high as number two or three in the all-time totals on that impressive list by the completion of Thanksgiving.

As always, stay tuned to TBE as the season continues for Marshall and the Lancers.

BRISTOL EASTERN’s 1,000 YARD SEASON RUSHERS

Here’s the outstanding group of athletes Marshall is chasing…

Reinaldo Soto (BE), 1,713 yards in 1996

Reinaldo Soto (BE), 1,586 in 1998

Reinaldo Soto (BE), 1,582 in 1997

David Casanova (BE), 1,530 in 2007

Gerry Ouellette (BE), 1,523 in 2014

Gerry Ouellette (BE), 1,396 in 2013Dylon Ouellette (BE), 1,391 in 2010

Mike Zeigler (BE), 1,273 in 2008

Alex Marshall (BE), 1,189 in 2021…and counting