By Michael Letendre

STORRS – In a bit of a statement game, the Bristol Central football squad brought back the defense – and in a big way – Thursday night as the Rams squashed Edwin O. Smith by a 44-8 final in a Central Connecticut Conference, Tier 3 event from Storrs.

After allowing 98 points over the past two games, Central (6-1) was in complete control defensively – shutting out the Panthers (1-6) over first half play.  

“Obviously, that’s been the focus for us the last couple weeks,” said Central coach Jeff Papazian of the defense. “It was just really good to see them finally play to what they’re capable of playing to. They haven’t done that the last few weeks and that was the hard part. I just told [the players after the game] that was a great effort. The defense holding [Smith] to eight points, we’ll take our chances with our offense.”

“If we can get eight out of those guys every week, we’ll be in really good shape.”

The victory was the sixth straight for the locals as big stops were made all over the gridiron.

Mason Stokes had the play of the night midway through the second period as the junior lineman made a sensational one-handed pickoff of Smith quarterback Connor Ouellette near the Central 30 yard-line.

And once Stokes gobbled it in and realized he had full control of the ball, he was off to the races.

Stokes galloped all the way down to the other end of the turf – setting up a short field and a first-and-goal situation for the Central offense.

It was one of numerous defensive highlights as sacks, tackles-for-losses and other pickoffs were nearly tallied throughout the showdown.

Team captains Dan Lauretti and Malachi Jones led the defensive charge, compiling several sacks and tackles-for-losses while Luis Padilla, Johnny Rios, and Ashton Zabka also had QB stops and tackles that resulted in backwards movement for the Panthers.    

Central’s Anthony Paulino was a defensive pest the entire night while Tre Blair, Dan Kitmanyen, Jon Gomez, and Amarri Gaskin, among many others, made big plays on ‘D’ that frustrated the home outfit over the full forty-eight minutes of play.

Ouellette was limited to just two pass completions for 26 total yards and the squad cobbled together just over 130 yards on the ground.

Central’s other captain, Victor Rosa, showed the complete offensive package with several UCONN observers looking on at the event – whether he was scampering for yards on the ground (200-plus) or making connections with receivers that resulted in 180 passing yards and two TDs.

Yards-after-catch was the name of the game for the Rams and on their first drive, a small connection from Rosa to Glasper turned into a huge 84-yard touchdown score as Central led 8-0 with 2:53 to go in the first half.

“For whatever reason he decided to come back [to play football], we’re glad about it,” said Papazian of Glasper. “With him and Tre [Blair] and [Justin] Despins, the more eyes we can take off of Victor and have more guys for our opponents to worry about, the better we’ll be. [Glasper] is a really good athlete and he’s a tough, hard-nosed kid. He plays hard every snap he’s out there.”

“[We’re] happy to let him get opportunities and to see him make the most of it, it was an awesome night for him.”  

A sack by Jones stopped the ensuing drive by Smith as Central turned around to score again with Rosa making a quick flip to a wide open Blair as he coasted into the goal on a 38-yard touchdown reception and with 9:10 to play in the first half, the Rams were ahead by a 16-0 push.

On the drive, Rosa had a 67-yard touchdown jaunt called back as holding penalties derailed Central’s offense at times but once the next play took place, the offense’s blocking was cleaned up and the Rams easily put additional points on the scoreboard.

“Today was probably as close to our potential as we’ve played” this year said Papazian “Obviously, we got hit with way more penalties than we would have liked. We were able to overcome those tonight. Our point of focus going forward is to clean up the penalties.”

“If we get rid of those penalties, we’ll be a really tough out.”
After the Blair TD, Smith was eventually forced to punt and on the first play of the next drive, Rosa went to the house via a 67-yard sizzler, starting with a tremendous stiff-arm to ward off a defender behind the line of scrimmage, as he ran in for six to make it a 22-0 contest with 6:15 left in the second tilt.

Stokes then made his amazing interception and runback to put his squad on the Panthers’ five – leading to a one-yard Rosa score up the gut as Central snared a 30-0 edge and the game was on the cusp of running time.

That 30-0 push lasted into the third quarter as Smith finally scored when Ouellette dashed into the end zone for six on a two-yard sprint and with 6:08 to go, it was a 30-8 game but the Panthers were way behind on the scoreboard.

To end the contest, and to induce running time late the fourth and final frame, Rosa rushed in for a two-yard touchdown and finally, Despins made a mad 15-yard dash into the goal and off a two-point conversion run by Gaskin, it was a 44-8 game with 5:05 to play.

The Bristol Central football program is firmly in control of its own destiny now as the month of November is upon us with RHAM on tap next Friday.

Against the Raptors, Central’s seniors will play their final home game under the lights from the turf field at BCHS (6:30 p.m.).

“We want to have meaningful games at the end of October into November,” said Papazian. “We keep checking them off, we keep winning, [and the games] get bigger and bigger. As a high school athlete, you want to play in big games that people are excited about coming to see and that’s what we’ve put ourselves in position to do here.”

“We’re 6-1 and right where we want to be.”

Bristol Central Football

BRISTOL CENTRAL 44, EDWIN O. SMITH 8

from Edwin O. Smith high school, Storrs

Bristol Central           8 22 0 14 – 44

Edwin O. Smith         0 0 8 0 – 8

INDIVIDUAL SCORING

First Period

BC – Damion Glasper 84 pass by Victor Rosa (Rosa run), 2:53

Second Period

BC – Tre Blair 38 pass by Rosa (Rosa run), 9:10

BC – Rosa 67 run (throw failed), 6:15

BC – Rosa 1 run (Glasper run), 6:15

Third Period

EO – Connor Ouellette 2 run (Noah Cordone catch), 6:08

Fourth Period

BC – Rosa 2 run (throw failed), 10:27

BC – Justin Despins 15 run (Amarri Gaskin run), 5:05

Records: Bristol Central 6-1 overall; Edwin O. Smith 1-6