By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – Playing with pride, the Bristol Central girls soccer team was on a mission to close out the 2021 campaign on a winning note.
And in a crosstown confrontation against Bristol Eastern on Tuesday evening, the Rams picked up their biggest win of the campaign.
Central’s duo of Ashlee Crumrine and Beccy Litwinczyk did all the scoring for the Rams, helping to stave off Eastern over a 2-0 final in a CCC South showdown from Alumni Field.
Central ended its season at 5-10-1 overall while Eastern fell to 5-8-2.
The Rams’ defense mirrored the offense for Central as keeper Gabby DeFilippis helped shutout the Lancers, working up four saves.
“It felt really great,” said DeFilippis of the shutout. “We really needed a comeback for this year so it was good to be with my team and [get] that for us.”
Central’s defense in front of DeFilippis made all the stops over a complete game effort, chasing away a very aggressive Eastern attack – spoiling scoring chance after chance by the Lancers.
“You’ve got to applaud Central,” said Eastern coach Scott Redman. “They finished the chances they had. We probably had more chances, but we couldn’t finish. They finished on their end when they had the chances and then they played a smart defensive game, stayed compact. We still traded chances, so I was happy with that. We just couldn’t finish.”
To start the match, the play was nearly even up to a Central corner kick with 29 minutes to go in the first half as both squads were getting into the flow.
But on that corner kick, the Rams went on to score.
Rachel Wygant set the corner up, blasting the ball to Crumrine in the middle of a crowded pack as her header found paydirt, giving the Rams a 1-0 push with 28:49 left in the frame.
“That’s been our Achilles heel all season because we’ve had so many opportunities,” said Central coach Ginny Godbout. “Every game, we’re always in there. We had those opportunities but just couldn’t quite get over that hump.”
“Tonight, Ashlee Crumrine finishing that, I mean, just unbelievable.”
Minutes later, Central was kicking from the corner again and on the Wygant kick in, D’Amato (four saves) came out of the goal to square the ball up as the visiting aggression could not add to its tally.
Eastern’s Isabella Sanchez came off the bench with energy as the Kingstreeters missed multiple chances over the second twenty half.
Eastern had a corner go nowhere with 20:30 left in the first half and another Central shot from the BE corner was zipped away by the aggressive D’Amato.
“Central didn’t take their foot off the pedal,” said Redman. “As we had to extend, we kind of left [D’Amato] on her own out there. She definitely stepped up and kept us in the game.”
With 8:30 to play in the first half, Eastern’s Emily Nelson was chugging towards the Central goal.
Central’s Lei Roy blocked the attempt but seconds later, Nelson continued her onslaught.
Her attempt at the 7:56 mark of the first period hit the top crossbar and flipped out – nearly tying up the game.
“Creating the chances, I was happy with,” said Redman. “Sometimes, you just don’t have it, you can’t find the frame. You have to applaud their keeper for taking away our chances.”
The back-and-forth play continued into the final minutes as a stab by Central’s Francesca Amara drilled an attempt just wide of the net and when the halftime buzzer sounded, the Rams’ 1-0 edge remained the score of the contest.
Five minutes into the second quarter, Ciara Collins – making things happen in the middle of the turf for the Lancers – was called for a foul at midfield and Central’s Abby Hansen was tasked to take the kick.
Hansen made an on-the-money kick that rolled through to Litwinczyk as she was on the left side of the Eastern goal area.
D’Amato had the lane covered but Litwinczyk dropped the ball in on the opposite side of the net for an insurance goal, posting Central to a 2-0 cushion with 32:32 to play.
“We finally finished those balls,” said Godbout. “That ball that Abby Hansen put in and that finish by Becky [was] just incredible.”
Hansen was at it again a couple minutes later, kicking from nearly the same spot, but her set up did not result in a goal this time around.
Eleven minutes into the second forty, Collins took two cracks at the Central net – one that just was ripped over the goal with 29:00 showing on the clock – as Eastern never showed any slowdown offensively.
And then with 15:42 to play, Nelson went on the attack again.
She ran through most of the Central defense, got to the cusp of the net but when Nelson blasted the ball, DeFilippis made a huge save as the Rams kept Eastern off the board.
“That whole defensive performance tonight was incredible from the goalie, to the backs, to the midfielders, even the strikers…we were just busting our butts all over the field,” said Godbout. “I just said to all the seniors [after the game] it was one hell of a goodbye.”
Eastern continued to ramp up the pressure late but a corner kick attempt sailed into the back of the net and with 5:14 to go, Breanna Venturi-Nelson saw a rebound come her way and she went on the attack.
But her ball was scooped in by DeFilippis as neither team could add a late tally to the board.
“[If] we finished two or three of the chances, this is a different conversation,” said Redman. “I thought we did a lot of things well today. Central just finished on the back end and we didn’t.”
D’Amato made a slick save late but as time expired, Central ran off the field as 2-0 victors to end its campaign at 5-10-1.
“They saved it all for tonight I guess,” said Godbout of her squad.
CCC SOUTH GIRLS SOCCER
BRISTOL CENTRAL 2, BRISTOL EASTERN 0
from Alumni Field on the campus of Bristol Eastern
Scoring 1 2 – F
Bristol Central 1 1 – 2
Bristol Eastern 0 0 – 0
Goals – First Half
11:11 – Ashlee Crumrine (Bristol Central), Rachel Wygant assist
Goals – Second Half
47:28 – Beccy Litwinczyk (Bristol Central), Abby Hansen assist
Saves
Gabby DeFilippis (Bristol Central), 4; Grace D’Amato (Bristol Eastern), 4.
Records: Bristol Central 5-10-1 overall; Bristol Eastern 5-8-2
