By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The Bristol Eastern football team is desperately looking to finish the season at .500 and how sweet would it be to get to 5-5 with a victory over city rival Bristol Central?
The Rams employ the best player in the state offensively but the Lancers’ senior standout, back Alex Marshall, isn’t planning on playing second fiddle that afternoon — to anyone.
In fact, Marshall has a chance to become Eastern’s top single season rusher in program history.
And then there’s also other weapons out on the field wearing the blue and gray that will give Central plenty of fits.
True, Eastern has some injuries and won’t have certain quarterbacks and special team options that started the campaign available, but you’ll won’t be hearing any excuses from the Lancers’ program — win or lose.
Eastern is ready for this game, is looking forward to this extreme challenge and has a plan to stop – or at least slow down – one of the top rushing weapons in the state.
Here’s what Turkey Day looks like from the Bristol Eastern point of view:
Head Coach: Anthony (never call me A.J. in print) Julius (looking for his first Thanksgiving Day victory)
Date and Time of the Clash: The teams lock horns on Thanksgiving morning, 10:30 am, from Muzzy Field in Bristol.
Last BC showdown (2019): In overtime, the Lancers fell to Central, 34-32 and haven’t won on Thanksgiving since a 20-18 victory back in 2014.
The Series: Eastern trails in the all-time series 36-23-2, hoping to break a five-game losing streak.
Series Fact: The Lancers and Rams’ game in 2019 was the third showdown that ended up tied after regulation. It was also the first one settled in overtime.
Players to Watch: Alex Marshall (sr. TB/LB); Luke Dauphinee (sr. G/NG); Nate Shorette (sr. WR/S); Conor McCormick (sr. TE/DE); Alex Vita (sr. T/T); Brady Brown (jr. QB/LB); Jeremy Kolloverja (jr. WR/LB); Austin Shorette (jr. LB); Connor Gimpl (jr. C/E); Cooper Harris (jr. T/DL); Wyatt Scarritt (so. T/DL); Joseph Arborio (jr. G/DL); Kamden Laprise (fr. QB/DB/injured); Rayshon Andrews (so. WR/DB); Kyle Babin (jr. WR/CB); Jaiden Fore (so. FB/LB); Josh Aubin (so. RB/LB); Dylan Bradley (sr. DB); Malik Sherrill (sr. DB/K); Adam Zavecz (so. LB); Chase Dauphinee (fr. K); Gavin Damboise (fr. K/injured).
Captains: Conor McCormick, Alex Marshall, Luke Dauphinee and Alex Vita.
Eastern Team Record: 4-5 overall, winning its last game against Farmington (54-22).
Why Eastern will win…The Lancers have been hard to predict this season and easily could have entered Thanksgiving at 6-3 instead of 4-5.
The last-second loss at Plainville, plus the overtime defeat to South Windsor, was by a combined two points.
You can’t shake the Lancers and this team won’t be an easy out against the Rams either.
Senior back Alex Marshall needs just 75 yards to top Reinaldo Soto’s single season record of 1,713 yards – established during his sophomore season.
In terms of senior year rushing, no other back in Eastern program history has rushed for more yards as a senior than Marshall.
Not Reinaldo Soto (1,586 yards in 1998), not David Casanova (1,530 yards in 2007), not Gerry Ouellette (1,517 yards in 2014), not anyone.
Going into Thursday, Marshall has 1,638 yards on 271 carries — good for 20 touchdowns.
As of the Thanksgiving, Marshall is third all-time in rushing yardage at BE with 2,615 yards — all coming over two seasons.
He’s as tough as they come, craves the contact, and will just keep churning yards on the ground — even if three or four bodies are in the way, attempting to slow him down.
His average of 6.0 yards-per-carry is tremendous and Marshall leads the squad with smarts, heady play, and plenty of guile.
Freshman QB Kamden Laprise is out of action due to injury and that means junior Brady Brown will be taking the snaps.
He doesn’t throw the ball a ton but Brown has only been sacked once this year, averages 4.1 yards-per-carry and is a viable second or third option to give Marshall a breather.
If Brown can get a pass or two off, he’ll make connections with Nate Shorette (10 catches, 130 yards, TD) and Conor McCormick (5-97-1).
In terms of blocking, Julius will use tight ends, receivers, linemen, (possibly Wilbur) and everyone else not running with the ball.
That means athletes like Jeremy Kolloverja will be busy early and often blocking while sophomore Jaiden Fore has done a tremendous job all season blazing the trail for Marshall to run through.
Austin Shorette has been used in conjunction with Fore at times in Eastern’s offensive schemes.
Those reads will get tougher with Central’s athletic line on defense.
But Eastern’s offensive line isn’t too shabby either with Conor McCormick (he’s an excellent emergency punter as well), Wyatt Scarritt, Luke Dauphinee, Alex Vita and Joseph Arborio leading the charge.
Even with the injuries, missing personnel and what-not, the Lancers are going to have chances against a bigger and quicker Central defensive front.
The X-Factor…It’s junior Rayshon Andrews.
Andrews, a talented junior, has been tremendous as of late and has the speed to steer clear of hungry defenders.
He tallied over 200 yards on the ground in Eastern’s last contest against Farmington and averages a staggering 18.9 yards-per-carry on just 17 rushes this year.
The Lancers have four receptions for TDs this season with Andrews (13 catches, 108 yards, two touchdowns) leading the charge.
When he gets the ball, he makes an immediate impact.
Eastern’s defense will also make stops and could be considered an x-factor as well.
This season, Eastern’s tallied 44 tackles-for-losses, taking away 124 yards from opponents in the process.
Austin Shorette leads the squad in that department with 11.5 TFLs – good for 23.5 yards lost.
Marshall and Connor Gimpl are also leaders in that department as well.
Eastern has eight sacks on the season with Austin Shorette making 4.5 of those.
Trying to chase down Central’s Victor Rosa is going to be an epic challenge but not an impossible one with enough bodies in the way – making tackles.
Bristol Eastern can’t…make this game an up-and-down affair.
Look, Hartford Public and Tolland decided not to play much defense against Central and attempted to keep up with the Rams offensively.
And that was a very bad mistake.
Public dropped in 48 points against Central while Tolland scored 50 and those two tallies, on any given Friday (or Saturday for the Owls), should have been enough to earn a win.
But the Rams combined to score 120 total points against the Owls and Eagles – leading to doom and demise for those other programs.
Everyone pointed to the lack of defense by Central at midseason but didn’t notice what was happening on the flip side.
Every stop must count if the Lancers want to beat the Rams.
There’s simply not a big margin for error.
Marshall, Eastern’s leading tackler, along with Josh Aubin, Kyle Babin, Austin Shorette, Jeremy Kolloverja, Andrews, and crew must make the initial contact stick.
Rosa will go in fifty directions at once and if he’s allowed any kind of space or room, it’s going to be a high-scoring affair in Central’s favor.
But Eastern’s defense yields just 20.7 points-per-game this year – nearly identical to Central.
And out of the halftime gate, opponents have tallied just 28 third period points as adjustments made at the half have obviously paid off.
Lastly…This is going to be an epic challenge but not an impossible one for the Lancers.
The Eastern program has enjoyed its best record since 2014 when the Lancers went 7-4 and last defeated the Rams on Thanksgiving.
Since that season, Eastern has won just five games and can equal that total this year with a win over Central.
The Rams are big, athletic, and talented but the Lancers have enough in its toolbox to frustrate Central – just like Eastern did against Bloomfield a few weeks ago.
All eyes will be on Rosa but not paying attention to Marshall and company could be a huge mistake.
And the winner is…Did you know that the song John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt originates from the United States and Canada?
It’s a one verse tune that just repeats over, and over, and over, and over again (My kid loves that ridiculous song…).
And just like that fact that Central wins on Thanksgiving over and over and over again, Eastern is looking to change the tune on Thursday.
Did I answer the question?
Bristol Eastern’s Regular Season Ledger:
Date Opponent Score W/L
Friday, September 10 vs. E.O. Smith 35-6, W
Friday, September 17 at RHAM 13-7, W
Friday, September 24 vs. Wilbur Cross 12-28, L
Friday, October 1 at Plainville 20-21, L
Friday, October 8 vs. Capital/Ach. 15-21, L
Thursday, October 21 at East Catholic 38-18, W
Friday, October 29 vs. South Windsor 22-23, L
Friday, November 5 at Bloomfield 3-40, L
Friday, November 12 vs. Farmington 54-22, W
Thursday, November 25 at Bristol Central ???
