By Michael Letendre 

BRISTOL – The Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern girls lacrosse teams locked horns once again – pitting the two city rivals against one another on Monday – and the bout between the two programs went down to the wire. 

The Lancers held a 7-5 edge midway through the second half but the Rams defense made all the big stops late, going on a match-ending 5-1 run – as Emily Lowe and Madison Secor tallied the tying and go-ahead goals to push Central to a tremendous 10-8 CCC South victory from the turf field at BCHS.  

Central moved to 3-1-1 over the winning effort while Eastern fell to 2-4. 

Eastern etched up that two-goal lead off a slick goal from McKenzie Aparo with 17:14 left to play in regulation. 

But Central buckled down – allowing just one Eastern goal from there – as Central put together a successful comeback bid to seize the lead and hang on to win. 

“I think we just got into our own heads,” said Eastern coach Kayla Policarpio. “This is a big game, the hype around it. It’s a rivalry game so I think the girls got in their own heads and they made their own mistakes. Central just capitalized on them.” 

Secor led the charge with four goals, Kaylynn LaPointe and Lowe nabbed two scores apiece while Emma Burciaga and Abby Duval each put in a ball in the net once to lead the offensive charge. 

Emma Stavens attacked often, earning a hat trick for the Lancers while Ciara Collins and Vanessa Drury each tallied two goals. 

And Aparo tallied her lone in the middle of the second stanza over a very physical match. 

Central grabbed a 4-2 lead out the gate as Burciaga scored off a rebound while LaPointe dropped in a score midway through the first frame before Eastern went on a tear, not allowing another Central goal until 18:32 of the second half. 

“That’s a credit to Coach Kayla and their work ethic,” said Central coach Kyle Phelan. “Eastern won every ground ball. They won every single loose ball. We’d play defense for three minutes, get the ball, and turn it back over because of the pressure. We’d play defense for two more minutes, get a ball, and turn it over [again]. That goes to Eastern.” 

“They work hard.” 

Eastern keeper Avery Ellis was tremendous in the net while the likes of Jayna Hatcher, Maddie Carros, Audra Porowski, and Carolyn Wilson made big stops as Eastern’s offense took charge. 

Collins scored two goals over a ninety second jaunt, tying the match at 4-4, with 10:25 left in the first half. 

Both teams later scored goals that were both nullified due to violations but Stavens stayed with it, zipping a ball by outstanding Central keeper Alyah Rodriguez Warren, and when Drury flipped in a shot with 2:46 to go in the half, Eastern’s edge reached 6-4. 

The scored remained a two point lead for Eastern at the half but Central’s defense came to the forefront, limiting the Lancers to single scores by Aparo and Drury over the final twenty-minutes of action. 

Callie Lodovico, Ella Watson, Ava Bouchard, Abby Quintero, Brooke Watson and a host of other defenders stayed on the heels of Eastern’s offensive standouts and those double and triple-teams had an impact on the scoreboard. 

“I can’t say enough” about Central’s defense said Policarpio. “They’re aggressive, they work hard. They’re scrappy.” 

Secor tied the score at 7-7 with two goals, one a sweet wrap-around with 12:22 to play, as it was a brand-new game. 

It was still at 7-7 with under ten minutes to play when Rodriguez-Warren made stops on Drury and Stavens to keep things even. 

“We dig in defensively. I think Alyah woke up in the second half, made some big saves,” said Phelan. “I think we did our best on the defensive end in the second half.” 

But Drury notched a score to put Eastern on top again but was quickly answered when Rachel Wygant found Emily Lowe for a goal. 

And with 7:13 left in regulation, it was an 8-8 stalemate. 

Both teams had scoring chances from there but when Secor notched her fourth goal of the game, the go-ahead score with 5:10 play, it put Central up for good at 9-8. 

The match went down to the wire from there and with ninety seconds left, the Rams were holding that one-goal lead before Collins made a quick steal. 

The Lancers called time with 53 seconds to play and gave Collins the ball, giving the senior standout a chance to knot the score up and send the match into overtime. 

She attempted to navigate through a tough triple-team, turning on the jets, but was stopped in front of the Central net as Eastern turned the ball over with 32 seconds remaining.  

“They triple teamed her because of the athlete that she is and the name,” said Policarpio of Collins. “She tried her best but when you’re triple-teamed and can’t get the ball off on a pass or you can’t make a score, you can’t get [that tying goal]. I’m very proud of her none-the-less. She worked hard. She played hard. She played smart.” 

“But that’s a credit to [Central’s] defense as well.”  

To end the event, Lowe made a late steal and eventually scored an insurance tally with just seconds remaining as Central picked up a huge 10-8 victory over its crosstown rival. 

However, the Lancers will have a chance to even the score next month. 

The rematch between the squads takes place on Friday, May 20 from Alumni Field on the campus of Bristol Eastern and the showdown is sure to be another dandy. 

“I think it’s going to be like this in a couple weeks,” said Phelan of the rematch. “These guys, they all want to beat each other, and it shows. There are a lot of fouls out there and they play hard against each other.” 

“It’s that old town rivalry,” added Policarpio. “You can’t beat it.” 

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