By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – A grueling city series grudge match, pitting the girls soccer programs from Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern against each other on Thursday evening, ended in a 0-0 stalemate from Alumni Field.
Both squads gave it their all with Central (5-3-1) leading the offensive charge while Eastern’s defense simply refused to yield.
That combination led to a scoreless eighty minutes of play as the Lancers moved to 1-5-3 on the campaign.
The Rams were seemingly just one pass away from getting that game-winning goal to fall but just couldn’t generate that tally in the end.
“It’s just something we need to work on moving forward,” said Central coach Vicki Malick of the offense. “We’ve been working on our possession. It’s obviously working but now we’ve got to finish that.”
Eastern’s defense made several critical stops over the first forty when Central’s Rachel Wygant and Abby Hansen invaded Eastern territory.
And Lancers’ keeper Abigale Pelletier made huge stops throughout the match
“I think Abby gets a lot of the credit because she’s between the pipes and she’s selling out back there,” said Eastern coach Scott Redman. “But I thought Emily Piendak had an absolutely sensational game in the back. Julia Armington had an awesome game out wide as well and Leah [Roy] and Taigan [Parent]. They really improved in the second half and locked down.”
“They limited [Central’s] high quality chances. Did Central have some chances? Absolutely. But we limited their really great chances with our defense.”
Central had a ton of the possession over the first half as Wygant hustled all over the field, attempting to set up her mates.
Hansen also caused havoc offensively, just missing out on a couple early chances, while Beccy Litwinczyk was extremely active late.
“This year it’s very different,” said Malick of the Central offense. “We have those three [Wygant, Hansen, Litwinczyk] but everyone is jumping in onboard [offensively] They’re all in. It’s just putting that last piece together so we can win more games.”
The Rams seemingly won most of the 50-50 balls which kept the Lancers’ defense on its toes throughout.
On the flip side, Central’s defense met every Eastern offensive set – limiting the Lancers in shots on goal.
“Central had more possession, they created more chances,” said Redman. “But I was telling my girls at halftime you don’t need to create a million chances, You need to create a couple really good chances and I thought we did that in the second half. I thought, despite Central having more possession, we had two really good chances on our [second half] corner kicks.”
Central enjoyed three corner kicks over first half play but Wygant’s kicks into a crowded Eastern goal area did not find a teammate’s foot while the Kingstreeters had two corners over the second forty.
But Central’s defense, including excellent stops by the combination of Christina Browne, Lexi Roy, Francesca Amara, Nicole Reimer, and Litwinczyk kept the Lancers at bay.
“Our goalie is out so we have two girls” filling in said Malick. “We had Beccy that stepped in in the first half and Nicole [Reimer] who stepped in in the second half. Our defensive line is working very well together. We keep moving and trying different things and it gets more and more successful with the movement we make.”
On the flip side, Parent busted several drives as did Roy, Armington, and Piendak over the first stanza as Central’s offense was unmatched.
Eastern contested those attempts and even the pesky goal posts helped the Kingstreeters.
Off a failed clear with 7:50 to play in the first half, a Central assault on the Eastern goal saw the ball bounce off the left post as the 0-0 score was cemented on the game clock.
“The pipes helped her as well” tonight said Redman of Pelletier. “She did just enough a couple times and used her friends to help her. She played really well.”
Wygant did a great job of getting her feet on everything late in the first half while Eastern’s Cecelia Gilbert looked poised late in the tilt but couldn’t get a ball past Central’s defense.
And though the Rams enjoyed several first-half drives, the game was scoreless going into the halftime break.
In the second half, Central continued to make incursions into the Eastern goal area but Piendak helped stop Central’s attack – keeping the offenders on the outside looking in and just getting in the way of attempted shots.
“Piendak limited so many chances in the second half with her body positioning, her ability to shield and then the rest of [the defenders] just played awesome,” said Redman.
With 29:29 left in the match, Wygant kicked a field goal over the Eastern net and then about four minutes later, Hansen’s best attempt hit the top crossbar on the Lancers’ goal as two good chances failed to produce a game-winning score.
With 12:12 remaining, a foul gave Hansen an attempt from the 30-yard line, nearly in front of Central’s bench, but the shot – which could have easily gone over the keeper’s head – was perfectly intercepted by Pelletier as the shutout remained intact.
Litwinczyk had two late chances at the Eastern goal before the home program took a stab at stealing the game late.
Eastern enjoyed play on Central’s side of the pitch over a furious final five minutes and with less than two minutes to play, the Lancers had a late corner kick.
Megan Krok got the ball over to Emma Stavens, who attacked the goal, but nothing came of it.
To end the contest, Pelletier made one last save, Krok was fouled late, and Roy’s final kick went over the Central net as the teams settled on a 0-0 tie.
“We had the right idea. They played the right ball, but it skipped, it was run out and Central took it away,” said Redman of Eastern’s final scoring chances. “You have to credit Central. I thought we created a few really good chances in the second half. That was the goal.”
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish it off in the back end.”
The Rams certainly put together a great game plan against Eastern and were just one step away from seizing the win.
“We’re putting a lot of puzzle pieces together,” said Malick. “Now, it’s just getting that last one together.”
CCC South Girls Soccer
BRISTOL CENTRAL 0, BRISTOL EASTERN 0
from Alumni Field, Bristol Eastern
Halftime Score: Squat
Records: Bristol Central 5-3-1 overall; Bristol Eastern 1-5-3
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