By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The Bristol Eastern girls soccer program went through a tough 2022 campaign this past fall.
The Lancers didn’t have its biggest roster in recent years, but the girls battled and battled and battled.
Though Eastern finished the season with a 1-12-3 ledger and did not qualify for postseason play, the girls who went wire-to-wire for the program did a very credible job despite the rough ending.
“I’ve been extremely proud of the way that they’ve played,” said Eastern coach Scott Redman. “I’ve been extremely proud of the fact that they’ve been showing up every single day. They see and hear what everyone says, everyone sees the record but the competition we’re playing – last Friday night we lost to undefeated Wethersfield 4-0, but we played really well.”
“We played a lot better, but the scoreboard doesn’t always show it.”
Several of Eastern’s setbacks were matches that could have been flipped into victories but there was never an easy out over CCC play.
The Kingstreeters drew ties against Berlin (0-0), Maloney (1-1) and the first time around against Bristol Central (0-0) back on October 6.
Near misses came against South Windsor (2-0), in the rematch against Central (2-1), and Plainville among several others.
The Lancers lone triumph came against Platt on September 22 as Eastern squared away a huge 6-0 win in Meriden.
Frankly, when looking at the overall campaign by the Lancers, wins and losses weren’t the only measurable metric Eastern used.
Numerous younger players earned time right off the bat and that will only help the squad next season.
“We’ve been improving all year long,” said Redman. “Nobody’s quit [as] these girls that are here, they’re playing for each other.”
That includes the efforts of senior stud Cecelia Gilbert who ended up breaking her collarbone against Bristol Central in the Lancers’ 2-1 loss back on November 1.
Gilbert was one of a handful of seniors who went wire-to-wire, through the thick and thin of a very tough campaign.
And Gilbert was easily one of the programs primetime performers.
After getting hurt, the defensive standout wanted to compete against Plainville the following day and had aspirations to rejoin the indoor track team despite the nasty injury.
That’s the kind of athlete, who was also going to continue to play in the offseason, you want to have in your scholastic program and in the classroom, along with Emily Piendak, Julia Armington – who got hurt towards the end of the campaign – and Taigan Parent.
Give credit to that crew because those athletes made the commitment and stuck with the program until the very end.
“The seniors, they could have tapped out a long time ago,” said Redman. “They work hard every single day and are great examples for the younger kids.”
