By Michael Letendre
WESTWOOD, MA – Bristol’s Bryce Curtin has continued his football education at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the former Bristol Eastern standout has been busy over his senior campaign for the Engineers.
In fact, this past Friday, he made a game-saving play that propelled WPI to a huge win over Bridgewater State.
The Engineers were ahead in the showdown when Bridgewater, trailing by three points, was running out of time with less than 10 seconds to go in regulation.
The program decided to try a 23-yard field goal in an attempt to tie the contest and force overtime from its own home field.
But Curtin wasn’t in the mood for overtime on the road.
He ended up blocking the attempt as the Engineers held on to win by a 24-21 final as Curtin made one of the biggest defensive stops of his career.
For his effort, he was selected as the New England’s Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Football Special Teams Athlete of the Week for the week of September 10th.
The attempted kick didn’t have a chance as Curtin simply rose above the defensive line and batted the ball out of the air to stop the play dead.
It was a clutch performance in a primetime position.
Curtin played well throughout the showdown against Bridgewater, nabbing a 13-yard reception while adding an assisted tackle to complete a solid effort for WPI.
Curtin, sporting a bit of a mustache in his bio on the WPI website, is in his senior season for the Engineers.
The 6-foot-1, 210-pound wide receiver has played in two games for WPI this season, compiling three receptions for 31 yards (10.3 yards-per-catch) as the program is undefeated to date (2-0).
It was the first career weekly NEWMAC award for Curtin – a well-deserved honor for an athlete who completed with maximum effort on the gridiron for the Lancers over the years.
At Eastern, Curtin was a tough out at quarterback – a competitor that always gave it his all on the gridiron or on the hardwood as a forward for the program under coach boys basketball coach Bunty Ray.
Curtin was the Kingstreeters’ full-time quarterback in 2019, nearly throwing for 800 yards as a senior.
He threw for six touchdowns and rushed for 150 yards and a touchdown to complete his final season on the turf at BEHS.
He worked hard scholastically under head coach Anthony Julius and all that effort led to a spot on WPI’s football roster.
Curtin came to WPI as a 180-pound freshmen and certainly filled out as his senior campaign rolled around in 2023.
He came onto the collegiate scene as a quarterback but settled nicely into his current wide receiver role – doing a little of everything on both sides of the ball.
Next week, WPI is home against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in a confrontation from H. Carr Field at Alumni Stadium on Saturday, September 16.
Game time is 5 p.m.
