BCHS football expects improvement off 1-4 start to the campaign as bye week comes and goes

Posted By: Michael Letendre October 15, 2023

By Michael Letendre

The Bristol Central football program (1-4 overall) might have hit the bye week like a brick wall.

But the team plans to bounce-back over the second half of the season even through another slate of tough Central Connecticut Conference Tier II showdowns await.

However, outside of Friday’s game coming up, the word “opportunity” should help propel the locals.

The program is getting better as both the offenses and defenses continue to form, coalesce and gel.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and the same goes for the success of most scholastic football programs.

The passing game is still a work in progress as junior Jack Hartley (113 carries, 372 yards, two TDs) can run with the football here, there and everywhere.

Those direct snaps don’t give a ton of time for Hartley to respond but if there’s any daylight, he’s off to the races.

And once that passing game falls into place, Hartley is going to be load to stop.

Hartley leads the program with three rushing touchdowns while Jayden Glasper (39-149, TD), Tristian Thompson (25-124, two TDs) and Anthony Paulino (9-131, two TDs) have also chipped in.

Cassias Breland and Quincy Lawson have multiple receptions on the season with Hartley found Lawson for a touchdown.

Opponents haven’t had much success on the ground (692 total yards) compared to the Rams (880) but Central has been out gained overall due to the passing game.

The opposition have made over half of its throwing attempts (37-for-74) for 557 yards while the Rams have a combined 79 reception yards.

Overall, Central has been out gained offensively 1249-959.

Defensively, Jack Jones continues to achieve as he’s belting out 11 tackles-per-game that includes eight tackle-for-a-loss – both team-leading totals.

Tyler Ryan has continued to gain success, squaring up 35 total tackles – good for 7.0 tackles-per-game.

Aiden Lamarre (29 tackles, 5.8 per game), Tim Sample (22 tackles, 4.4 tackles-per-game), along with Glasper (3.6 tackles-per-game) help lead the defense.

Luis Padilla has six tackles-for-losses as 67-percent of his stops results in a loss by the opponent.

Tashawn Cauley, Ayden Pratt and Lawson all have wrangled up sacks while Lamarre have two interceptions.

Lawson and Lopez have one pickoff apiece to keep the defense humming.

Central’s last five games will go much better than the first five 

There is some good news about the remainder of Central’s schedule and it’s possible the outfit could go 4-1, or better, over the second five-pack of gridiron contests.

The five team’s Central squads square off against are a combined 9-14 (.391 winning percentage), giving the Rams a little confidence about the second half of the campaign.

Three games will be contested from Bristol while squaring off at Manchester this Friday (3-1 overall) and then on Nov. 10, the Rams are off to Newington (1-4) who still could be stuck on one victory come the showdown versus Central.

Those home games will be contested against Wethersfield (Oct. 27), Middletown (Nov. 2) and of course, the Thanksgiving Day clash against Bristol Eastern.

There are wins to be had as Wethersfield (0-5) has yet to snare a victory while always challenging Middletown (1-4) has fallen on hard times.

The Lancers are currently 4-1 and, frankly, are going to be a tough out.

However, on Thanksgiving, anything is possible as you throw out the records when the two squads clash.

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