By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – The Bristol Central football program ended the year at .500 – a tremendous finish by the program over a very tough start.

Overall, Central’s 5-5 campaign was a pretty good one.

The team finished in 13th place overall in the Class L standings, losing to programs with records of 6-4 or better.

Four of those teams (Windsor, Berlin, New Britain and Manchester) were involved in the state tournament.

After a 1-5 start, Central won four straight to end the year and transfer Donovan Rodriguez was a big part of that elevated play.

After sitting out the first five games due to the transfer rules, Rodriguez picked up 527 yards on 119 carries (4.4 yards-per-carry) for six touchdowns.

After a bad game against Manchester, Rodriguez exploded for 205 yards and three touchdowns against Wethersfield (three TDs) one week later while scooping in 107 yards in the huge 14-13 victory over Middletown on November 2.

He added 73 yards and a TD against Newington and added nearly 100 yards in the 14-7 win over Bristol Eastern on Thanksgiving.

“He’s got one more year left so we’re happy to have him back for another,” said Central coach Jeff Papazian of Rodriguez. 

For his efforts on Thanksgiving, Rodriguez was the Central Offensive Player of the Game.

Jayden Glasper (93 carries, 416 yards, three TDs) played extremely well while Eastern transfer Jack Hartley (133-416, three TDs) was the happiest player on the field during Thanksgiving – ringing the old brass bell on Turkey Day with the biggest smile on his face.

Tristian Toussaint (35-229, three TDs), Anthony Paulino (29-288, 4 TDs) and Cassias Breland all moved the ball well in Central’s effective ground-game schemes.

In terms of passing, six different players attempted a pass with Hartley (14 passes, 98 yards) and Rodriguez (5-97) each tossing a touchdown from the quarterback position.

Aiden Lamarre chipped in 14 PAT’s while Hartley added two rushing two-point conversions.

Jones and the Defense

There wasn’t many better defensively in town than senior stud Jack Jones.

He averaged nearly 12 tackles-per-game and the Central Defensive Player of the Game on Thanksgiving added 20 tackles for a loss.

He was everywhere for the program from the start of the campaign.

Jones led the team in sacks with three while Lamarre cobbled up two of Central’s seven interceptions.

Lamarre added 52 tackles to the till (two tackles for a loss) while Quincy Lawson, Timmy Sample and Tyler Ryan all chipped in with around four tackles-per-game.

Luis Padilla saw half of his tackles go for losses and the duo of Jayden Colon and Ayden Pratt each tallied six tackles-for-losses.

All that defense helped to turn around the season for Central in the end.

Tough Tier II slate

Take out the Fairfield Warde crossover game, Central dropped its first five Central Connecticut Conference games by a combined 153-33 score – battling some of the toughest programs Tier II had to offer.

Any average squad from the CCC would struggle against the likes of Windsor and Berlin.

“Those first five [games] were a gauntlet,” said Papazian. 

And while Rodriguez wasn’t the sole reason Central’s fortunes improved, his addition to the active roster sure helped.

In a flip of script, the Rams combined to defeat their last four opponents by a 83-49 tally.

After that 42-13 struggle at Manchester on October 20, the turnaround began one week later against Wethersfield.

“Credit the kids,” said Papazian. “We worked them [hard] for two weeks during the bye [week] and then went out and laid an egg against Manchester. So we busted our [butts] for two weeks and then we get smacked again. And then here we are, rip off four straight. After that, we’re talking about high school kids who are willing to come back, keep working and keep chipping at it, keep being coachable – it’s all them.”

Finally on Thanksgiving, Central pushed all the right buttons to defeat Eastern.

Time of possession was in the Rams’ favor, Eastern went 2-of-10 on third down plays and an outstanding defensive onslaught helped the Kingstreeters miss five times on fourth down situations.

Eastern’s vaunted rushing offense – save for the 62 yard jaunt by quarterback Kamden Laprise – was held relatively in check over the huge 14-7 triumph as Central has won eight straight games on Thanksgiving.

It was one heck of a way to finish the campaign and roll into 2024.

“It would have been easy to pack up, let’s get ready for wrestling, let’s get ready for track, for basketball, wherever it is a month ago,” said Papazian. “They’re not wired that way. They kept showing up, kept trying to get better. We were able to string four straight and send these guys out the way we wanted to.” 

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