By Michael Letendre 

BRISTOL – Only seventy seconds into its city series girls soccer match against Bristol Central on Tuesday night, the outfit from Bristol Eastern was already trailing by a goal.

But the Lancers scored the equalizer soon after and with just a few minutes remaining in regulation, Emily Nelson notched the game winning goal as Eastern squared up a 2-1 victory over Central from the turf field at BCHS.

The Lancers improved to 3-5 overall while the Rams fell to 3-4-1.

With just over three minutes to play, Nelson simply dribbled past a couple defenders, beat Central keeper Gabby DeFilippis – who was hurt on the drive – and slapped in the game-winner to give Eastern the ultimate advantage in the showdown.

“I told her earlier in the game ‘you’re going to get one, just keep grinding,’ and that’s exactly what she did,” said Eastern coach Scott Redman of Nelson. “She kept grinding, she kept looking for her opportunities, she found one and definitely didn’t let it pass by, capitalized, snuck it in and obviously [it was] huge.” 

However, Central had another agenda to start the match.

The home team needed just over a minute to get on the scoreboard as Hannah Aldieri slipped in a goal from way out on the right side – an incredible, long looping shot that was out of the reach of Eastern keeper Grace D’Amato (four saves) as the ball fell into the top-left portion of the net – as the Rams nabbed an almost instant 1-0 lead.

“She had been working hard in the preseason and kind of had a rough start and she was still looking for that first goal,” said Central coach Ginny Godbout of Aldieri. “It was beautiful that that was her first goal. What a shot.” 

And that forced Eastern to play catch-up for an extensive period over the opening forty.

“It was not exactly the way we planned to start,” said Redman. “It was a good individual effort. It was a really good play by her. She put it in at the absolutely perfect place. Grace couldn’t do anything about it. We’re [already] playing an uphill battle.”

Eastern’s defense in front of D’Amato – Leah Roy, Cecelia Gilbert, Maura Cyr and Audra Porowski – made all the stops from then on while Central’s Rachel Wygant was everywhere on the field while Aldieri never slowed down to pace a hungry Rams’ offensive aggression.

Central’s Becky Litwinczyk kept the pressure up on Eastern’s defense while on the flip side, DeFilippis held the fort until leaving the contest late with an injury.

Ciara Collins, Megan Kron, Emma Stavens, Taigan Parent, Isabella Sanchez and Nelson all kept the pressure on the Rams but that 1-0 deficit remained on the scoreboard until midway through the first stanza.

“I thought the rest of the [first] half, we played really, really well,” said Redman. “We created a ton of chances.”

And then Sanchez broke through, making a mad dash towards the Central goal and looped a shot in that DeFilippis could not get to on the left side of the net and when the ball slipped in with 18:42 left in the first the half, the match was a 1-1 stalemate.

Sanchez, Collins, and Nelson nearly combined on a goal with 9:13 left before the half while a Francesca Amara/Christina Browne combo by Central a little later didn’t pay off.

“I think we possessed it all right,” said Godbout. “Our issue was finishing the ball. There were a couple different times where the ball goes right across the goal mouth and we’re not there or a shot that we take that it could have been a little tap or a little touch and we would have had a goal.”

“I think it’s those little things of just, we talk about it all the time, just kind of sacrificing yourself, just putting something on the ball…doing something to put that ball in the goal.”

And that 1-1 push was the score at halftime as both squads looked to regroup.

Just 2:24 into second half, D’Amato made a big save with Central was keeping the pressure on as there was a ton of action from Eastern’s side of the field early and late.

“Her intensity level today was definitely ramped up,” said Redman D’Amato. “It was one of her last opportunities to play Central. She’s been through the gambit of highs and lows in her athletic career. She really takes advantage of every opportunity she has on the field. That was definitely the case today.”

“She busted it all game. She was definitely that vocal leader on the field. She was wearing her emotions on her sleeve so to speak. She played really, really well and kept us in the game.”

With less than 30 minutes to play, Eastern’s Megan Krok just missed on a shot and a minute later, Collins saw her indirect kick just fly over the Central goal as the game was still all tied up at 1-1.

Central continued to advance the ball, put good crosses in front of the Eastern keeper but that one foot never connected while D’Amato cleaned up the rest.

“I think we had several opportunities and we were knocking down the door and we were right there,” said Godbout. “These games are so tough every single time. It doesn’t matter. We say this every year. Like it doesn’t matter the record, it doesn’t matter who’s doing what or why. It always comes down to that wire.” 

Soon after, the scoreboard went down – eventually going dark – both teams went for broke and the contest became a bit more physical.

With 11:20 left, Litwinczyk missed on a go-ahead chance and then Sanchez was looking for her second score but DeFilippis sprinted out of the goal for a clean stop.

“I thought Gabby did a great job,” said Godbout. “Obviously it stinks big time that she went down. She did a tremendous job.”

Collins nearly set-up Sanchez for the game-winner with 5:30 left but with around 3:20 to play, Nelson made it academic.

Parent spun a ball up, Nelson – racing towards the Central net – dribbled by two players, had a bit of a collision with DeFilippis while spiking the ball in, propelling the Lancers to a 2-1 cushion.

“She’s been really grinding it and pressing a little bit,” said Redman of Nelson. “She’s been setting up a ton of goals for us, especially off corner kicks and she hasn’t really tucked them all in like she’s wanted to. We’ve been one pass short, one defender slips in at the last minute or one touch gets away from us a tiny bit. But she’s been knocking on the door.”

From there, the Lancers were able to run out the last few minutes, seizing a huge 2-1 victory over Bristol Central.

Bristol City Series Girls Soccer 

BRISTOL EASTERN 2, BRISTOL CENTRAL 1 

from the turf field on the campus of Bristol Central 

Bristol Eastern (3-5)             1 1 – 2 

Bristol Central (3-4-1)          1 0 – 1 

Halftime – Tied at 1-1. 

First Half Scoring

Bristol Central (1:10) – Hannah Aldieri

Bristol Eastern (21:18) – Isabella Sanchez

Second Half Scoring 

Bristol Eastern (76:40) – Emily Nelson  

Records: Bristol Eastern 3-5 overall; Bristol Central 3-4-1