By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – At the completion of the Battle for the Bell on Thanksgiving, the Bristol Eastern football program had a new rushing leader.

And it took an extraordinary effort from senior running back Alex Marshall to topple a 25-year Eastern record.

After a 90 yard rushing effort against Bristol Central on Thanksgiving, Marshall became the all-time single season rusher for the Lancers – compiling 1,728 yards over his ten games this season.  

“I’ve been here a long time and he’s right up at the top with the best running backs we’ve had” at Eastern said coach Anthony Julius.

And Julius has seen some of the best athletes come through the program over his time as an assistant and head coach for the Lancers.

Marshall surpassed the record held by Reinaldo Soto (1,173 yards) which he established back in 1996.

Soto was ultra-elusive on the gridiron – tallying up a then Bristol scholastic record of 5,161 yards from 1995-1998 over four seasons, three as the main man at Eastern.

On the flip side, Marshall piled up 2,705 total yards over his two varsity campaigns – losing out on his junior season due to the pandemic.

Otherwise, Marshall should have ended up with 4,000-plus yards if the 2020 season was not cancelled.

Soto could out-race opponents with his blazing speed but Marshall’s specialty was thrashing into defenders, knocking people down, and simply keep going downfield.

“He’s a tough kid,” said Julius. “He runs hard. He falls forward and this year, he added some speed to his element and he was able to make guys miss [tackles] and break some long runs.”

Overall, Marshall’s totals includes 31 career touchdowns on 519 carries.

He averaged 5.2 yards-per-carry over his 20 varsity games and his final rushing totals saw him finish up as the third leader rusher in Eastern program history.

Only Soto and Gerry Ouellette (2,978 yards) had more yardage than Marshall ended up with.

Over his senior campaign, Marshall had three games of four rushing touchdowns and the bulldog did so many different things when carrying the ball for the Lancers. 

“Alex does what Alex does,” said Julius. “He runs hard.”

Credit of course belongs to Eastern offensive line for all the holes and seams Marshall was able to charge through but when that daylight wasn’t there, the back created room and space for himself.

In 2021 alone, Marshall scooped up at least 211 yards in five games this season and has six career games of 200-plus yards.

Marshall tallied a career-high 260 yards in Eastern’s 54-22 win over Farmington on November 12 and was just 75 yards away from dethroning Soto for the all-time single season mark as Thanksgiving approached.

And after a 977 yard rushing campaign as a sophomore in 2019, including a then career-best 214 yards in a 35-0 thrashing at Hartford Public, Marshall was the man behind the Eastern quarterback – waiting for his chance to carry the ball into the opponent’s red zone.

As a senior, he was the main ball carrier, collecting nearly 73-percent of all the team’s rushing yards.

However, by the time Thanksgiving came around, Eastern was – frankly – out of quarterbacks and Julius tasked the multi-talented Marshall, along with Jeremy Kolloverja, to man the position against surging Bristol Central.

So, an even busier than normal Marshall had to start chucking the ball all around the field – adding to his duties offensively.

Marshall went 4-of-9 for 44 yards – making his Battle for the Bell day a 134 yard combined yardage effort.

He was only sacked once and gave it one heck of an effort in his final scholastic game of his career.

“The decision to play Alex at quarterback was [made] pretty early,” said Julius of Thanksgiving. “He did a great job…I can’t say enough about his effort. He’s been our primetime guy all year. And he showed it again today.”

For his career, Marshall raced for 100-plus yards in half his games for the Lancers and was the catalyst in Eastern nearly capturing six victories this season with just two one-point losses that stopped the program from obtaining a 60-percent winning percentage.

Marshall is all over the record books at Eastern and when he goes to play collegiately, the young man is going to find tremendous success – on and off the gridiron.

“I happy that he had a really good career,” said Julius. “I wish it ended better for him today, for all our seniors because they deserved it.”

Soto and Marshall

When Marshall became the all-time leading single season rusher for the BE football team, he surpassed Soto’s established ledger by 15 total yards.

Soto was a sophomore when he captured the school record while Marshall, the outgoing senior, accomplished his feat after a year off due to the pandemic.

In 1996, Soto put together an amazing sophomore campaign, helping Eastern to a 9-2 ledger and a share of the CCC South title.

Over those 11 games, Soto rushed for at least 104 yards in 10 of those contests and burned New Britain for 254 yards (on 40 carries) back on November 1, 1996 in the Lancers’ 14-13 loss.

Soto made 237 carries during that historic 1996 campaign – capturing 7.2 yards-per-rush.

Now, Marshall and Soto have their names side-by-side in the Bristol Eastern football record books and that’s an excellent way for him to end his excellent scholastic career.