By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – The Bristol Boys lacrosse co-op – armed with the best talent between the two public schools in town – have been quite successful this year, wrapping up a banner 10-6 record in regular season play, looking forward to postseason action in the Class L playoff round.

“This season has been a whirlwind of excitement with constant ups and downs in not only the wins/loss column but for the program growing as a whole,” said Bristol coach Joe Carosella.

Carosella, along with assistant Eric Bell took over as coaches of the Bristol Co-op this season and have the program reaching new heights.

The first year coach has implemented a strong structure and set of core principles that not only prepare the student athletes for game nights, but for life outside of high school.

And those life lessons are invaluable at the scholastic level.

“The Bristol Co-op lacrosse represents hard work, dedication, sportsmanship, and always doing the right thing,” said Carosella. “These boys have completely bought into a new coach and system and hopefully it continues for years to come.”

That system has been the driving force in Bristol’s drive to the postseason.

On Tuesday night, the program held its senior night festivities with a tremendous match against Edwin O. Smith of Storrs.

The locals defeated the Panthers over an amazing 10-9 triumph, needing two overtimes to finally tally the win – leading to the first 10-win season in program history.

Nate Shorette nabbed the winning goal with an on the run snipe to put away Smith.

Offensively, Bristol had several contributions all over the field that day.

“The offensive midfielders, led by Aidan Collins, Brady Bell, Ian Reardon, Vinny Howley, and FOGO Braydan Dwyer, were fantastic in ground balls and possession which helped the offense get clicking,” said Carosella. “The defense led by senior captain Chris Sirois and Junior Jake Warsawik were slow to get it going but picked it up down the stretch and played lights out over the final 20 minutes of the contest. 

In the net, Max Stavens shut down the Panthers’ high-scoring squad – racking up 19 saves with four of those coming after regulation.

The defensive midfielders of Kenny Whitford, Ryan Spina and Jack Hartley also had a fantastic match, slowing down the high-power offensive midline of the Panthers.

The win allowed Bristol the ability to host a home playoff game in the qualifying round of the Class L state tournament.

This season’s offense has been tremendous, producing 10 matches of 10-plus goals as the Bristol Co-op has been a scoring juggernaut.

The offense is led by senior captain Andrew Spina (90 points) and Shorette (45 points) while Ayden “Tank” Cross (65 points), “always brings his calm and collected stature, night in and night out” according to Carosella. 

And Stavens has been simply a stud as the leader of the defense.

The Co-op’s final regular season contest was played at Watertown in a non-conference attraction last night as the locals fell, 17-4.

But there will be a postseason for the Bristol team and anything can happen as the squad will be looking to make quite a splash in the Class L playoffs.

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