By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – The Bristol Eastern boys soccer team was a mere half-minute away from collecting a one-goal victory over crosstown rival Bristol Central on Saturday night from Alumni Field.

But a late corner kick by the Rams led to an Eastern defender touching the ball in the box, resulting in a handball and a penalty kick.

And with 23 seconds in regulation, Central’s Frank Palma blasted a kick by Eastern keeper Peyton Cummings as the teams split a 1-1 decision in a CCC South bout.

“I thought I saw a lot of good things, a couple bad things, but I saw a lot of good things,” said Central coach Nate Jandreau. “One of the good things is that we have a lot of grit. We had a couple of eighty-minute players who played forty minutes [because] one had to go get checked out in the first and our center back goes down early in the second half. We had a bunch of guys that had to play a lot of different spots and a lot more time than they’re used to playing.”

“Grit is the word that they showed in the second half.”

Eastern (3-4-1) tried to hold on once that first goal was scored but needed to go thirty-six minutes to accomplish that feat against surging Central (4-4-1).

The Lancers went about 35 minutes (and change) before Palma zipped in that game-tying goal.

“We didn’t play smart enough with the ball in the end,” said Eastern coach Bill Sweet. “Central put pressure on and we took it wide a couple times. It was to our advantage to take the ball wide and to move the ball, hold it a little longer. We kicked it to the goalie, and it was like a back-pass to the keeper. That probably gave [Central] an extra two minutes.”

Both goals were notched over second half play as Eastern’s Tyler Borry stole the ball on a counter, made a great pass up to Connor Policarpio who jammed a shot by Central keeper Henry Ross (seven saves) – as the Kingstreeters etched a 1-0 lead with 36:14 remaining in the second half.

The Lancers tried to desperately hold on to the edge but as the minutes passed, Central’s offense started getting more of the play and on the final corner kick of the game, the penalty in the box came and went with one final goal scored to end things in an eighty-minute stalemate.

“It’s discouraging but that’s the way it goes,” said Sweet. “I can’t fault our effort. Our effort was tremendous. We had a lot of smart play. Coach [Bunty] Ray set up a good plan and they followed it.”

There was good early action back and forth with Eastern’s defense keeping Central offenders playing from the outside in.

On the flip side, the Rams did a tremendous job containing Eddie Ansah, Policarpio and Borry – crowding the box and allowing Ross to scoop in the scraps over important stretches of the showdown.

Cummings (nine saves) also met more than a few challenges as neither program could find pay dirt over the first forty.

The Kingstreeters earned five corner kicks over first half play but couldn’t cash in on any of the attempts.

Palma took a stab at the Eastern goal 9:02 into things while Borry, earning a kick from the 21 yard-line, just drilling an attempt over Ross’s head – hitting the bottom of the goal post – as the game was scoreless with 25:25 to play in the first.

Three minutes later, Central’s Mike Allan took a shot about 25 yards that was saved by Cummings and off a quick counter, Ross did the same on the flip side.

Halfway through the first, Eastern’s Anthony Rogers attempted to set up Ansah but the crowd of defenders – led by senior Marco Garcia – stole the ball away.

Central’s Dorian Wilczynski headed a ball that Cummings had to track down while Palma made a run with 10:47 before the half but his cross didn’t connect.

“I’ll give Central credit. They kept pushing,” said Sweet.

Over the final five minutes of the first, Central’s offense stared to see a little more of the ball, but that first goal remained elusive.

Eastern’s Cody Greger nearly assisted on a Rocco Barbino score with 2:25 left but the ball went up and over the goal.

And at halftime horn, the showdown remained a scoreless stalemate.

“I think in the first half, Eastern definitely had more of the play but what didn’t happen was they didn’t end up getting a shot or a good quality chance on goal,” said Jandreau. 

But there was plenty of action between the scores as both teams could have posted another goal after the Lancers went up 1-0.

And once Policarpio notched that score, things began to change in the Rams’ favor offensively.

“At halftime, we came up with a strategy that hopefully was going to work and then Eastern goes and scores an early one and it’s like, well, let’s throw that one out the window,” said Jandreau. “And we had to kind of change what we wanted to do because Eastern brought a fifth defender back, so we weren’t going to find as much space quickly on a counter as we thought we wanted to.”

“But we worked hard and I’m glad they ended up in a tie because I think it was useful that was a tie just given how hard that they played. It was probably a fair outcome.”

Palma made a real stab at it with 30:58 remaining in the match, but his shot went wide left while Borry drilled a ball from the 21 yard-line, but the attempt clanked off the bottom of the football goal post with 25:25 left.

Three minutes later, Allan’s attempt was shut down by Cummings and a quick counter was immediately stopped by Ross as the contest was still 1-0 with 22:00 to go.

“Central was on a roll, they were going,” said Sweet. “They had the [late second half] play. We a lot of the play earlier. And they had it then.”

Policarpio nearly had Justin Sanchez set-up for a score, but Ross made a great charge to snuff the drive out with 16:20 showing on the clock and Eastern had a corner kick stopped with 12:40 left as Central’s defense kept it a deficit 1-0.

Soon after, Policarpio took a pop to the nose as the Lancers’ offense was stuffed up a bit.

“It hurt us when Connor Policarpio broke his nose,” said Sweet. “He was out of the game. That was one of the reasons why we lost a little bit of our control because when he got the ball, they couldn’t lean forward. They had to watch.”

Both teams had chances late as a set-up by Eastern’s Cody Greger to Barbino saw the ball kicked over the net with just 2:25 remaining in the game.

Soon after, Central attempted its final corner kick, the penalty was called in the box and when Palma dropped in the tying goal, the match finished in a 1-1 tie. 

“I’m glad they earned the goal there because I thought over the last ten to twenty minutes of play, we probably should have gotten one in,” said Jandreau. “And they did.”

On the flip side, Eastern nearly got to the final buzzer with the victory before that last shot by Palma was tallied to end the match in a draw.

“We just didn’t execute in the end when we just could have held the ball,” said Sweet. “We’ve learned it before…every second counts.”

BRISTOL EASTERN BOYS SOCCER – CCC South Action

BRISTOL EASTERN 1, BRISTOL CENTRAL 1 (OT)

from Alumni Field, Bristol

Scoring  1 2 – F

Bristol Central  0 1 – 1

Bristol Eastern  0 1 – 1

Halftime: Zip, Squat, Zero

Goals – Second Half

Bristol Eastern (43:46) – Connor Policarpio goal, Tyler Borry assist

Bristol Central (79:37) – Frank Palma goal (penalty kick via handball)

Saves: Henry Ross (Bristol Central) 7; Bristol Eastern (Peyton Cummings) 9

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

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