By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – While the Bristol Central football team has consistently been a winner on Thanksgiving as of late, some of the most recent bouts against rival Bristol Eastern have come down to the wire – just like it did this past Thursday at the 63rd annual clash between the programs.

Throwing out last season’s thirty-point victory over the Lancers and the 2020 contest that never took place due to the pandemic, the games from 2017-2019 were decided by a total of 13 points.

And the 2022 edition played out the same way and it took last minute heroics by Central to finally shake Eastern.

Central’s Tre Blair notched an early touchdown for the Rams and Anthony Paulino made a critical interception for a score with 34 seconds to play, leading to a huge 13-6 triumph over the Kingstreeters from Muzzy Field in Bristol.

Central (2-8) broke a seven-game losing streak with its victory over Eastern (3-7). It was the Rams seventh straight win over the Lancers on Thanksgiving – moving to 38-23-2 on Turkey Day.

“I love it,” said Central coach Jeff Papazian of the Thanksgiving Day win. “It’s been a struggle this year. Week after week, we kind of just kept building, kept building trying to be a little better than the week before. And for two weeks, we just listened and listened to everything everybody was talking about how this was not going to be our year. And I think to our kid’s credit, they turned it on, came out and played football.”

“They got the job done.”

By the halftime break, Central nearly had double the offensive output as Eastern but the Lancers defense held on for two out of the Rams’ three first half drives – keeping it a 7-0 game.

The Lancers just couldn’t get over the hump, trimming the deficit to one point midway in the third tilt.

However, Central never lost its initial lead – holding off pesky Eastern until the end.

“We came up a play short,” in the end said Eastern coach Anthony Julius. “This hurts. This is the game people thought it would be. They thought it would be a close game and it came down to a few key things.”

“Unfortunately, we didn’t fall on the right side of it.”

Blair dominated, scooping up 207 rushing yards and a touchdown to earn the Thomas R. Monahan Offensive Player of the Game honors for the Rams.

He ended the season with 1,083 rushing yards and his Thanksgiving Day rushing tally – on 35 blistering carries – was the 11th most ever between the Bristol schools during holiday play.

“I’m happy for him. I’m proud of him,” said Papazian of Blair. “He’s just a warrior, a kid who battles. It’s not the easiest thing. We were snapping it to him. Everybody knows where the ball is going. He’s got a target on his back and time and time again I told him ‘I’m going to call your number. I’m going to need you again and again.’ We weren’t going to anybody else.”

The defensive award for Central went to Paulino who also made a critical fumble strip and recovery midway through the second quarter to stop a driving Eastern offense operating in Central territory.

And then Paulino cemented that award with the late interception of Eastern quarterback Alex Corvo (2-for-5).  

“The big play in the first half was when he ripped the ball out and never quit on the play,” said Papazian of the Paulino fumble recovery. “And I’m going to tell you, he picked that screen pass for two weeks in practice and I kept telling him ‘you’re not going to do that in the game. You can’t go under and it’s going to time differently’ and sure enough, he slipped in and got [the interception].” 

Central’s Nik Salinas and Johnny Rios also made critical offensive contributions to the winning effort, Mason Stokes hauled in a huge 20-yard reception while Jack Jones was clutch on the defensive end.

Credit Eastern running back Jaiden Forte, compiling 15 rushes for 93 yards – making several tough runs throughout the game to keep the Central defense on its toes.

He earned the Offense Player of the Game honors for his tremendous effort.

Eastern’s Jack Hartley (seven carries, 55 yards) also showed some gumption on the field as did Ray Andrews and Austin Shorette.

Kyle Babin scored the Lancers’ only touchdown of the game while Shorette earned the Defensive Player of Game due to his big sack on Blair and multiple tackles along the way.

Allowing Central only 13 points – just an eyelash over its season scoring average – put Eastern in great position to possibly steal the showdown in the end.  

“We thought we had a good defensive game plan all week,” said Julius.

Central did it’s scoring on the first series of the showdown and that tally proved to be the game winning drive.

On a nine play 80-yard drive, Blair ended the series with a huge 48 jaunt up the middle, sauntering into the end zone for six points and when Oscar Kuzniar kicked in the go-ahead extra point, the Rams held a 7-0 lead with 5:53 left to play in the first.

Eastern and Central then exchanged punts before a blazing run from Hartley – a 17-yard dash up the middle – was foiled as Paulino made a strip and snared the loose change with 5:49 left in the second period.

But the Eastern defense turned around to stop the ensuing drive on Central’s 40 as the Rams were forced to punt.

Eastern got the ball back with 2:03 remaining before the half but the final series was stopped just short of the Lancers’ 40 as the 7-0 push was the score of the game going into intermission.

The Rams held most of the first half possession due to the efforts from Blair, Salinas and Rios – keeping the ball for over 15 minutes that helped keep Eastern’s offense off the field.

But all that changed to start the third period as Eastern had the ball and Central did not end up scoring over that twelve-minute stanza.

Four different Eastern rushers helped moved the chains all the way to the end zone as Hartley started the eight play, 63-yard drive with a 21-yard jaunt and Babin took it up the gut for a one-yard TD as the deficit was trimmed to 7-6 with 7:17 remaining in the third.

“On the opening drive of the second half, we marched right down the field and did what we wanted to do,” said Julius of the touchdown score. 

On the PAT try, a five-yard penalty via a false start, and then a high snap saw Gavin Damboise’s attempt just bounce off the left goal post and out as Central still led it by a point.

However, even though Central bent a bit in the third, the program never entirely broke.

“Our defense played as good as they have all year,” said Papazian. 

The Rams used all the remaining clock in the third tilt after the Eastern TD but as the fourth frame commenced, Central was on 4-and-13 and forced to punt.

The Lancers then drove eight plays on the ensuing drive but got stranded on its own 45 before having to punt the ball away – still trailing by one with 6:43 showing on the clock.

Eastern appeared to have Central three-and-out just ninety seconds later but a critical holding penalty on the Lancers gave the Rams a fresh set of downs with five minutes to play.

Central went a total of 12 plays, in possession of the ball with less than a minute to go but was stuck on its own 45 and forced to punt one final time.

Eastern fair caught the punt but was deep in its own territory with 39 seconds left.

“Central obviously chewed up some yards,” said Julius. “And that’s what their offense has historically done. They chew up yards, they do good things, and Jeff always puts them in position to be successful.”

“You have to credit Jeff and his coaching staff for that.”

Paulino intercepted Corvo’s first pass of the ensuing drive – running to the house on a 14-yard return for a pick-six touchdown.

However, the two-point conversion was stopped at the Eastern one and with 34 seconds left, Central led 13-6 but it was still a one-possession game.

And the Lancers had a final shot at it.

Corvo and Shorette made a late connection but a false start with five seconds to go basically ended the game.

And when the final buzzer sounded, with the Lancers unable to get a play off, Central – for the seventh straight Thanksgiving – was celebrating at the end, ringing the brass bell over the seven-point victory.

“We were just a couple plays away,” said Julius. “We had a lot of unfortunate errors on our end at times that really hurt us and put us off schedule. It got us to a point where we unfortunately didn’t make enough plays at the end there.”

And on the flip side, Central continues to rule the day on Thanksgiving – bringing the bell back to the school, a place it’s been since November of 2015.

“The biggest thing is we were able to emotionally survive, stack some good plays and kind of forget the bad ones,” said Papazian. “I think we did a really good job at that overall. I think when things were going well, we were even keeled. When things weren’t so good, I think we were pretty close to that too and that’s why we were able to withstand it in the end.”

BATTLE FOR THE BELL (CCC Tier II/III Football Challenge)

BRISTOL EASTERN , BRISTOL CENTRAL

from Muzzy Field, Bristol

Bristol Central (2-8) 7 0 0 6 – 13  

Bristol Eastern (3-7) 0 0 6 0 – 6

SCORING

First Period

BC – Tre Blair 48 run (Oscar Kuzniar kick), 5:53

Second Period

No Scoring

Third Period

BE – Kyle Babin 1 run (kick failed), 

Fourth Period

BC – Anthony Paulino 14 interception (failed run), 1:34

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Bristol Central: Tre Blair 35-209; Bristol Eastern: Jaiden Fore 15-93, Rayshon Andrews 5-13, Jack Hartley 7-55, Kyle Babin 1-1, Austin Shorette 1-7.

PASSING – Bristol Central: Nick Salinas 1-for-1, 20 yards; Bristol Eastern: Alex Corvo 2-for-5, minus-2 yards.

RECEPTIONS – Bristol Central: Mason Stokes 1-20; Bristol Eastern: Austin Shorette 2-(minus-2).

Records: Bristol Central 2-8; Bristol Eastern 3-7.