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| Bristol Eastern (white) and St. Paul (blue) battled in a girls soccer scrimmage at Bristol Eastern High School on Monday. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69) |
Preparation for the fall sports season is underway at area schools, and I visited two of them in Bristol on Monday.
Bristol Eastern girls soccer hosted St. Paul in a city matchup at Bristol Eastern High School. The Lancers and Falcons played on the front grass field on campus. Eastern football was practicing on the turf. The Lancer boys soccer team headed off to Wolcott.
At Bristol Central, the football team hosted Farmington and Torrington in a scrimmage that had an awful lot of maroon in it. Here are my observations on each scrimmage:
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| Bristol Central (maroon top, white pants) took on Farmington (white top, maroon pants) and Torrington (not pictured) in a football scrimmage at Bristol Central High School on Monday. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69) |
BRISTOL EASTERN-ST. PAUL
The Lancers were able to put home a couple goals in the amount of time I spent at the scrimmage. Eastern returns a bunch of players from last season, and it seems to be the same feisty, hard-fighting bunch that head coach Scott Redman demands. The senior captains are Megan Perry and Brooke Dauphinee, and junior Myah Croze is a big threat to put the ball in the goal.
St. Paul has speed up front in senior Kendall Davis and junior Julia Dess. Davis and Dess will put a lot of pressure on opposing defenses this season. Davis can also be seen hustling all over the pitch, along with junior sister Addison Davis. Falcon freshman keeper Nina Zwolinski impressed at times in the Eastern scrimmage. Zwolinski played with Croze, Dess, the Davis sisters, and other Bristol soccer players on an 18U team that took the silver medal at the Nutmeg State Games.
BRISTOL CENTRAL FOOTBALL
The Rams have a nasty trio of players who can run the ball. There’s senior standout Dathan Hickey, junior Darrell Payton and junior Justus Fitzpatrick to deal with in the ground game. None are particularly fun to tackle, especially Hickey. Hickey made some amazing moves, including a dazzling touchdown run that was called back on a penalty. Payton is built low to the ground and is tough to tackle. Fitzpatrick sweeps in from the outside and gives Central another perimeter threat.
The offensive line had assistant varsity coach David Talmadge doling out congratulations after a particularly impressive drive against Farmington. The Rams appear to be solid up front.
On defense, Central was mostly defending the ground against run-first Farmington and Torrington. The Indians do throw the ball, but seem to run first. The Red Raiders are in the veer and keep attacking on the ground.
Central fared pretty well defensively from what I saw.
CONCLUSION
It’s just one day of scrimmages, but the three Bristol teams I saw had something positive to take away from their performances.
PHOTOS
Click here for Bristol Eastern-St. Paul girls soccer scrimmage images.
Click here for Bristol Central football scrimmage images.
