Here I am
On the road again
There I am
Up on the stage
Here I go
Playin’ star again
There I go
Turn the page
Bob Seger, ‘Turn the Page’, 1973
The Bristol Eastern boys basketball team lost a lopsided game to Bristol Central on Friday night. As Bob Seger put it, the Lancers need to turn the page.
The Central game was the first of six straight contests that Eastern will play away from the friendly confines of the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium at Bristol Eastern High School. The next five bus trips for the Lancers are: Middletown on Monday; E.O. Smith-Storrs on Thursday; and RHAM-Hebron on Saturday (that’s just this week.) Eastern plays at Bloomfield on Feb. 3 and Berlin on Feb. 6. The Lancers don’t play at home again until Tuesday, Feb. 11, when Platt comes to town.
This is not the first time that a high school basketball team has played a bunch of games on the road consecutively. That just happens, be it by scheduling or by the side effects of wintry weather postponing games until later in the season.
What makes this six-game stretch for Eastern critical is where it sits in terms of postseason qualification. The Lancers are 5-5 and need three more wins to qualify for the state tournament. Middletown (8-2) has been having a solid season and will be a tough challenge. Teams like RHAM (5-6) and Bloomfield (4-5) are in the same boat as Eastern, and will be looking to put up a fight. E.O. Smith is 3-6 and Berlin is 2-9, but when you’re fighting for your postseason life, no team should be overlooked. The Lancers have not faced any of these teams thus far this season.
Given six of Eastern’s first 10 games have been decided by three points or less, this could be an exciting and stressful stretch of road games for the Lancers. Of course, Eastern has won four of those six games decided by three points or loss, so it has experience coming up big in close contests. Elijah Parent, Elijah Borgelin and Jordyn Tate have taken turns playing star, and the Lancers will need even more of those efforts as they push for postseason qualification.
