After each having a week off, the Middletown Blue Dragons and the Bristol Eastern Lancers will shake off the rust and duke it out at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Middletown has four straight wins, Bristol Eastern has five straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
For whatever reason, it's the away team that's had the advantage when Middletown and Newington meet (four straight games heading into this one) and that held true again last Friday. The Blue Dragons walked away with a 20-12 victory over the Nor'easters. While the Blue Dragons didn't have the best season last year (they finished 3-7), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.
Middletown can attribute much of their success to Sebastiano Bibisi, who picked up 97 receiving yards and one touchdown. Bibisi's longest reception was for an incredible 93 yards.
Meanwhile, Bristol Eastern played a tough contest last Friday in which they were outscored in every quarter. They came up short against Farmington, falling 30-6.
Middletown will have to keep a close watch on Lincoln Bashaw and Jacob Kingsley, a pair of players who had a big impact on Bristol Eastern's prior game. Bashaw rushed for 136 yards, while Kingsley picked up 32 receiving yards and one TD.
Middletown's win bumped their record up to 4-0. As for Bristol Eastern, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-4.
Friday's matchup might be decided in the trenches. Middletown has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 183 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Bristol Eastern, though, as they've been averaging only 70.5 rushing yards. How will they fare against such a dominant running game?
Middletown suffered a grim 20-0 defeat to Bristol Eastern in their previous meeting back in November of 2024. Can the Blue Dragons avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
