Centaur pg 1 9-26-24

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Centaur team picks up 1st win of the season
It wasn’t the nicest of days.
But in the eyes of the Woodstock Academy field hockey players, Saturday was beautiful.
The long-awaited first win of the season for the Centaurs came against non-league foe, Somers, in a 4-3 shootout.
“They did so well (Saturday) on a not-so-pretty day outside. Our message was about finishing. We’ve been playing well for three quarters but we tend to let our foot off the gas in the fourth. My message was we are a four, not three, quarter team,” said coach Heather Miller.
Senior Grace Pokorny took a pass from Clara Dowdle just two minutes into the contest and put the Centaurs up, 1-0.
The Spartans tied the game five minutes later but Woodstock (1-6-1) went back on top 2 ½ minutes into the second quarter when Pokorny took a pass from Abby Converse. Converse then scored her first goal of the season early in the third quarter.
Pokorny finished it off when she scored with 12 minutes, 56 seconds left off another Dowdle feed.
Dowdle had previously been the only player to score for the Centaurs this season.
The Spartans scored with 2:26 left in the contest to make it a one-goal game.
Such was the case earlier in the week when the Centaurs hosted the Wildcats.
Neither team wanted to give up.
Despite the fact that the Woodstock and Norwich Free Academy field hockey teams were reduced to playing seven-on-seven in overtime. The match ended in a 1-1 tie.
The Wildcats got up on the board first thanks to a goal in a scrum in front of the Centaurs net with 9:17 to play in the second quarter.
Amelia Driscoll was finally able to shovel it past Woodstock keeper Lizzie Roberts to put NFA into the lead.
But Academy had, for the second consecutive match, 14 attacking penalty corners.
The tying goal would not come off a corner. Instead, it came on a breakaway.
Dowdle and Pokorny broke across midfield with Converse getting the ball to Pokorny.
The senior dribbled down the field and gave it back to her teammate when Pokorny drew the attention of Wildcat keeper Emma Koplin.
The combination of Dowdle and Pokorny has borne fruit as they had accounted for all three Centaur goals up until the Somers game.
The coach and the team, especially the offense, will be getting a little boost next week when Killingly High transfer Shannon Donovan is eligible to play. She had to sit the first half of the season according to CIAC rules.
Overall, Miller was just happy to see her team respond well in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Unfortunately for the Centaurs, a trip to Groton the following day was not as productive.
Dowdle scored off another Pokorny assist but that was all the Centaurs (0-4-1 ECC) could put together in a 6-1 loss to Fitch.
Girls’ Cross-Country
If there is one thing about the start of the school year and the fall athletic season, one of the dominant factors early will not only be what kind of shape the athletes returned in but the ability to stay healthy.
After a summer apart, viruses love to run rampant on campus almost as much as athletes love to run.
Just ask girls’ cross-country coach Joe Banas.
At one point early in the week, he was just hoping to have enough runners available to run against East Lyme and Stonington.
Fortunately, he had enough to do so but he did have to alter his expectations a bit.
“If we were 100 percent healthy, I would have actually given them the green light to try and challenge East Lyme. I knew that wasn’t going to happen with the sicknesses which meant I had to dial everyone’s time back in the previous speed work out. I gave them different target times based on what I thought they could actually do,” Banas said.
About 90 percent of the team was affected by the bug so Banas decided his runners had to let the two Stonington runners set the pace.
Molly Musselman and Peyton Vanderstreet did just that as they finished first and second.
But the Centaurs put in the next five runners to claim a 25-32 win over the Bears and raise their record to 1-2 overall.
Woodstock did suffer its second ECC Div. I loss as host East Lyme posted a 21-34 victory.
Junior Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain placed fourth with Olivia Tracy in seventh and Kira Greene 10th overall.
Boys’ Cross-Country
It’s a runner’s nightmare. Senior Christian Menounos was in the lead early in the race for Woodstock against East Lyme and Stonington.
“It was his first chance to race against some real competition but he took a wrong turn,” coach Josh Welch said. “He got turned around, probably lost 30-to-40 seconds, and tried to get some back but that didn’t work out. It happens. It was one of those freak things. He knows the course; we had just walked it, but he just lost track of it.”
East Lyme was just a bit more dominant because of that as they put the first four runners across followed by the Centaurs’ Colton Sallum and Menounos.
The Centaurs fell to the Vikings 17-44 to fall to 1-1 in Div. I of the ECC but downed Stonington 15-46 as they took the top six spots to improve to 2-1 overall.
In this case, it was all’s well that ends well, wrong turn or not.
Menounos and Sallum have both been accepted as runners in a championship race.
Girls’ Soccer
It was a mixed bag of results for the girls’ soccer team this week. Win at home against NFA. Fall on the road at Waterford. Come back and post a 3-2 win over E.O. Smith.
It left the Centaurs with a 5-2 overall record and a 1-2 mark in Div. I of the ECC.
The girls’ team finished off the week with a non-league contest against the E.O Smith Panthers.
“We didn’t know what we were going to get but we were the stronger team (Saturday),” senior Leah Costa said.
The Centaurs got a goal from Isabella Selmecki off an assist from freshman Kaitlyn Teal.
They then got a little help from their hosts as an own goal accounted for the second tally for Woodstock.
Costa finished things off with her seventh goal of the season which proved to be the game winner.
The Centaurs picked up their first ECC Div. I win with a 2-0 decision over Norwich Free Academy early in the week.
In a reverse of Saturday’s contest, it was Coyle who scored her first goal of the season off a Costa assist halfway through the first half to put the Centaurs up on the Wildcats.
The score remained that way until just two minutes were left in the contest when Woodstock, playing a person down due to a red card, added a little insurance when Selmecki scored off a Macy Rawson assist.
The Centaurs found the going a bit more difficult at Waterford. The Lancers posted the 3-1 victory. Costa got the only goal for Woodstock off a Freya Robbie free kick.
Boys’ Soccer
Coming home certainly helped but the boys’ soccer team is still looking for its first win.
The Centaurs played Norwich Free Academy and Bacon Academy this past week and the result was the same, a 1-1 draw with both the Wildcats and Bobcats.
Woodstock then went on the road on Saturday and, guess what, finished in a 1-1 tie at Waterford.
First-year head coach Dave St. Jean said  “I’m ecstatic that the guys are still hungry for that first win. We’ve played some good teams and missed some opportunities that could have gone our way and those results would have been a little different. I’m hoping that it actually helps going on with the season because the goals will eventually come.”
Just as the score was the same, the nature of the games with Bacon Academy and Waterford were also very similar.
Free kicks had a big impact on the outcome. Logan Rawson accomplished it against the Lancers on Saturday as his free kick found the back of the net to give his team the tie with the Lancers.
It was the first goal of the season for Rawson and the only one Woodstock needed to go home with the draw.
The Centaurs (0-4-3) got on the board first against Bacon Academy on Thursday.
They were awarded a free kick just 15 minutes into the match just outside the 18-yard box. Senior Garrett Bushey took it and found the back of the net for his second goal of the season.
Unfortunately for the Centaurs, they would give the Bobcats the opportunity when a foul just outside the box resulted in a free kick.
Bacon Academy took advantage sending it to the far post with 24 minutes, 26 seconds left.
The Centaurs had been pretty dominant late in the first half and early in the second, but Riley Wilcox went down with an injury.
Earlier in the week, Woodstock Academy had to battle back late for the tie against the Wildcats.
NFA scored in the final 10 minutes but the Centaurs did not leave their home opener empty-handed.
Woodstock earned a share of the rewards when Will St. John answered with his fourth goal of the season off a Shawn Mugagga assist.
Football
It was a game at halftime. That game was pretty much over at the end of the third quarter.
Stonington broke open a four-point game at the half with three third quarter touchdowns and went on to post a 59-26 win over the Centaurs.
Woodstock had high hopes coming in as they had beaten Bassick by 35 points in their season opener.
But the Bears (1-1) quickly brought them down to earth when they scored on the second play from scrimmage as senior quarterback Jayden Carter found receiver Chase Spurley open down the sideline and hit him for a 51-yard score.
The Centaurs answered with a lengthy 14-play drive that chewed up almost seven minutes on the clock. Senior running back Gabe Luperon (15 carries, 51 yards) finished it up with a 5-yard run for his third touchdown of the season.
It was also the third way he had found to score this season as he returned a kickoff and caught a touchdown pass in the win over Bassick.
Had the Centaurs (1-1) been able to manufacture more of those time-consuming drives, they might have been better off as they could not stop Carter.
The Stonington quarterback (21-of-32 passing, 250 yards) hit tight end Patrick McGugan with a 12-yard pass on the first play of the second quarter to make it 16-8.
The Centaurs closed to within two when senior quarterback Sam Clark (10-27, 189 yards) hit Luperon with a short pass that the running back turned into a long touchdown.
Luperon beat his defender and hauled in the ball, turned and no one else was there, leaving him a 66-yard path down the sidelines for a touchdown.
But Stonington made it a 10-point game when Carter found McGugan again with a 25-yard scoring strike.
The Centaurs, however, weren’t ready to concede.
Clark looked downfield and hit first-year senior receiver Cam Nason for a 53-yard score to cut Stonington’s lead to four, 24-20, at the half.
That’s where the good times came to an end for Woodstock.
The Centaurs gave the ball back on downs at their own 47 on the first possession of the second half and it took the Bears only five plays to find the end zone with Max Massengale scoring the first of his two touchdowns from just 2 yards out.
The Centaurs were forced to punt but Clark got the football back on the next series as Carter threw the ball into his counterpart’s arms at the Stonington 28.
Woodstock tried a trick play but a receiver option pass was fumbled and picked up by Cooper Light who returned it 58 yards to put the Bears up, 37-20.
Stonington sealed the Centaurs fate when Clark was intercepted by McGugan who returned it to the Centaurs’ 9-yard line. Two plays later, on a Wildcat play, McGugan crossed the goal line to put the Bears up by 25.
Luperon scored the final touchdown for the Centaurs on a 1-yard dive with 10 minutes, 14 seconds to play.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

Woodstock Academy receiver Alec Nunes is on the bottom of the pile after making one of his three receptions against Stonington in a 59-26 loss to the Bears at the Bentley Athletic Complex. Photo by Abby Ditzel/Woodstock Academy.

Shawn Mugagga tracks down the ball for Woodstock Academy in a 1-1 tie. Photo by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy...


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