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It was a long ride home from Bridgeport Nov. 8.
It gave coach Paul Rearden and his Woodstock Academy boys’ soccer team a lot of time to think about the season that was.
“At the beginning of the season, if someone would have said, you will lose a second-round game in the states, but you will win the (Eastern Connecticut Conference championship) and a share of the division title. Will you take it? I would have bit my arm off for that,” Rearden said.
Fortunately, all of Rearden’s limbs are still in the correct place.
Still, it was a long ride to make to come home empty-handed.
The 13th –seeded Centaurs fell to No. 4 Bassick in a Class L 2nd round contest, 2-1, in Bridgeport.
“I’m so proud of what the boys have achieved. Going into season, people were asking about expectations and my big question was; with the talent we had coming back and the younger boys coming up, about how were they going to handle the physicality of varsity soccer?” Rearden said.
To make matters worse, the Centaurs lost their first two matches to Stonington and Amherst, Mass.
The Centaurs ended their season with a 13-6-2 record.
“To be sitting here at the end with the ECC title, the performances and the wins, it would be unreasonable to say the season was a disappointment. I think we exceeded what most people thought we could achieve,” Rearden said.
It was not the loss in the state tournament match to Bassick, but instead the manner in which the Centaurs lost that was hard to stomach.
The Centaurs had their chances to win.
Rearden thought his team could have easily scored four goals in the contest.
“Credit to us, we battled all the way through. The circumstances were not all of our making, and it left a sour taste for the season as good as it was. When you have been beaten by a team that outplays you, you can turn around and say they were better than us. Unfortunately, some games are not meant to be,” Rearden said.
Woodstock Academy did strike first.
Early in the contest, Cole Hackett sent a through ball to Ethan Holcomb.
The senior forward challenged a defender and the Bassick keeper and beat them both with a header to give the Centaurs the lead within the first three minutes of the contest.
Woodstock Academy did not find the net again.
Bassick tied the game just before the half and, with six minutes left in the game, put in the winner.
It was a disappointment for the Centaurs who thought they had a good chance to make the Class L quarterfinals, something Woodstock Academy has not accomplished in boys’ soccer since 2008.
The state tournament started well for the Centaurs despite the weather.
The weather Nov. 6 was arguably one of the 10 worst days of the year as the Class L match between the Centaurs and No. 20 Prince Tech/University High School was played in a driving chilly rain with wind and fog to boot.
Rearden, a native of Liverpool, England, was loving it.
“This is the perfect weather for soccer. The ball moved quickly (on the turf at the Bentley Athletic Complex) like we like it to do and there was no danger of overheating. This is the weather I used to love to play in,” Rearden said.
But he was not playing.
So, Rearden did the smart thing and retreated under a pop-up tent.
“The boys were doing their best to empty it on my head,” Rearden said. “I survived.”
So did the Centaurs.
It was the Tigers who got the long ride home, made more miserable in their wet clothing, after a 4-0 loss to the Centaurs.
Although it took a little bit for Woodstock Academy to get going.
“We had to warm up so it was difficult in the first 15 minutes,” said sophomore Alejandro Quintas Gonzalez.
Rearden was not all that happy about the first 20 minutes against the Tigers (7-7-3).
“I told them you can’t come out and walk through a game and for the first 20 minutes, we were poor. We were sloppy with the ball, movement wasn’t there, our shape wasn’t there,” Rearden said.
But things did get better for the Eastern Connecticut Conference champs.
Reid Butler, getting the start in place of the injured Aidan Morin, took a pass from Quintas Gonzalez, and scored 21 minutes, 18 seconds into the match.
“He’s got the sweetest left foot you will see and I think that settled us down,” Rearden said.
Just 3:04 before halftime, Quintas Gonzalez made a nice move around Argelys Jiminian and found himself open to the left of Prince Tech keeper K’Ser Htoo.
The sophomore spied Holcomb coming in from the right and put it onto his foot for the 2-0 lead.
“Sean Rearden passed me the ball into the wind and I took it to the line. I saw Ethan coming into the penalty (area) and I just crossed it to him,” Quintas-Gonzalez said.
It was the first, but not the last, helping hand by a teammate offered to Holcomb.
With 6:10 to play, Holcomb chipped the ball over Htoo, looking to get the ball to teammate Eric Phongsa.
There was no one between Phongsa and the net.
The sophomore could have easily knocked it in.
Instead, he watched it roll across, giving Holcomb his 10th goal of the season.
“I thanked him for it. I probably should thank him more for it. He could have easily put it away, but he let it go for me,” Holcomb said.
Phongsa already had one.
Just 30 seconds before the Holcomb goal, Phongsa made a nifty move, switching from his right to left foot while spinning away from the defense, beating Htoo with his left foot for his eighth goal of the year. Now, it’s time to move on again. Such is the nature of high school athletics.
The Centaurs will lose 11 seniors to graduation including Jake Marsalisi, Chase Anderson, John Rogers, Cole Hackett, Eridon Mehmeti, Ethan Holcomb, Ethan Adams, Lucas Couture, Aaron Johnson, Matt Tiffany and Isidro de Icaza. “Cole, Chase, and Ethan have been so important to the team, but this time last year, we were talking about Jack Gelhaus and Eli (Child). As one door closes, others open up, opportunities open up. We have character on the team that can certainly take on the responsibility. Are we going to miss Cole, Ethan and Chase? Yes. We will. But it was also the big question before this season: How are we going to attack without Jack or Eli? You go on, adapt, maybe change the way you play a little, but the kids who are still here are a year older, a year more mature. Let’s see what they can do,” Rearden said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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