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2nd halves
spoil Centaurs’ week
The second half of matches was not kind to the Woodstock Academy boys’ soccer team.
Against both Ledyard and E. Lyme, the Centaurs had the lead in the early part of the last 40 minutes only to see it slip away.
As a result, Ledyard beat the Centaurs on their home turf Sept. 17, 3-1, and E. Lyme got the best of the Centaurs, 4-2, down by the shoreline Sept. 20.
“You just have to keep upbeat,” Woodstock Academy coach Paul Rearden said after his team dropped to 0-4 overall and 0-1 in Division I of the ECC. “Nobody let their heads drop on the field. The spirit is there and they are trying to do the right thing. They are working hard, trying to do the things we tell them and there are definitely improvements in every game. Eventually, hard work gets rewards.”
Just not last week.
The Centaurs fell behind the Vikings Sept. 20 when senior Kurt Mahlke made the most of a “cruel deflection” in Paul Rearden’s opinion and beat Centaurs’ keeper Zach Roethlein 10 minutes into the contest.
Woodstock Academy answered just before the break when Huck Gelhaus won the ball at midfield and played it to Sean Rearden. He passed it to Eric Phongsa who looked like he was headed for the net, until he spied Logan Talbot in a better position. Phongsa’s pass got to Talbot at the perfect time as Talbot only needed one touch to beat the defense and send the ball into the top corner of the net.
It was Talbot’s second tally of the season.
The Centaurs went ahead 10 minutes into the second half when Sean Rearden got position in the box and Jack Butler got him the ball. Sean Rearden had a nice first touch, got his foot on the ball on the first bounce and sent it into the far bottom corner for his first goal of the season.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stand up. E. Lyme (2-2, 1-0 ECC Division I) tied the game on a goal by junior Noam Sokolovsky.
But halfway through the second half, it all came crashing down.
Keeper Zach Roethlein was given a red card when he had to come out of the area to challenge an E. Lyme player on a breakaway and the two collided.
It wasn’t the hit that got Roethlein, it was the fact that he was the last Centaur standing between the E. Lyme player and the goal and had there not been contact, the ball likely would have ended up in the net.
It did soon after. As soon as Roethlein was forced to the bench, Colin Manuilow stepped into the net. Mahlke was awarded a free kick from just outside the box and his well-placed low liner eluded Manuilow and put the Vikings up, 3-2.
“I wouldn’t say it was a mistake by Zach because if the same thing happened again, I would expect him to come out for that ball,” Paul Rearden said.
About 10 minutes later, Sean Rearden was forced from the match when he fell awkwardly and struck his head on the turf.
“He had to come out, and he’s one of the most influential players on the team. To go down to 10 men and then to lose one of your captains, one of your leaders, it’s a double whammy,” Paul Rearden said.
The Centaurs decided to push up.
Late in the match, East Lyme took advantage of that and got a breakaway opportunity.
Sokolovsky took a rebound off the cross bar and directed it into the net.
The Centaurs had their chances against Ledyard.
They outshot the Colonels 8-3 in the first half including some darts from Gelhaus, Sean Rearden, Phongsa and Talbot.
Nothing found its mark.
Woodstock Academy finally broke the scoreless tie early in the second half when Sean Rearden sent a corner into the box, Ledyard thought it had cleared the ball, only to see it land in front of Talbot who took the bounce and sent it into the upper left corner.
Rich Hickson almost made it 2-0 when he took a cross from Talbot, but he was hit in the foot just as he kicked it which sent the ball right at the post.
As the Centaurs luck this year would have it, it ricocheted harmlessly away.
Halfway through the second half, the Colonels (2-1) tied it on a goal by Nick Washington.
Ledyard then went ahead when Alex Warmus converted just four minutes later.
Roethlein did turn away a Ledyard penalty kick, but the Colonels added some insurance when Washington scored with five minutes remaining.
“A lot of teams get away with the mistakes they make. We’re just in one of those periods of time where every little mistake bites you,” Paul Rearden said. “The last two games, we’ve looked a lot more solid defensively. The game against Ledyard, that took away from out attacking game a little. But the practices we had between, we talked about once we did win the ball to be braver and go for it and we had two great goals (versus E. Lyme).”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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