- Details
- Category: Current Issue
The regular season comes to a close for the Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer team this week.
The Centaurs had one match left to play against Plainfield coming into the week.
“This one went by fast,” said Woodstock Academy coach Dennis Snelling. “We’ve been playing three games a week and now, it’s over.”
But there is plenty more still to come for the Centaurs.
Woodstock Academy will be one of the four teams involved in the ECC Div. I tournament as either the third or fourth seed.
The pairings had not been determined at press time but E. Lyme and Plainfield will likely share the top two spots followed by Woodstock Academy and Killingly.
“I think that was the goal looming over us particularly once the division (title) went away,” Snelling said. “I think it was a bigger goal anyway because if you win the division, (it means) you beat East Lyme, NFA and Fitch and that’s not much of a target. It’s a good goal, you get a piece of plastic for it, but the league tournament is the goal to get the team comfortable and organized by the end.”
The Centaurs certainly can compete with all three teams in the tournament.
They lost to the Panthers, 5-3, in the season opener on Sept. 12 but have the chance to make up for that this week.
The Centaurs downed the Red Hawks of Killingly, 5-1, in their only meeting and fell 2-0 to East Lyme in their meeting at Woodstock Academy. The Centaurs also lost to the Vikings, 4-1, in E. Lyme.
The ECC tournament will begin on Nov. 5. The Centaurs are defending champs. The Class L state tournament will follow. The Centaurs are currently ranked 12th in Class L.
Woodstock Academy raised its record to 10-4-1 with a 1-0 win over Bacon Academy Oct. 25.
The only goal came 8:45 into the second half when Peyton Saracina, with her back to the goal, had a ball played into her. She got her foot on it and flicked it into space behind her where Grace Gelhaus was coming on. The result was the 16th goal of the season for the freshman.
Snelling said the Centaurs did have some other chances, but Bacon’s keeper was able to keep them out of the net.
With about 25 seconds left, the Bobcats (4-7-3) had a chance to tie when they were awarded a free kick at the top of the box.
Woodstock Academy keeper Rachel Holden got her fingertips on it, tipped it off the crossbar and got to the bounce before anyone else.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs downed Norwich Free Academy, 3-0.
Gelhaus scored off a corner from Kayla Gaudreau early in the first half.
It was their only tally of the opening half.
Gelhaus added another, a left-footed, 20-yard rocket into the upper corner of the net off an assist from Saracina.
The insurance tally meant Snelling could substitute liberally late in the second half.
Ava Coutu had a goal for the Centaurs, the first of her career, off the first assist of the season for Ciara MacKinnon.
“The goal is to have a winning record to make states, but 10 wins is an impressive accomplishment considering who graduated and the fact that we, basically, had to start over,” Snelling said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
..