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Woodstock Academy junior Peyton Saracina said she looked at her sister, senior Hallie, at the end of the Centaurs Class L girls’ soccer state tournament 1st round match with East Haven and had just one thing to say.
“I said to her, ‘This feels weird,’” Peyton Saracina said.
For a change, the Centaurs were not packing up their gear for a final time.
The No. 12 Centaurs downed the 21st ranked Yellowjackets, 3-0, in the rain, snow and cold early last week.
Unfortunately, the state tournament run didn’t last as long as Woodstock would have liked.
The Centaurs traveled to a second round match Nov. 21 and fell to No. 5 Mercy High School, 1-0.
Woodstock Academy finished with an 11-7-1 record.
Still, the win over East Haven was the first state tournament victory for the Centaurs girls’ soccer program since 2013.
The jinx is over.
“It’s great,” said coach Dennis Snelling. “We wanted to win a state tournament game. To finally get one, not moving on because of a bye, is a nice thing.”
“For the rest of the season, it’s going to be like this,” said Centaurs’ senior Emma Redfield. “It’s definitely tough. Snow, freezing cold, you couldn’t feel your fingers, but we’re all athletes, we have to play through it.”
Woodstock Academy took 18 shots and held East Haven to one.
The Centaurs got on the scoreboard in the first half when freshman Grace Gelhaus sent a cross from deep on the left side to the opposite post which Peyton Saracina redirected into the goal.
Peyton Saracina finished with 15 goals on the season.
The Centaurs had 10 other shots on the goal in the half, but six of them were fired at the 6-foot E. Haven keeper, Angelina Munoz.
“1-0 in a state game, we’ve had before and it’s not enough. We talked about not getting too emotional with the lead, wait until the game is over,” Snelling said about his halftime chat with his team.
The Centaurs certainly didn’t settle in the second half.
Woodstock added the insurance goal it needed when Gelhaus scored an unassisted goal, her 17th of the season, 12 minutes into the second half.
Adeline Smith finished off the scoring with a header off a cross from Peyton Saracina with just under 16 minutes to play.
It was Smith’s fourth goal of the season.
The Centaurs were optimistic going into their second-round match with the Tigers. It was a scoreless match at halftime in the less than ideal conditions.
The Woodstock coach said his team had three or four good first half chances.
One, a shot by Peyton Saracina, just cleared the cross bar and landed on the back of the net.
Peyton Saracina also helped create a couple of other first half chances that just would not go in.
The only real opportunity in the second half was a free kick from just outside the box that Redfield put a little too close to the Mercy keeper.
The Tigers finally broke the deadlock with 11 ½ minutes to play. Emma McMurray took a pass from Katie Menard and slipped it past Centaurs’ keeper Rachel Holden.
“The ball went across the box and two of our defenders slipped and missed it in succession. (McMurray) did not,” Snelling said.
The good thing for Snelling was that the Centaurs saved the best for last. The Centaurs lose Holden, Redfield, Linda St. Laurent, Kayla Gaudreau and Hallie Saracina to graduation.
“The whole roster is varsity ready and I think we’re set up nice for next year,” Snelling said. “The goal was to get better every day and we did that. We wanted to make the (ECC) tournament and we did that. We finished with our best game. We had a lot of positives in terms of leadership and few major injuries so it was a good season.”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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