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Centaurs find
early going
difficult
It was a little bit of an eye opener for the Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer team in the first week of the regular season.
Instead of playing the local teams, the Centaurs began the season with Waterford and NFA.
“I’m trying to make it clear that every game we play this year, even if we lose, it’s an opponent that we’re supposed to be playing,” said Woodstock Academy coach Dennis Snelling. “You can’t learn if the other team just doesn’t have enough soccer players in their school to put out what they would like to. We need to be playing these quality opponents.”
Last week Woodstock Academy opened with a pair of home matches. The Centaurs fell to the Lancers, 3-1. They finished in a 1-all overtime tie with the Wildcats.
The Academy took almost twice as many shots as Waterford did in the opening loss, but never really attacked the net.
“We had nothing for their back line at all. We had no chances inside the box,” Snelling said.
Waterford struck in the first half and added two more goals closely together in the second half.
Woodstock Academy did not walk away empty handed.
Grace Gelhaus flipped one over the top of a couple of Waterford defenders to teammate Ava Coutu who scored from 20 yards out with 7:14 to play for the first goal of the season for the Centaurs.
The offense was a bit more crisp against the Wildcats.
Gelhaus got her first goal of the season from 30 yards out in the first half.
“She has that foot where she can strike a ball and it must be going 70 miles an hour. It’s something that not many athletes can do,” Snelling said.
Unfortunately for the Centaurs, the Wildcats were able to keep pressing closer to the Centaurs net and with 15 minutes left in regulation, a ball deflected off a Woodstock defender and found the back of the goal.
“It seemed like it was just going to happen for them. They had everyone pressing and maybe we didn’t realize that they were sending extra players forward. We got caught watching them go up the sidelines five times in a row and next thing you know, they’re in our end, bombing the ball at the box,” Snelling said.
The Centaurs did have some good chances in the two overtimes but could not convert.
Boys’ soccer
While the girls’ soccer team was at home, the boys’ soccer team got on the bus.
The Centaurs opened with two away matches against the likes of Fitch and Windham and wound up with a split.
Woodstock fell to Fitch 2-0 last week but later beat Willimantic, 2-1.
The win over the Whippets came down to the final minute. With 50 seconds left, a shot by Austin Byers was blocked by a Windham defender’s arm in the box and the Centaurs were awarded a penalty kick. Noah Page converted to give the Centaurs the win.
Sophomore striker Beltran Velasco scored Woodstock’s first goal of the season off an assist from Manuel Vidal in the first half but the Whippets tied the match before halftime.
The Centaurs played well in their season opener. They just couldn’t find the net in Groton.
“We just need to knit together as a team,” said Centaurs coach Paul Rearden.
Volleyball
The academy volleyball team knew it was in for a fresh start this season. That means some ups and some downs. The team experienced both in the just the first two matches.
Woodstock opened with a 3-0 win over Killingly last week and then traveled to Darien to face a good Class LL program and fell by that same score.
“It was nice to win the first match. You get the jitters out of the way,” said coach Adam Bottone.
The Centaurs swept the three sets against Killingly, 25-12, 25-17 and 25-13.
Senior Aurissa Boardman led the way with five kills while setter Annarose Avery added five assists.
But it was the service game that made it easy for the Centaurs. They recorded 27 aces with Boardman leading the way with 10 while Avery had five and both Morgan Bonin and Sophie Gronski added four.
Against the Blue Wave, though: “As big as our serving was a strength against Killingly, I think it was Darien’s strength against us. They had a good defense and some girls who could hit but it was their serving that just completely took us out of our game. We couldn’t receive at all. It was hard to get an estimate of their capabilities when we couldn’t return the ball,” Bottone said.
Darien posted straight set wins of 25-9, 25-12, and 25-16. Boardman had three kills and two aces while Gronski had four assists and six service points.
Field Hockey
The Centaurs field hockey team opened its season with a 6-2 loss to East Catholic in Manchester last week. Caroline Harris scored the first goal of the season for the Centaurs off an assist from senior Elaina Borski.
Borski later got her first goal of the year off a pass from Ella Musumeci.
Prep Soccer
The boys’ prep soccer program raised its record to 2-1 on the season with a 4-1 victory over the Pomfret School Sept. 11. Ricardo Mora scored a pair of goals for the Centaurs against the Griffins while Pol Saiz Barbancho and Marc Ballart Gisbert also tallied.
Jordi Sanabra, Gisbert, Barbancho and Tiago Assis all had assists in the win on the road.
The Centaurs opened the week with a 2-1 loss at Avon-Old Farms.
Due to injuries and other concerns, the Centaurs were playing shorthanded with only 14 players able to make the trek out to the Hartford area.
The Centaurs took the early lead when Assis put home a free kick from 30 yards out.
Avon-Old Farms tied the match and then won it with a tally in the final minute of play.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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