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caption, page 2:
Vidal at Work
Woodstock sophomore Manuel Vidal works the ball upfield in a boys’ soccer match against NFA. Photo by Marc Allard.
Roundup
Arends leads
Centaurs to a
pair of wins
As expected, Linsey Arends will be one of those to catch this girls’ cross-country season.
The Woodstock Academy senior got out in front quickly in a season-opening quad-meet with E. Lyme, Stonington and Windham.
Arends easily strode home in first place, leading the Centaurs to victories over both Stonington and Windham by identical 15-50 scores. The Academy lost to E. Lyme, 20-37.
Arends crossed the line in 20 minutes, 46 seconds. That was a minute-10 better than E. Lyme’s Izzy Paggioli.
“Having her back is huge, we need that front runner,” said Centaurs coach Joe Banas. But he also needs the pack of runners behind Arends.
Carah Bruce was next for the Centaurs in seventh in 22:55; Julia Coyle was eighth in 22:59.
Lauren Brule and Talia Tremblay rounded out the Centaurs top five in 10th and 11th place respectively.
Boys’ Cross Country
The boys’ cross-country defeated Stonington, 20-43, and Windham, 15-50, but lost to E. Lyme, 16-46.
Centaurs coach Peter Lusa said it was a well-run first meet of the season as the four teams did not take a tour of the course until the Centaurs, who came from the furthest distance, arrived.
“We, basically, got kicked out by the park police who came by to tell us that the park closed after dark,” Lusa said with a laugh.
Ian Hoffman (18 minutes, 35 seconds) was sixth overall individually for the Centaurs while Seamus Lippy placed 10th and Vince Bastura 11th.
Overall, the Woodstock Academy coach said he was happy with the finishing times.
Christian Menounos was fourth across the line in 13th overall while Max Auker rounded out the top five in 16th.
Boys’ Soccer
The Centaurs ran into one of the hottest sides in the ECC last week.
Ledyard (4-0, 1-0 ECC Div. II), which has already defeated perennial powers Stonington and E. Lyme, jumped out to a 5-1 first half lead and cruised to a 6-3 victory over Woodstock.
The Centaurs (1-3, 1-1) got a first half goal from Max Ferreira and two more in the second half from Noah Page and Austin Byer. The goal by Page came off a penalty kick.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs faced an athletic NFA side and ran out of petrol as the Wildcats posted a 4-1 victory.
“I couldn’t fault the boys, they gave 100 percent effort. We just ran out of steam,” said coach Paul Rearden. ”The legs will come with games,” Rearden said.
NFA (1-2) opened the scoring in the first half and The Centaurs (1-2) answered early in the second half. A foul in the area led to a penalty kick for Page.
NFA keeper Zach Redanz-Swett made the initial save on the PK.
While Swett made the save, he could not corral the ball and Page quickly hopped on it and sent it over Swett and just under the crossbar to tie the match.
But NFA regained the momentum and gave the Wildcats a 2-1 lead 18:23 into the second half. The Centaurs had a couple of chances including a Page shot that bounced harmlessly off the crossbar.
NFA had quite a few more opportunities after that but Centaurs keeper Brian Jameson made some very athletic saves.
Unfortunately, NFA ended the Centaurs’ hopes when they put a pair of goals in within a minute of each other with under-five to play.
Girls’ Soccer
Freshman Juliet Allard took a pass near midfield and began to race downfield, easily getting past most of the Fitch defense.
That’s only normal. By the time she left middle school, she owned the 100 and 200-meter school records and was a part of the 4x400-meter team that also set a school standard.
Her first career varsity goal halfway through the first half sparked the Centaurs to a 5-0 win over the Falcons.
“It’s a great confidence boost for the kids. You need to win seven to get to States and that’s a goal,” said coach Dennis Snelling.
Grace Gelhaus gave the Centaurs a 2-0 lead with 14 minutes left in the first half; her second of the season, and that was the halftime score. The Academy put it out of reach in the first three minutes of the second half thanks to Allard.
A pass from Addy Smith off the opening kick of the second half came right to her foot and she put it into the net just 18 seconds in. A minute and a half later, it was Macy Rawson who found Allard and she drilled home her third goal of the match.
Freshman Haley Whitehouse tallied with 19 ½ minutes left in regulation.
The Centaurs and Plainfield Panthers had their now-usual battle later in the week with the Panthers pulling out a 2-1 overtime win.
Plainfield went up by a goal on their home pitch, but the Centaurs rallied behind Gelhaus.
She scored an unassisted goal from 35 yards out to tie the match with 16:54 left in regulation.
But the Panthers won the contest just a minute into overtime when a penalty kick was called for a handball in the area.
The Centaurs closed out the week with their first trip out of state in two years.
It was not a pleasurable experience as Woodstock (1-3-1) lost to Cumberland, R.I., 7-0.
Volleyball
There was a pair of late nights at the fieldhouse courtesy of the Academy volleyball team. The match between the Centaurs and Lyman Memorial was supposed to start at 5:30 but a busing issue pushed the start back until after 7 p.m. Sept. 17. The match finished near 10 p.m.
The Bulldogs (2-1), took a 3-1 win home. Lyman won the first two sets, 25-15 and 25-20.
The Centaurs (1-3) did rally in the third for a 25-23 win but Lyman finished it off with a 25-16 victory in the fourth.
Aurissa Boardman had seven kills and four aces for Woodstock while Jade Desmond added six kills and Cassidy Chabot had 15 digs and three aces.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs and Waterford Lancers kept spectators in a hot and humid gym for two hours as they battled in a see-saw contest before the Lancers pulled out a 3-2 win.
Waterford (1-3) finally pulled out its first win of the season with a 15-9 victory in the decisive fifth set.
The Lancers won the first set, 25-16, but the Centaurs rallied for a 25-16 win of their own in the second.
Woodstock gave itself a chance to seal the deal in four after a 25-23 win in the third set. But the Centaurs allowed Waterford a chance to break out early in the fourth set and regain the momentum.
The Lancers built an early 6-0 lead and expanded that to 10-2 enroute to a 25-17 victory and that helped build the excitement for the fifth set against a young Centaur team.
“We had three freshmen and a sophomore on the court and outside of Aurissa, Annarose (Avery) and Lizzy (Lovrien), there is not a ton of experience out there,” said coach Adam Bottone said.
The Centaurs did have troubles behind the service line where they committed 23 errors.
Boardman led the Centaurs with 11 kills and 10 digs. Chabot, a freshman, added 11 digs while Avery had four aces. Bottone did rest Avery in several sets as she is nursing a bad ankle. Avery had 10 assists in the first two sets. Bottone put in freshman Sophie Gronski in the third set and then rotated the two.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy