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First Goal
Woodstock Academy’s Manny Vidal scored his first goal of the season for the Centaurs in the boys-only match of the week, a 3-1 loss to Waterford. Photo by Marc Allard.
The Woodstock Academy football team had a pretty simple plan going into its game with Bacon Academy.
Get the lead early, take the fight out of the Bobcats and get out of Colchester with a win.
The Centaurs scored 27 first half points and rolled to a 33-0 win over Bacon Oct. 23.
“Our goal was to execute with the 1’s (the starters), be efficient, which we were and then get all the 2’s (reserves) in and we did a great job. The 2’s defense stopped them, caused a turnover in the fourth quarter and we were able to get a bunch of guys in for the second half,” said coach Sean Saucier.
Senior Tyler Green scooped up a fumble on the opening possession for the Bobcats and gave the Centaurs the ball on the Bacon Academy 27. Instead of throwing, the Centaurs elected to run the ball into the end zone, going with eight rushing plays to get the score.
Trevor Savoie (11 carries, 52 yards) got the honor as he scored from 2 yards out just four minutes into the game.
Woodstock (5-1, 3-0 ECC Div. II) got another turnover on Bacon’s next possession when safety Austin Amlaw intercepted a pass from Bacon quarterback Jack Holmes. Unfortunately, Amlaw fumbled the football back to the Bobcats.
The defense forced Bacon to punt and the Centaurs did get the ball back in good field position at their own 47.
A penalty pushed them back to their own 39 but quarterback Ethan Davis hit Jackson Goetz (6 catches, 97 yards) for 20 yards and River Favreau for 15 more. Add in a 3-yard run by Payton Barna and the Centaurs were knocking at the door at Bacon’s 23-yard line.
Davis got that on one play, looking down the left sideline for Parker Anderson (4 catches, 78 yards) who reeled it in for a 14-0 Centaur lead. Davis completed his first 11 passes of the game and threw for 188 yards.
Davis also completed a pair of touchdown passes to Goetz from 11 and 25 yards out to give Woodstock a 27-0 halftime lead.
Davis played only one series in the second half before yielding to junior Braiden Saucier who completed eight of his 13 passes for 160 yards including a 35-yard touchdown pass to Carter Saracina in the fourth quarter.
The win was the fourth in a row for the Centaurs and meant the game with Ledyard in November will mean something.
“We have a division title game against Ledyard so that’s exciting. We have a few tough ones ahead of us but we’re excited for the competition and the opportunity to compete for a division title,” Saucier said.
Volleyball
It took a little while. The volleyball team had been on the wrong side of the score in their previous eight matches.
That finally changed last week against Sports Sciences Academy out of Hartford.
The Centaurs held off the Tigers, 3-0, Oct. 20 and followed that up Oct. 21 with a 3-2 win over Coventry.
“It was very nice to break that streak,” a relieved senior Aurissa Boardman said after the win over SMSA.
Woodstock Academy coach Adam Bottone couldn’t have agreed more. “It was very nice to get a win. It goes a long way for the confidence of the girls. We were still a little more inconsistent than I would like,” said Bottone.
The Centaurs owned the lead in the first set, but had to hold off Sports Sciences at the end, 25-22.
Woodstock Academy took the second set easily, 25-18, but to highlight that inconsistency that Bottone spoke of, had to rally from a 19-14 deficit in the third set to win, 25-20, and seal the match victory.
Junior Emily Goodell had an eight-point run from behind the service line that brought the Centaurs back from the five-point deficit.
In addition to Goodell, Boardman (17 digs) had 10 of her 16 kills on the night in the decisive set.
“They couldn’t stop her swing so she was able to get a lot of kills. Sometimes, you have a hot hand and you go with it. I liked that when she struggled with some things; she adjusted, and put some roll and tip shots in there. That’s really important moving forward. She’s realizing it doesn’t always have to be this crazy kill. My daughter (Liliana) has been working on that, too, and she had a nice tip to end the game so things are slowly starting to click, but it’s a little late,” Bottone said.
The recent Centaurs losing streak means they will not qualify for state tournament play.
But they have opted to participate in the ECC tournament which is an open tournament.
“I think it will definitely be beneficial. Every game we play is beneficial. When you play the best (the Centaurs will likely be paired with one of the top seeds in the opening round), you can only get better,” Boardman said.
In the final few matches of the season, Boardman knows what her job is. “It’s my job to leave on a good note, teach them everything that I was taught by Paula (Hernandez) and all the other girls,” Boardman said.
The good news for the Centaurs continued against the Patriots on “Dig Pink” night at the Alumni Fieldhouse. It went the distance with the Centaurs scoring the last three points in the final set for the 15-12 victory.
Woodstock had won the first, 25-23, and third sets, 25-21, while Coventry won the second, 25-13 and fourth, 25-14.
Liliana Bottone had 14 kills and 19 digs for Woodstock while Annarose Avery had 25 assists and Ellie Nunes had 28 digs.
But all good things have to come to an end and it did for the Centaurs Oct. 22 when they traveled across the state to Newtown. The drive took longer than the match as Newtown posted straight set victories of 25-20, 25-23 and 25-13. Boardman had 10 kills while Bottone added nine and Nunes had 17 digs.
Boys’ Soccer
The boys’ soccer team, unfortunately, will have to live with a 3-1 loss to Waterford for a little while as they are off until they play host to Bacon Academy on Senior Day Oct. 27.
The Centaurs fell behind the Lancers in Waterford by two goals in the first half and couldn’t make up any ground in the second half.
Manny Vidal scored the only goal for Woodstock (5-7-1, 3-4 ECC Div. II) with three minutes left in regulation in the loss to the Lancers. It was the first goal of the season for Vidal.
The Centaurs need either a win or a tie in their final two matches to guarantee themselves a state tournament berth.
Girls’ Soccer
Just like the boys’ soccer team, the Woodstock girls’ soccer team had a relatively quiet week. The Centaurs scored three goals in the first half and rolled to a 6-1 victory over Fitch in Groton in their only match of the week.
Grace Gelhaus scored two goals for Woodstock (5-7-2, 2-2-1 ECC Div. I) while Addy Smith added a goal on a penalty kick and two assists to help sink the Falcons. Juliet Allard, Bella Mawson and Ava Coutu also tallied for the Centaurs. Kayla Leite, Allard and Macy Rawson also contributed assists in the win.
Woodstock needs either a win or a tie in their two matches this week to qualify for state tournament play.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy