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Honored
The boys’ soccer team had plenty to celebrate on Senior Day as 14 of their number were honored last week. Photo by Jill Grant/Woodstock Academy.
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Five Honored
The field hockey team honored its five seniors prior to its Senior Day game last week. From left: Ainsley Morse, Alyson Bunning, Ava Basak, Chloe Nason and Ella Musumeci. Photo by Jill Grant/Woodstock Academy.
Roundup
Centaurs field
hockey team
posts Senior
Day victory
It has not been an easy season for the Woodstock Academy field hockey team record-wise. But, sometimes, a win on the right day can make things a lot better. Oc. 21 the Centaurs downed NFA, 2-1, on Senior Day.
“We were looking forward to this (Senior Day) all year and we’re so excited,” said senior keeper Ava Basak. “As soon as we got the first goal, we knew we had it.”
Co-head coach Gerry Lamontagne thought the win also showed that his team continues to look to improve.
It may not have some of the advantages of other ECC programs, but it does have a lot of heart.
“At the beginning of the season, I said I didn’t want this to be a placeholder-type season for the girls, that’s just not right. We struggle because we don’t have the same type of feeder programs like other programs especially down south with Stonington, Fitch and E. Lyme. How do you combat that? They just come to practice and keep getting better. NFA beat us, 4-2, the first time we played and a 2-1 win is a pretty big improvement,” he said.
Prior to the contest, the Centaurs honored their five seniors, Basak, Ainsley Morse, Chloe Nason, Alyson Bunning, and Ella Musumeci.
“We are losing some significant leadership,” LaMontagne said. “Aly and Ainsley on defense; Ava was tremendous even before I got here; Chloe has been a quiet presence and a great leader and Ella is a great emotional leader and has given us a big hand in keeping girls on track in practices and what not. All five will be missed.”
Musumeci got things headed in a positive direction when she took a pass from sophomore Grace Pokorny just 6 minutes, 8 seconds into the match and slid it into the NFA net for her first goal of the season.
The Wildcats would answer with a goal by Alice Rourke.
Basak then stood on her head to keep Woodstock Academy (3-10, 1-10 ECC) in the lead. She faced eight shots in the second quarter alone and turned aside five of them.
“Throughout the season, I’ve had a lot of shots taken at me. It’s sort of just practice every game and eight is definitely not as many as it could have been,” Basak said.
Two of the shots went astray and another was kept out by Morse.
“How many amazing saves did she have (Friday)? I told her she was the difference for us in the game. We’ve seen a lot of goalies and I would be hard-pressed to say that any of them is better than Ava,” LaMontagne said. “One of the other games, I think it was against Stonington, she recorded 36 saves. That’s like a National Hockey League goalie and she never complains.”
Pokorny then put the Centaurs ahead to stay with 3:37 left in the second quarter.
The Centaurs did not take a shot in the second half; NFA (1-11, 1-9) was limited to just two.
Football
Having the ball in its possession was not always necessary for the Woodstock football team Oct. 21.
The Centaurs ran only 31 offensive plays and still left Montville with a 50-18 win.
Woodstock scored not only offensively, but also defensively and on special teams.
“Scoring in all three phases of the game was great. It was nice to see us execute in all of those phases,” said coach Sean Saucier.
Junior Seamus McDermott was a microcosm of the team’s effort against Montville.
The middle linebacker stood out on defense as he disrupted the Montville running game and recorded one of the four sacks for the Centaurs.
But he was also effective offensively.
With the Montville defense paying a lot of attention to receiver Carter Saracina after his eight-catch, 276-yard performance against Bacon, McDermott was the forgotten man.
It resulted in a 42-yard touchdown catch which was important at the time.
The Centaurs had taken an early 8-0 lead in the first quarter on a 14-yard keeper by Richardson (6 carries, 62 yards).
Montville (1-5) responded with a 27-yard touchdown pass of its own to cut the deficit to just two before McDermott’s score early in the second quarter.
McDermott also excelled on special teams. Montville had just scored late in the third quarter to make it 36-12 and McDermott was on the kick return team.
The ball came to him at the Centaurs’ 27-yard line and he started toward the left sideline. He broke one tackle in the process, turned right across the field and evaded two more potential tacklers before getting to the right sideline. and no one could catch him.
In addition to those plays, the Centaurs did get another big defensive play from Saracina.
Senior defensive lineman Evan Roy started the play as he put heavy pressure on Montville’s quarterback who forced a throw and Saracina was waiting at the Centaurs 40-yard line.
He intercepted the pass on the right hash, slipped to the middle of the field, got to the left side sidelines and outran the defense.
The 60-yard return was the second pick-6 of the season for Saracina.
On the more garden-variety offensive plays, David Bunning (3 carries, 33 yards) scored on a 25-yard run and Trevor Savoie (11 carries, 80 yards) fought his way through the line to push another in from 5 yards out.
Richardson didn’t have to pass the ball often as he completed only four of seven passes for 86 yards. In addition to the touchdown to McDermott, Carter Morissette added a 15-yard touchdown catch.
Halfway through the season, Woodstock is 3-2.
Boys’ Soccer
Woodstock coach Paul Rearden had a problem coming into the match with Bacon. He wanted to put all of his seniors into the starting lineup.
That is mighty difficult to do, considering the rules, when you have 14 seniors on your roster, 13 who are ready to play.
“I always start 11 seniors, it’s never been a problem before, so this was a tough one” Rearden said. “It’s great to honor these guys who have given us everything over the last four years. It’s a tradition that I really like. Would I have liked to qualify (for the state tournament) before (Senior Day)? Yes. Because, however nice this is for Senior Day, it takes away a bit (from the match).”
The Centaurs honored Baden Eaton, Owen Tracy, Noah Page, Max Ferreira, Jeff Phongsa, Mario Kasneci, Quintavanh Sangasy, Randall Rawcliffe, Ethan Craig, Jack Marshall, Brian Jameson, Wyatt Robbie, Chance Graley and Gabe Viau (out for the season with a torn ACL) prior to the contest.
Unfortunately, the results were not what was hoped as the Centaurs lost to the Bobcats, 2-1.
The Centaurs slipped to 4-7-2 later in the week when they were blanked by Fitch, 2-0.
The problem for Woodstock against the Bobcats: a lack of opportunities.
The Centaurs had only six shots on the Bacon goal.
The Bobcats struck first when a throw in by Keegan Appleby got over the head of Woodstock keeper Brian Jameson and fell behind him.
Nico Matteucci made the most of the unfortunate event as he streaked in from the left side and tipped the ball into the open net for a 1-0 Bacon lead 23 minutes, 2 seconds into the contest.
The Centaurs tied the match off a set play. They were awarded a corner and John Bennett delivered the ball from the right side of the net to the head of Noah Page who directed it home for his fourth goal of the season.
It was Bennett’s sixth assist of the year.
Unfortunately, the Centaurs only took four shots in the second half and Bacon put the game winner in with 3:43 left in regulation.
Mattueci sent the ball across the field and found the foot of Birch Collins. The sophomore lifted it up and over Jameson and into the upper right corner of the net.
Oct. 19, Fitch scored a goal in 25 minutes into the first half and added another in the second for the victory.
The loss to the Falcons means the Centaurs still have to post one win and a tie over their remaining three matches to qualify for state tournament play.
Prep Soccer
Coming into its match with Pathfinder FC on Oct. 13, the Woodstock Academy prep soccer team had lost four in a row. It was time to switch things up.
“After a couple of losses and a big injury (Thomas Corridon suffered a torn ACL), we felt like we had to change something tactically. We changed our formation and changed how we we’re playing in a new formation to be more direct and to make the game as simple as possible. It’s not necessarily the most attractive football that we’re playing but it’s effective. We needed to do this just to get some positive results,” said coach Joe Cherackal.
The Centaurs now employ two strikers, five midfielders and three in the back.
It has helped the offense for sure as the Centaurs scored four goals in a win over Pathfinder FC and seven in a victory over Hoosac.
That success continued last week.
Oct. 19, Woodstock blanked local rival, Putnam Science Academy 2-0, and Oct. 22, the Centaurs downed St. Thomas More, 2-0.
It means the squad now sports and 8-5-2 overall record and a 5-2 mark in the Global Sports Education Partners League.
“It’s not that it’s just more offensive-oriented, it’s that it’s making more teams make the game. Before, we were asking a lot of our guys to do that. It makes them make decisions on the ball which coaches at the next level want to see. Right now, I’m taking away choices and making it as simple as possible. We’re winning and they’re happy with that,” Cherackal said. “It’s kind of like rock-em, sock-em American soccer and they’re excited to do it.”
The Centaurs dominated ball possession for the most part against PSA but only one of their 11 first half shots found the net.
Jesus de la Torre got the tally, his third goal of the season, when he took a ball that bounced off a Putnam defender and on to his foot.
He chipped it over the defense to his right foot, shifted to his left and put it into the lower left-hand corner.
Woodstock had lost to Putnam Science Academy, 3-1. In September.
“I think the first time was different than this game. We’ve changed a lot, grown a lot. We’re all fighting every minute,” he added.
The Centaurs rested their laurels on the de la Torre goal until just about midway through the second half when Manuel Nieto took a long pass from the back, saw Putnam Science keeper Rafael Machado on his way out to challenge him and patiently chipped it over his head into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.
The Centaurs finished off the week with the shutout on the road at St. Thomas More. Le-Minh Khieu and Mamadou Tall both scored their first goals of the season off assists from Alejandro Minguela and Manuel Marquez.
Volleyball
It will be an interesting week for the Woodstock volleyball team.
The Centaurs are already confident in the knowledge that they have qualified for the Class L state tournament but the more wins, the more likely a higher seed and possibly a home match or two.
Getting more wins will be a little bit of a challenge this week with contests against Waterford (12-4) Oct. 24 (the match ended too late for this edition); Conard (13-2) on the road Oct. 26 and New London (0-15) at home Oct. 28.
The volleyball team didn’t exactly get off the bus well in its first match early last week but once it got its feet firmly on the ground for a bit.
The Centaurs lost the first set to host Fitch but rallied to win the next three for the 3-1 victory.
After losing the first set, 25-16, the Centaurs rallied to win the next three, 25-19, 25-15 and 25-23.
Liliana Bottone had seven kills and 10 digs. Sophie Gronski added 20 assists and five aces and Morgan Bonin had six kills.
The victory finished the ECC Div. I regular season for the Centaurs with a 4-2 divisional record, second to E. Lyme’s 5-1 mark.
Later in the week the Centaurs were blanked by Lyman Memorial, 3-0. One problem; the Centaurs were missing three starters for the match. Two were out due to illness and another because of injury.
The Bulldogs won their sixth match in a row against the Centaurs, posting 25-21, 25-19, and 25-23 victories in the quick three-set match. Lyman was helped by 18 service errors from the Centaurs.
Liliana Bottone had 11 kills and eight digs and Mia Sorrentino added eight kills in the loss.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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