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Round up
Boys’ cross
country wins
first meet
Christian Menounos is off to a fun start this boys’ cross-country season. But the real test is still to come.
The Woodstock Academy senior won the Neubauer Invitational to begin the season and early last week, took home first at Ledyard.
Along with a second-place finish from teammate Colton Sallum, the Centaurs were able to post a 25-30 win over the Colonels in the season opener.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I had two good starts for the season and I think I’m ready for East Lyme because that will be a tough opponent and there will be a lot of competition there. It should be a good time,” Menounos said.
It will be a bit of a challenge against the Vikings.
“I just looked at their result against Griswold and they had seven guys under 16 (minutes), 30 (seconds) and I don’t even know what you call that. They even kept their seniors out of that (race). Their lead runner ran a 15:20 and I don’t think it’s their lead runner, I think it’s their third. Christian will have someone to chase and Colton will be right up there,” coach Josh Welch said.
It’s the expected. The Vikings have a wagon.
Ledyard did last season when it won the Class M state championship so a win over the Colonels was something to smile about especially with the 1-2 finish by Menounos and Sallum.
Menounos crossed the line in 16:11 with Sallum in 16:46. Freshman Lucas Hecker was fifth in 17:57.
Welch said the scout they had on the Colonels made it look like the younger Centaur runners may be up to the task of keeping up with the top runners from Ledyard.
Antonio Soldato finished in 17:33 to lead Ledyard in third place while Greyson Stephenson was fourth for the Colonels in 17:55.
Greene finished seventh with Bronson Eddy in 10th to round out the Centaurs top five.
Girls’ Cross Country
Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain was on the soccer field at this time last year. Now, she’s out running the trails. D’Alleva-Bochain gave up the roundball to concentrate on her running this fall.
Coach Joe Banas was glad the junior did as she finished third in the inaugural girls’ cross-country meet of the year, a 16-39 loss in Ledyard.
D’Alleva-Bochain finished in 21 minutes even, a personal best by about 30 seconds.
She wants to drop another minute to 1:20 which would drop her below 20 minutes and would also put her in the hunt for the Class MM individual state title,
Last year’s Class MM champ, Sophia Oliva of Pomperaug, won the state meet in 20:11.
Cross country is a different animal. D’Alleva-Bochain is used to running 800m in outdoor track. Now, she’s running four times that distance.
Kate and Maggie Littler finished ahead of D’Alleva-Bochain with two more Ledyard runners right behind her.
Olivia Tracy was sixth followed by another new runner for the Centaurs, Melanie Dipippo, in eighth.
The freshman is all about negative splits - running the second half of a race faster than the first.
At Ledyard, Dipippo was last at the end of the first mile.
Volleyball
Yes, it is expected. But it is also the result of some hard work.
The volleyball team is back where it usually is this time of year, undefeated in its first five matches.
That’s the result of a spotless week featuring wins over Griswold, Fitch and Plainfield.
“Very happy with that,” said coach Adam Bottone. “Hopefully, we can keep this trend going. We have a pretty heavy week coming up with East Lyme, South Windsor and Waterford on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so I’m happy we’re off to a good start and that much closer to qualifying for the state tournament. The quicker we could get there, the better.”
If the Centaurs could win all three of their matches this week, that would be the result.
Woodstock concentrated on one aspect of its game following a 3-1 victory over Fitch.
The Falcons won the first set, 25-23, and were competitive throughout with the Centaurs who went on to take the match by scores of 25-21, 26-24 and 25-22.
On Thursday, Bottone and assistant coach Jeff Boshka worked on an aspect of the game that they weren’t very pleased with against the Falcons – the service. Woodstock made 20 service errors in Groton.
On Friday in Plainfield, in a 3-0 win over the Panthers, the Centaurs turned the tables.
Vivian Bibeau had five aces with Cassidy Ladd, Lily Bottone and Izzy Mojica all getting four apiece.
One area of consistency has been senior setter Sophie Gronski.
She had 31 assists against Griswold and 44 against Fitch.
Gronski has been spreading the wealth.
She set up Mojica for 13 kills and Lily Bottone for 12 in a 3-0 win over the Wolverines to start the week. Lily Bottone had 14 and Kaylee Bundy 13 against Fitch while Mojica led the way with just nine against Plainfield due to the nature of the match.
One thing Gronski has to adjust to a bit is that she is no longer setting to taller people like she was during the club season.
Girls’ Soccer
An easy week it was not. The girls’ soccer team split their two contests last week with a goal differential of zero.
The Centaurs fell in their first ECC Div. I match of the year to East Lyme, 1-0. But they rebounded nicely on Thursday and captured a 1-0 win of their own over Coventry in a non-league match.
“After your first loss, everyone is feeling down so we worked a lot this week on remembering why we play and finding the happiness in it. Winning helps you feel that comfort in playing. We’re not going to get too comfortable though. We definitely could have scored more goals because we had a lot more opportunities. We just could not capitalize,” said coach Andrea Danforth.
Woodstock certainly had the better of the play against the Patriots.
The Centaurs outshot the Patriots 16-2.
Leah Costa sent one off the crossbar and had a breakaway slip wide to the left.
Freshman Harper Simoneau and senior Bella Mawson also had shots that could have easily gone in.
But it was Costa who got the one that Woodstock needed.
The senior was fouled deep in Coventry territory.
Costa found an opening to the left of Coventry keeper Annabelle Dewey and rifled a shot that found the back of the net with 12 minutes, 25 seconds left in regulation to lift the Centaurs to their third win in four matches.
Woodstock did put together a strong defensive effort against the Viking earlier in the week.
But East Lyme scored the game winner with five minutes left in regulation.
Field Hockey
The numbers told a good story. Unfortunately, the scoreboard didn’t.
The field hockey team played one of its better games of the season on Thursday.
The Centaurs, however, could not find the back of the net again and saw their record fall to 0-5, 0-3 in the ECC with a 2-0 loss to Killingly.
Coach Heather Miller had given her team a task; Improve on its attacking penalty corners.
In prior matches, the Centaurs had averaged about one a match while having to defend against 10 or 12 corners on the other end.
Miller asked the Centaurs to get two attacking penalty corners.
She got way more than she bargained for.
Woodstock finished with 14 attacking penalty corners and gave up only three.
Despite those corners, the Centaurs were, again, held scoreless.
The team had a goal against Lyman Hall in its opener and has not scored again since.
“We are seconds away from getting a goal and I cannot wait for when we do because there will be an explosion of happiness and energy,” Miller said. “It will a monkey off our backs. I know they can score. They know they can score.”
Killingly picked up the win when Tilly Jarvis scored off a Kendra St. Marie assist in the first half. The visitors added an insurance goal in the second half when Lilah Dunn tallied.
Lizzie Roberts had seven saves for the Centaurs.
Woodstock was also playing short- handed against Killingly. Of the 25 players on the roster, only 11 could play.
Boys’ Soccer
First-year head coach Dave St. Jean is a firm believer in a couple of away games at first just to get the cobwebs out.
“I always looked at away games as dress rehearsals but after a couple of losses, I want to come home,” St. Jean said.
It’s been more than a couple. The first four games for Woodstock have been on the road and played on turf.
“We don’t practice on turf and it’s a little different. It’s not an excuse but to get some games on grass where we are used to playing will be a nice home field advantage,” the coach added.
The Centaurs could use a little advantage after their first four games have resulted in losses.
They will get that on Tuesday and Thursday when they play host to Norwich Free Academy and Bacon Academy in their first home matches of the season.
Woodstock will be coming off matches that included non-league losses to Somers and Berlin in the first week before ECC Div. I foes, Windham and East Lyme, got the better of them this week.
The Centaurs had their chances against East Lyme but fell short on Thursday night, 6-3.
The Vikings took a quick 2-0 lead but the Centaurs clawed back. Will St. John scored for the Centaurs to get them back within striking distance.
St. John would get a second goal and Tyler Odorski added one to account for the Centaurs scoring.
The Centaurs also were in the game against another divisional foe, Windham, before falling 2-1.
St. John scored the only goal in that contest as well for Woodstock.
One thing that has been bothersome early on- injuries.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
captions:
Freshman Harper Simoneau (6) races past Coventry’s Celina Cunha in a 1-0 victory for the Centaurs over the Patriots.
Seniors Christian Menounos, left, and Colton Sallum finished 1-2 in a season-opening boys’ cross-country win over Ledyard.
Photos by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy
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