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It was a different kind of high school boys’ soccer match Oct. 4.
The Woodstock Academy Centaurs wanted to play their Homecoming game under the lights on the school’s South Campus turf field, but their opponents were ready to offer a forfeit.
New London called and said it didn’t have enough healthy players to compete.
Because it was a special game, The Academy offered a solution; what about a 9-on-9 match?
New London agreed to it.
“It’s a completely different game,” Woodstock Academy coach Paul Rearden said before the match. “We play 9-v-9 in club soccer with the older kids, the 12-and-under group, but we play on smaller fields. I don’t think they know what they are in for. I had them working hard in practice (last Wednesday) and now they get this on a full field.”
Fortunately for Rearden, it didn’t seem to bother the Centaurs too much.
They won for a fifth time in six matches, 7-0, over the overmatched Whalers who brought only 12 healthy players, all of them were either freshmen or sophomores.
It did, briefly, present issues.
“You went for a pass where you normally see someone and they weren’t there,” Woodstock Academy senior Ethan Holcomb said. “You have to adjust a little, but once we got the hang of it, it was good.”
It didn’t take long for that adjustment to take place.
Holcomb scored off an assist from Alejandro Quintas Gonzalez just 4 minutes, 27 seconds into the match.
“You want all your players to never give less than 100 percent and he never gives less than that. You know what you will get from him,” Paul Rearden said of Holcomb.
Gonzalez added his own goal just under seven minutes later for the 2-0 lead.
The Centaurs (6-4-1, 4-1 Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II) sat on that lead until just four minutes were left in the half.
That’s when Holcomb sent a corner to the opposite post and the only thing the ball found was Cole Hackett’s head.
The senior steered it home for the 3-0 advantage.
“I thought it was a bad kick at first, but it went right over the goalie’s head and Cole was right there,” Holcomb said. “There were definitely less bodies in there so there was a little more open space and Cole just ran right on to it and he buried it.”
The Centaurs outshot the Whalers (2-9, 0-5), 34-0.
Jake Marsalisi, Matt LaBounty, Eric Phongsa and Reid Butler also scored for Woodstock Academy.
“We did well. They did everything that before the game I asked them to do. I thought they showed a lot of class out there, no showboating. I told them before the game to keep the shape and keep the ball moving,” said Paul Rearden.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs downed Fitch, 2-1.
LaBounty was taken down just outside the area which resulted in a direct kick for Sean Rearden early in the second half.
The junior capitalized, putting the ball into the bottom corner of the net for the game-winning goal.
Rearden also helped on the first goal for Woodstock Academy, sending a through ball to Phongsa who scored just 15 minutes into the match.
Caleb Robbins had the only tally for Fitch (5-5).
The two wins were also a little boost going into what is expected to be a difficult week.
“You saw the confidence out there (Thursday) and it was perfect timing for this. It gives us a two-game buffer (over .500) with some big games coming up,” Paul Rearden said.
“Our finishing was OK (against New London) so, hopefully, we can take that to the big games. We create chances every game. We just don’t take them,” Rearden said.
The Centaurs visit Ledyard Oct. 3.
“We definitely have to forget (the New London game) and come in focused on what we have to do, play hard and stay in the game mentally.
Ledyard led the division coming into the week with a 6-0 mark and downed the Centaurs earlier in the season, 2-1.
The Centaurs also play at Bacon Academy on Friday; the Bobcats (2-2) are the third-place team in the division with Woodstock Academy squished in between.
“At least, it’s only two games. We’ve had weeks where we have had three tough ones,” Paul Rearden said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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Running
The Woodstock Academy's Kenneth Birlin runs toward the finish at Wickham Park Oct. 6. Photo by Marc Allard.
Woodstock Academy senior Kenneth Birlin had a goal this season.
He has wanted to catch his teammate, sophomore Ethan Aspiras.
Birlin finally accomplished that Oct. 6.
With a burst of speed going up the final hill, Birlin finally accomplished his goal at the Wickham Park Cross-Country Invitational Oct. 6 in Manchester.
Birlin finished 87th in 18 minutes, 51 seconds, just two spots and two seconds ahead of Aspiras in the boys’ varsity-seeded race.
“It pushes you,” Birlin said of the competition from within. “It makes it feel more like a team when you can banter with somebody. It pushes them to go harder too and they push you. It’s really good for the team.”
Centaurs coach Pete Lusa said he had instructed the team not to go “full out” in the meet because Woodstock Academy had its only home meet of the season Oct. 2 against Norwich Free Academy, Stonington and Windham.
That meet, in Lusa’s mind, was going to be just as hard as the race at Wickham was due to the hills that both courses have and the fact that both are soft underfoot.
“Just as muddy,” Lusa said with a laugh.
But he also was happy to see Birlin and Aspiras wage a brief battle on the course in Manchester.
“It’s not an ego thing with these guys. It’s me against you at this moment; let’s see who can do it. It’s a good challenge. The senior beat the sophomore (Saturday). Ethan will have plenty more glory days ahead of him,” Lusa said.
Aspiras said he was happy to see his teammate take the advantage on the final hill.
The team finished 23rd overall with Spencer Collins (142nd), Evan Gianfriddo (147th) and Noah Pepper (156th) making up the top five.
“The goal for (Saturday) was just to try our best,” Birlin said. “We were just trying to reach our personal goals for the day and work with that.”
It was also a preview for the team of what is to come in just 21 days when the state championship meets are also held at Wickham.
“I’m hoping it won’t be as muddy. It was really bad (Saturday),” Birlin said. “I actually had a pretty good time with it, but there were a couple of places where you could not avoid it. It’s easier to just go through the mud than around it. You just had to be aware of your surroundings.”
Lusa said, even with the home meet looming, he knew it was important to run on Saturday just to get a feel for the course.
Unlike Woodstock Academy freshman girls’ runner Linsey Arends, who ran the varsity seeded race, Lusa opted to have his freshmen compete in the boys’ freshmen race.
“They didn’t see the varsity course, but Hamilton (Barnes) will likely run the state championship race. The course is similar enough that he should know things. We come here for the experience,” Lusa said.
Earlier in the week, Aspiras finished second for the Centaurs (4-4, 0-2 ECC Division I) in North Stonington as they downed Tourtellotte, 15-50, and Wheeler, 16-47, but lost to Fitch, 19-41.
Christian Mink finished eighth, Hamilton Barnes ninth and Birlin 10th in the quad-meet for the Centaurs.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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The undefeated start for the Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer team continued last week although the Centaurs didn’t win every match they played.
North Branford turned out to be a formidable foe Oct. 6.
The Centaurs (6-0-2) traveled to the Connecticut shoreline and brought back the second tie of the season with them. The Centaurs and the Thunderbirds playing to a 1-1 tie.
No overtime was played.
Ivy Gelhaus scored her 10th goal of the season nine minutes into the second half when she intercepted a pass deep in North Branford territory and one-touched it home.
That would be all the scoring the match would see until just 2 minutes, 23 seconds remained.
Lexi Rosado knotted up the game for North Branford (4-0-4) on a direct kick and the match ended in the tie.
The Centaurs outshot the Thunderbirds, 16-10.
The shot category was much more one-sided in the Centaurs Homecoming match under the lights on The Academy’s South Campus Oct. 3.
The Centaurs posted a 3-0 win over a banged up St. Paul Catholic squad, getting 30 shots at the Falcons net while the Woodstock Academy keepers could have done their homework instead of watching the match.
St. Paul Catholic failed to get a shot off in the match.
“Their goalkeeper (Hannah Duffany) kept them in it in the first half and gave them a good chance to stay with us. We had plenty of chances and a lot of possession. We made a few adjustments at the half and the second half we had a higher quality (of shots) in the second half,” said Woodstock Academy coach Dennis Snelling.
The Centaurs didn’t take long to score.
Senior Ashleigh Angle put the Centaurs ahead to stay just 1:18 into the match.
“I don’t even remember it, because I was so caught up in the moment. I was just running in, looking for the split in the defenders and I got my left foot on it and hoped that it would go over the goalie,” Angle said.
Gelhaus had another very good chance to score late in the first half when she sent a ball to the opposite corner that eluded Duffany (11 saves).
But freshman defender Samantha Naples saved the Falcons from a two-goal deficit at halftime by kicking the ball out at the last second.
“If we got that second goal of the first half, it might have opened up more, but that was a great save by the defender,” Snelling said.
The 1-0 lead held until Angle made it 2-0 just 3:18 into the second half, taking a pass from Ivy Gelhaus and putting it into the net for her fourth goal of the season.
There was almost a fifth.
Angle got her head on a ball midway through the second half.
“It hit the post right on the centimeter,” Angle said.
It bounced wide.
That’s how close the senior was to a hat trick.
“I really wanted that third goal, but it was close,” she added.
“Ashley brings sheer athleticism, hard work and dedication to the team. She is the ideal student-athlete, absolutely dominates the 50-50 balls and keeps the ball going at (the opponent’s goal). It’s nice to see her score,” Snelling said.
The Centaurs play their final two home games of the season this week before going on the road for the last five matches of the season.
“That will be about being tough mentally and be ready for those home games. They are at night, against difficult opponents. We know, but we’re taking it one game at a time. We have no control over the schedule,” Snelling said.
The Centaurs played at East Lyme on Tuesday and come home to play Norwich Free Academy at 4 p.m. Oct. 11 and Old Lyme at 11 a.m. Oct. 13.
After that, the Centaurs go on the road to play Fitch, Bacon Academy, NFA, Valley Regional and Killingly.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
.
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Legal Notice
Public Hearing Notice
Town of Pomfret
Planning & Zoning Commission
The Pomfret Planning & Zoning Commission will hold the following Public Hearing at their meeting on October 17, 2018, starting at 7:00 PM at the Old Town House:
1. Jonathan Ricciardelli, 469 Taft Pond Road, text amendment regarding a dog boarding and training facility.
A copy of the application is on file in the office of the Planning and Zoning Commission, 5 Haven Road Pomfret, Pomfret Center, Connecticut. The file is available for review during normal business hours.
Town of Pomfret
Planning & Zoning Commission
Dated this 1st day
of October 2018
Lynn L. Krajewski,
Clerk
Oct. 3, 2018
Oct. 10, 2018
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Set to Pass
The Woodstock Academy’s Linsey Arends (4182) and Stella DiPippo get set to pass Suffield’s Gabby Zeller Oct. 6 at the Wickham Park Cross-Country Invitational in Manchester. Photo by Marc Allard.
Woodstock Academy girls’ cross-country coach Joe Banas made the tour of Wickham Park Oct. 6, watching his two young runners, freshman Linsey Arends and sophomore Stella DiPippo compete in the Wickham Park Invitational in Manchester.
He didn’t have to go far to see one without seeing the other.
“I was catching them at various points and they were never more than four or five seconds apart from each other,” Banas said. “They always had contact. Stella could always see Linsey.”
The freshman made a nice late surge up the hill toward the finish line to cross first in 14th the girls’ seeded varsity race in 20 minutes, 54 seconds.
Six runners later, in 20th, came DiPippo just 13 seconds behind her teammate.
It was the first duel this season, but certainly not the last the two will have at Wickham Park which also happens to be the site of the state championship races on Oct. 27.
For Arends, it wasn’t the first time she ran the Wickham Park course.
Arends ran the course last year as an eighth grader, but it was only a 3K version of the course.
The course she ran Oct. 6 was almost twice that, at the 5K high school length.
Banas said, even though there is only a 2K difference, it feels more like double what it is in middle school since it also adds another hill.
Arends was doing her best just to stay on the right course.
“Since it was shorter, I was a little discombobulated because we didn’t go the same way as we did in middle school,” Arends said.
Fortunately, unlike the Haddad Windham Invitational to start the season, Arends went the right way and didn’t make any wrong turns.
“I’m pretty happy with my time. I set one course record this year (at Rocky Neck State Park) and it was the same time-ish that I ran (Saturday). Hopefully, I can slowly improve,” Arends said.
She won’t be alone in that quest.
DiPippo and Arends both said they used each other to gauge how they were doing Oct. 6.
“I didn’t know what the game plan was,” Arends said. “I used Stella to help pace me. We ran most of the way (together) and, at the end; I just tried to push it as fast as I could.”
DiPippo used a similar strategy and it worked for her as she bettered her time from last year’s Invitational when she finished 48th by 58 seconds and was 30 seconds better than she was when she placed 25th in the Class L state championship meet.
“I was really happy with my time,” DiPippo said. “I was using Linsey to pace me the whole race as I have been through most of the season. I gave her a thumbs up kind of midway through. It’s nice to have a true friend out there with you while you are racing. It makes running less painful.”
The two youngsters also had to contend with another Wickham delight- mud.
The wet summer and early fall meant the footing wasn’t always the best.
“It was pretty tough,” DiPippo said. “You definitely had to pay attention and go certain ways where it was less muddy. It was definitely good to race with a lot of people, on this course, because you get a feel for how fast you have to start and how tight the race is at the beginning.”
Banas, meanwhile, was busy crunching numbers after the race.
He was comparing how his two runner’s times matched up to others they will face come the next big meet, the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship at the Norwich Golf Course on Oct. 18.
He liked what he saw.
Defending ECC champ, senior Mady Whittaker of Montville, ran in the unseeded varsity race Oct. 6 and finished in 21:02, eight seconds behind Arends and just five seconds better than DiPippo.
“They’re in the ballpark,” Banas said. “It’s a great 1-2 punch, the best 1-2 punch in the ECC. If there is a better one, I don’t know of it. If Stella was on any other team, outside of Montville, she would be the No. 1. She loves her role. They seem to work well together in training and they race well together.”
The team finished 16th as it was missing a key piece, senior Shannon D’Alessandro did not compete.
“We weren’t at full throttle because some of the girls had prior commitments that I knew about in advance. I told them ‘fine’ and gave them a speed workout to replace this,” Banas said.
Iris Bazinet was third for the Centaurs in 93rd with Megan Gohn (114th) and Aria Gianfriddo (142nd) rounding out the top five.
Earlier in the week, Arends finished first, DiPippo second and D’Alessandro fourth for the Centaurs (7-1, 1-1 ECC Div. I) who downed Fitch, 20-35, and beat Wheeler and Tourtellotte by identical 15-50 scores.
Bazinet added a fifth-place finish for the Centaurs.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
..