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Roundup
Advance to
Div. II state
semifinals
The Woodstock Academy boys’ hockey team was on its way back to the CIAC Div. II state tournament semifinals to start the week.
The Centaurs (12-10) advanced to the final four with a 7-2 win on Friday over North Branford in a quarterfinal.
The victory meant third-seeded Woodstock Academy played No. 15 East Haven Tuesday at Quinnipiac University for the right to play in the Div. II championship on Monday. (The game ended too late for this edition)
“If you look at where (East Haven) was all year, you know that if you want to win a state title, you have to go through this team,” said coach Mark Smolak.
The Yellowjackets (7-15) were only seeded 15th because they were found to have used, very late in the season, an ineligible player which cost them 14 wins and dropped them from top seed to almost cellar dwellers.
It was no surprise to Smolak that the Centaurs would eventually see the Yellowjackets.
Top-seeded Cheshire was in the other semifinal on Tuesday, it played fifth-seeded Amity.
East Haven began the tournament with a 6-1 victory over West Haven and then downed Guilford 5-2 on Friday in a quarterfinal.
Maxx Corradi was the sharpshooter against North Branford on Friday as he put together a five-point effort.
The junior scored in the first period and then added two more goals to salt the game away in the third period.
He also added a pair of assists to raise his totals to 22 goals and 21 assists on the season.
Brady Lecuyer was the one who got things started for Woodstock with two goals in the first 8 minutes, 45 seconds of the contest.
Lecuyer finished with four points as he also had a pair of assists.
Troy Daviau and Sousa also scored in the win for the Centaurs. Sampson had a pair of assists.
The Centaurs started the first week of the tournament last Tuesday. Getting to the state tournament is a great achievement for any high school team.
But it also has to bring an awareness especially for the seniors in a program.
Tuesday the third-seeded Centaurs began their quest for a second straight Div. II state tournament championship appearance with a first-round game at home against No. 14 Glastonbury.
The Guardians didn’t go away easily and Woodstock was happy to skate away with a 2-1 victory in their final home game of the season at the Jahn Ice Rink.
Woodstock got on the scoreboard first but it had to play a little over 17 minutes to do so.
After a scoreless first period, Sampson and Corradi connected on a goal just 2:14 into the second period.
It was a goal that Smolak thought belonged to Corradi. Had he chosen to take the shot.
The goal was the 23rd of the season for the Centaurs’ senior captain while Corradi notched the assist.
What turned out to be the clincher came just 8 ½ minutes later as Daviau celebrated his final game on the home ice in style with the game-winning goal.
“(Jayden) Fuller did a great job going down low, winning the puck on a 50-50 battle,” Daviau said. Smolak liked what Fuller did to make the goal happen.
The Centaurs suffered a pair of penalties with one player getting called for a trip and an unsportsmanlike call for a four-minute total penalty and then, just 1:10 later, a second Centaur found himself in the penalty box thanks to an unsportsmanlike call.
“It is what it is, we were down two guys for a very long period of time,” Smolak said.
That time got lessened a bit as Glastonbury (8-12-1) scored 1:25 into the period when Michael Rodriguez put the only puck past Woodstock goalie Devlin Mansolf (30 saves) thanks, in part, to the 5-on-3 advantage.
Fortunately, the Centaurs weathered the remainder of the Glastonbury power play without another goal.
“Sometimes, things just don’t go your way and you have to battle through, you just have to kill (the penalties) as much as you can. They got one but we dug deep, we know what we can do, and got the job done,” Daviau said.
The biggest thing. The first state tournament game is over.
Boys’ Basketball
It was just the wrong time to go chilly.
The 26th-seeded Woodstock boys’ basketball team trailed No. 7 Weaver in a Div. IV state tournament first-round game in Hartford by just three points with 6 minutes, 24 seconds left in regulation.
The Centaurs could only muster three more points the remainder of the way.
“We got cold down the stretch and that’s hard because we weren’t scoring and they were and that doesn’t add up. It fell out of reach for us,” coach Donte Adams said.
The hosts pulled away in the fourth and posted the 49-38 win over the Centaurs to advance to the second round.
Like has been the norm all season, Woodstock was a little sluggish out of the gate.
It could only produce eight points in the first quarter but trailed by only six points.
Things got better in the second quarter.
The Centaurs tied it at 20 and only trailed, 26-22, at the break thanks, in part, to Garrett Bushey who scored all seven of his points in the second quarter.
Weaver came out of the locker room ready to play and quickly went up by double digits courtesy of a pair of 3-pointers.
Brady Ericson, who finished with a team-high 14 points, scored half of those in the remainder of the third quarter and Woodstock was able to keep Weaver in sight as it trailed by only seven, 38-31.
The Centaurs followed with four points, three by Ericson, to cut the deficit to three before a Weaver time out stalled their momentum and allowed the hosts to create a run of their own.
The loss meant Woodstock finished the season with a 10-13 record.
“Overall I’m happy. I’m not going to take anything away from my guys. We competed this season. It had its ups-and-downs. We could have easily been 15-5. We finished 10-13. It’s hard to get double-digit wins in a season and it’s hard to make the state tournament. We fell one win shy last year,” Adams said.
It makes the goals for next year pretty self-explanatory.
The Centaurs will lose their second-leading scorer Hunter Larson to graduation as well as Teddy Richardson and Eric Mathewson.
Ericson was named an ECC Div. II All-Star while Larson was named Div. II Honorable Mention. Larson was the team’s ECC Scholar-Athlete and fellow senior Eric Mathewson received the team’s ECC Sportsmanship award.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
2024 Maxx Corradi -Woodstock Academy junior Maxx Corradi had three goals and two assists to lead the Centaurs to a 7-2 win over North Branford in a CIAC Division II boys hockey quarterfinal game at Trinity College Friday.
2023 Troy Daviau- Woodstock Academy senior Troy Daviau celebrated his final game on his home ice with the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Glastonbury in a CIAC Division II first-round state tournament game at the Jahn Ice Rink.
2024- Brady Ericson – Brady Ericson scored 14 points but Woodstock Academy still fell against Weaver in a CIAC Division IV state tournament first-round game last week. It was also recently announced that Ericson was chosen an Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II All-Star.
2024 Hunter Larson – Woodstock Academy senior Hunter Larson (left) saw his career with the Centaurs come to a close with a loss to Weaver in a CIAC Division IV state tournament first-round game. Larson was recently selected as an Eastern Connecticut Conference honorable mention player and also was the team’s ECC Scholar-Athlete.
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