The Woodstock Academy boys’ lacrosse team jumped out quickly against the Norwich Tech-Windham Tech cooperative program April 11.
That was a good thing because it didn’t happen in a loss to the St. Bernard-Wheeler cooperative just two days before.
“That was the key message that I wanted to send to these guys. This is a team that we beat last year, we need to beat them again this year and from the get-go, you have to come out, play them strong, communicate and move the ball,” said Woodstock Academy coach Mike Noel.
The Centaurs did that, getting five goals in the first quarter and rolling from there to a 14-0 win over the Warriors to raise their record to 3-2.
“These are the games that we have to take care of if we have any hopes of making the (state) tournament,” Noel said.
Ethan Holcomb (three goals, three assists) got the ball rolling, like normal, for the Centaurs.
The senior, who now has 14 goals and 10 assists on the season, scored just 4 minutes, 39 seconds into the game.
It opened the door for Woodstock Academy as sophomore Guerin Favreau (two goals, three assists) followed with the Centaurs second goal 1 ½ minutes later.
Seth Libby added a pair of goals and Ethan Holcomb added his second to make it 5-0 at the end of the first.
It bolstered the confidence of the Centaurs who liked their chances going into the game.
“We came in here knowing that we were going to win this game,” said senior attack Ethan Haass. Haass has not only been effective at scoring this season, his two goals against the Warriors increased his season total to 11, he has also been effective at getting the ball to his teammates.
With players like Holcomb (24 points) and Favreau (19) to work with, he said the confidence is there that someone will score.
“I’ve always had someone to work with. I didn’t start playing attack until my sophomore year, but I had Holcomb who would feed me and (Ryan Wojciechowski) last year. There has always been someone to feed me from down low. It’s easy when you have people as good as Guerin or Holcomb up top. Just feed them,” Haass said.
But it wasn’t just the trio that was effective against Norwich Tech-Windham Tech.
The Centaurs also got goals from Austen LeDonne, Geoff Vallone, Sean McCusker, Zach Girard and Tyler Green in the win. The practice clearly paid off. But it was necessary after the Centaurs could put just three balls in the net against the Saints in a 7-3 loss just two days before.
Haass had two goals in that loss while Holcomb had the other.
It wasn’t only the lack of scoring that bothered Noel, it was how the St. Bernard-Wheeler team found the net as well. “They got three goals off penalties, two goals in transition and only two on set offensive plays. We have to be better than that.”
The Centaurs did open the week in good fashion. They knocked off an upstart program in Capital Prep, 15-3, April 8. Holcomb had four goals and four assists in the win while Favreau added three goals and six assists.
Haass contributed a hat trick and LeDonne added two goals while Libby, Alex Wojciechowski and Jackson Chambers all added one goal each in the win for Woodstock Academy.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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