Woodstock Academy senior Guerin Favreau has been busily re-writing the boys’ lacrosse record books this spring. Favreau reached two milestones last week.
He scored his 50th goal of the season in a loss to Fitch earlier in the week and then recorded his 200th career point in a win over Montville May 22.
“Incredible, it’s unheard of, absolutely unheard of,” Woodstock Academy coach Jason Tata said of Favreau’s goal and point totals. “I knew as soon as I gave him the 50 ball after the Fitch game, that he could hit 60 or 70. None of these goal accomplishments are out of his range.”
Favreau scored eight goals in a 12-5 win over Montville that pushed his season total to 62.
He scored 40 points as a freshman, 72 as a sophomore, missed his junior year due to the pandemic and now has 88 points in his senior year going into the ECC and Class M tournaments.
The last goal against Montville was his 200th career point.
Tata came into the season with one goal.
He did not want to go backwards. “I knew two years ago, this team made the States and I wanted to get us right back there. I didn’t want to joke around. That was my goal- making States,” Tata said.
He and the Centaurs have accomplished that goal.
The Centaurs may have started the week with a tough, 18-12, loss to Fitch but it got better.
They learned in the middle of the week that their scheduled game with St. Bernard-Wheeler would go down as a forfeit by the Saints which brought Woodstock Academy back to the .500 mark and guaranteed it a state tournament berth
The wins over Waterford and Montville just sweetened it a bit more, giving the Centaurs a final regular season record of 8-6.
“Especially after that tough loss to Fitch earlier in the week and this was the first time ever beating this program (Waterford). It feels pretty good,” Favreau said.
The senior helped bring Woodstock back from a 2-0 deficit on Senior Day against the Lancers.
Waterford scored twice in the first 4 minutes, 48 seconds of the match.
But Favreau introduced himself to Waterford defensive player Quincy Foren, running through and over him; to get to the goal unimpeded and goalie Jacob Kozlowski had no chance when Favreau zipped the ball into the back of the net.
Jonah Libby tied the match with 5:35 left in the first quarter when he took a pass from Will Basilieire.
Libby, who finished with a hat trick of his own, fired another one in from the left side of Kozlowski 5:16 into the second quarter to give the Centaurs a lead they would not relinquish.
“It’s definitely my sweet spot,” Libby said. “I don’t have much of a right hand so I just sit there and when it gets to me, I’m able to score a lot of goals from there.”
Favreau added his second of the match four minutes later to make it 4-2 and added two more in the fourth quarter to give him an astronomical 54 goals on the season.
“I feel pretty good but I’m just happy that our coach came in and turned this program around for the better. All creds to him,” Favreau said.  “I didn’t expect to score 50 goals in a season, I don’t know if anyone does, but I’m pretty happy with it.”
Favreau’s success also makes it a little easier on teammates like Libby.
“It makes it a lot easier,” Libby said. “All the defensive eyes are on him and it’s really easy for me to get open.”
There was another hero against Waterford. Goalie Colin Liscomb had a Colin Liscomb-like day.
He made 15 saves against the Lancers and had to be on his toes throughout as Waterford dominated the time of possession.
Still, the Lancers scored only one goal in the second half.
“I want to give it all to Colin, he stood on his head this whole game,” Favreau said.
Liscomb credited those around him.
“I think our D(efense) really helped us keeping them to the outside and having good angles for me which allowed me to make some easy saves,” Liscomb said.
Not all the time.
The Centaurs played relatively penalty free lacrosse until the fourth quarter.
That’s when things went awry and before Tata knew it, three of his players were kneeling beside him and his defense was outnumbered 6-3 by the Waterford offense.
“We killed it. Three men down. It really helps when you have the Woodstock wall (Liscomb) sitting in the cage. The lack of him giving up is incredible. It doesn’t matter how many men up the offense is, he is an absolute solid wall in there,” Tata said.
Prior to the game, the Centaurs honored 11 seniors who were playing one of their last games at the Bentley Athletic Complex.
“Just like it was in hockey, last day, everyone is here. I’ve been playing with most of these seniors since I was in second or third grade. It’s pretty hard to talk about but it feels good,” Favreau said.
Liscomb added, “The friendships I have made on this team and just showing up for practice is so much fun. I’m going to miss these guys a lot but I’ve got bigger things to move on to and I know they will be good next year.”
The Centaurs continued their success against the Indians, scoring three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to win by a comfortable margin.
Libby finished with a goal and two assists and now has 28 tallies on the season.
Everett Michalski, Jared Neilson and Zach Gessner also scored for the Centaurs against Montville.
The Centaurs may not be done with Montville.
They are the top seed in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division 2 postseason tournament.
The Centaurs hosted the winner of the Ledyard/Griswold cooperative-Montville match in an ECC semifinal May 25. (The results were too late for this edition).
The winner of that game plays in the league championship game in Montville at 5:30 p.m. May 27.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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