Woodstock Academy coach Eric Roy wanted his team to experience what it was like to play with a lead.
The Centaurs got the chance against the Leominster Blue Devils. Not only did his Centaurs play with the lead, they held on to it.
Keynila Hochard scored in the first period and that goal held up as the Centaurs won their first game of the season, 1-0.
“The team was through the roof excited,” said coach Eric Roy. “You could feel before the third period the nervous excitement of wanting to finish the job. When it happened, it was all smiles and laughter.”
Bryn Miller started Woodstock on its path to success when she was able to skate out of the Centaurs end and delivered the puck to Maci Corradi.
Corradi took the shot, which was blocked, but the rebound was not held on to. Hochard took advantage as she scooped the rebound up and delivered it into the net for what proved to be the only tally of the night.
The defense did the rest.
“We realized our team identity needed to be a more defensive-minded one and we needed to have a simple all hands on-deck mentality. We’ve focused more on cleaning up our own end, bearing down and outworking other teams in our defensive zone,” Roy said.
It doesn’t hurt to have senior goalie Mia Dang; she turned aside 38 shots by the Blue Devils.
The win raised the Centaurs overall record to 1-4-2 and they finished 1-3-2 in Div. II of the Central Massachusetts League.
The win against Leominster will only help down the road.
“After a disappointing game with Auburn two weeks ago, the coaching staff challenged the players. We asked them if they were satisfied with how things were going and they said ‘No.’ We told them then it’s time to hunker down and do something about it. Since then, practices and games have been high energy and tempo. It’s an avalanche going downhill. We took a bit to get rolling but watch out now,” Roy said.
Woodstock still has a non-divisional Central Mass. League game against Pope Francis School Feb. 5 in Worcester and will play in a league postseason tournament in Auburn later in February.
Prep Basketball: The Blue prep basketball team is on a roll, winning its fifth straight game with a hard-fought, 71-69, win over Putnam Science Academy Elite.
Blue coach Denzel Washington said: “I told them after the game that I love where we are at right now. I feel like we have been playing more and more together as time has gone on and this is what you love to see as a coach. We’re passing up good shots for great shots and we’re happy with one another’s success.”
It took a while to happen as .The Centaurs had only played a couple of games together since coming back from the holiday break due to pandemic protocol.
“Coming back from COVID, a lot of us have been out for weeks, I’ve been out a month and a half. It just feels great to have the team back,” said forward Kunga Tsering. “Some of us went up and played with Gold and they have been dropped back down to Blue. Now we’re playing our regular schedule with the whole team and it feels great.”
Washington said: “I believe that they are happy to be back on the court. The best thing about the program is that we get to play (the Gold prep team) night in and night out. So even though we missed some games, playing against each other made us better.”
The Centaurs (11-6) battled hard against the Mustangs. Woodstock held only a four-point advantage at halftime, 39-35, and that close battle continued throughout the remainder of the game.
Chiwer Mayen had a big game for the Centaurs as he finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Jan-Viljem Homanen paced the Centaurs with 23 points.
It was one of the first regular-season games between Woodstock and Putnam Science Academy and Washington said there is already a rivalry feeling being built likely because of the proximity of the two schools to one another.
“It’s taking on the feeling of a rivalry,” Washington said. “They don’t allow fans but their students were there, they had a drum beating, it was very loud and it was great. It felt like a college basketball atmosphere and that’s what we’re trying to get the guys ready for.”
Woodstock scratched off a little of the rust earlier in the week with a game against the St. Thomas More 2 program and posted a 79-58 win.
The Chancellors (12-5) also are in the midst of COVID troubles as they had only seven players available.
Both teams started slow with the Centaurs building a 32-25 lead by the half. Tsering scored 11 of his team-high 18 points in the first half and added five more to start the second, giving the Centaurs a 37-28 advantage.
The Centaurs built upon that early second-half effort as it followed a brief St. Thomas More five-point flurry with a 15-2 run that gave the Centaurs an insurmountable 20-point lead.
Logan Talbot and Homanen each added 12 points in the win for the Centaurs.
Boys’ Hockey: Coach Kevin Bisson said, “I felt that we should have something really great to work with here and I wanted to challenge that, accordingly.”
So, he reached out to a number of Rhode Island Div. I schools because of their proximity to Woodstock and the fact that, if the Centaurs won, they would get bonus points for playing up a division.
It was a win-win, even if there was the possibility of a loss.
Such was the case against Bishop Hendricken from Providence last week. The Hawks left got a 3-2 win, but Bisson left with a smile. “Honestly, we’re at game No. 9 and that was the first that I was truly happy at the end.”
The Hawks (8-2) did take the early 2-0 in the first period but the Centaurs cut it in half 7 minutes, 58 seconds into the second period when Troy Daviau scored his first varsity goal. Junior Max Larkin did a lot of the work on the tally.
Hendricken answered with a goal in the third period but it was the Daviau-Evan Haskins-Andrew Newton line that delivered again 9:32 into the final period.
Haskins scored off an assist from Jacob Jurnovoy.
The Centaurs almost got the tying goal in the closing minute. Bisson pulled goalie Dante Sousa to get the extra attacker and were helped even more when the Hawks incurred a penalty to produce a 6-on-4 situation.
Hendricken’s goalie went post-to-post to make a save, but in so doing, knocked the net off its moorings. The officials whistled the play dead just as Noah Sampson put the puck into the net. “The refs had already blown the whistle to kill the play. It was unfortunate,” Bisson said.
Alpine Skiing: Woodstock’s Eliza Simpson continued her steady performances in the Connecticut Interscholastic Ski League and came away with a pair of fourth-place finishes this past week. She finished her two runs down Mt. Southington early in the week in a combined 49.57 seconds.
Simpson improved on that in her second competition of the week when she finished those two runs in 48.63 seconds.
Freshman Emma Brody rebounded Jan. 27 after catching an edge of her ski on Tuesday which took her out of the competition. She finished her two runs in 52.07 seconds for a 21st-place finish.
Maeve Lusignan also had a top 100 finish out of the 165 competitors Jan. 27, finishing just about midway in the pack in 83rd.
Jan. 25 Emma Reino placed 65th and Peyton Bentley finished 100th.
On the boys’ side, junior Davis Simpson placed 24th  Jan. 25, finishing his two runs in 49.94 seconds. Aidan Soderman, who finished 81st in 57.74, and Nicholas Betschmann, who placed 99th, also finished in the top 100.
Davis Simpson followed up on that with a 33rd place Jan. 27 in 48.84 seconds. Soderman was 90th in 57.05.
Boys’ Basketball: The team went on the road and brought home its first win of the season, downing Killingly, 42-35.
“It was a win we needed,” said coach Marty Hart said. “We savored it and were excited about it because it’s a huge rivalry. To get the win on their floor by executing together, really going with balanced scoring, and getting great defense on (Killingly’s) Jay (Grzysiewicz) and Yianni (Baribeau).
The Centaurs led, 29-28, going into the fourth quarter and outscored their hosts in the quarter, 13-7, to claim the victory.
Parker Anderson led three scorers in double figures  he finished with 14 points. Jackson Goetz added 12 and Brandon Nagle added 10.
Goetz got all but three of his points in the first half; Nagle got all 10 of his in the second half while Anderson equally spread his scoring between the two halves.
But then the Centaurs lost a heartbreaker to Bacon Academy on the day before the blizzard, 34-32.
Woodstock fell behind on its home floor in the first quarter but rallied behind a pair of 3-pointers by Nagle and another trey by Braiden Saucier to tie the game at 15 by the half.
The two teams had a similar struggle to score in the second half with both the Centaurs and Bobcats getting only seven points each to go into the fourth deadlocked at 22.
It was 29-all with 2 minutes, 7 seconds to play.
Bacon took the lead with 39 seconds left on a fast break bucket by Sam Blumberger.
Just 25 seconds later, the Bobcat guard jumped in front of a pass and raced the length of the floor again.
He not only got the layup but was also fouled and hit the free throw to extend Bacon’s lead to five, 34-29.
Huck Flanagan hit an inside bucket with five seconds left for the Centaurs and Hamilton Barnes stole the ball at midcourt and was fouled.
Barnes hit one free throw and was instructed to miss the second in the hopes his Centaur teammates would be able to snare the rebound, score, and tie the game.
His intentional miss, however, never touched the rim, giving the ball back to the Bobcats.
The Centaurs fouled immediately and the Bobcats missed the free throws but a last-second 3-point shot by Nagle, who led Woodstock with 12 points, from just inside half court fell just short as the buzzer sounded.
The Centaurs also suffered a 66-33 loss to E. Lyme during the week, with Anderson and Goetz each scoring eight points.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy