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The Woodstock Academy field hockey team needed a win pretty badly.
The Centaurs got one Oct. 4.
“I think this game got our hopes up and we should be able to play with better intensity for the rest of the season,” said junior Avery Jones.
They stopped a five-game losing streak with a 6-1 win over Norwich Free Academy on the road.
“It’s huge especially since it was an (Eastern Connecticut) Conference game. Before (Thursday’s) game, we were ranked fifth which puts us out of the running for the conference tournament which is one of our goals,” said coach Lauren Gagnon.
The win pushed the Centaurs (3-3 in the ECC) past Killingly (2-4) in the conference again and back into the fourth and final tournament slot with six more league games to play including two against the Fitch-Ledyard cooperative program.
It also gave Woodstock Academy a 3-5 record for the first half of the season.
The Centaurs will have to equal in the second half to make the state tournament and that’s something Gagnon feels is doable provided they stay healthy.
Jones, personally, broke the ice against the Wildcats (0-10, 0-8).
She had two assists in the game to give her seven on the season, but also scored her first two goals of the year.
“They have been hard to come by,” Jones said of her lack of goals prior to the game with NFA. “Playing center-mid for the whole season, I’m playing further back so you really can’t get a goal as often.”
Gagnon is hoping to see more of the same from Jones in the second half of the year.
“She has these tremendous hits and she is really great at getting the ball up the field and distributing to kids who can then score. It just doesn’t translate to goals often for her,” Gagnon said.
In addition, Jones plays the insert role on corners so she doesn’t get the benefit of the set plays.
Eliza Dutson added a goal and an assist in the win.
Emma Durand, Rachel Canedy and Samantha Mowry also scored.
The Centaurs were coming off a rather interesting game.
Not only did they face a difficult Valley Regional opponent in their Homecoming game on the South Campus turf Oct. 2, they did so in a torrential downpour that lasted the entire game.
“I actually thought it was going to get canceled or postponed, but we played through it,” Jones said.
The results were not what the Centaurs had hoped for as they fell short to the Warriors, 3-1.
Gagnon said she remembered playing a college game in a “monsoon” where the two teams had to retreat to the press box and be, literally, inches from one another waiting for the weather to clear.
It was awkward.
But the conditions on Oct. 2 were probably the worst she experienced as a high school player or coach.
“It’s memories,” Gagnon said. “They will never forget the time that they played Valley Regional and it was absolutely gross.”
“Gross” would be a word that Jones would agree with.
“I like playing in the rain but the constant pouring rain just soaked our clothes and you just get slower and it’s harder,” Jones said.
Valley Regional seems to bring out the worst in Mother Nature.
Gagnon said the last time the two met, in November of 2012, it was snowing and cold.
“I remember Tessa Houlihan’s older sister, Meg, was wearing three sets of sweat pants and I asked her to go in and she was like ‘What?’” Gagnon said with a laugh.
The Warriors scored twice in the first half with Abby Amara getting both off assists from Riley Millburne and Annie Cooper.
Amara assisted on Cooper’s goal early in the second half.
The only Centaurs tally came with 1 minute, 47 seconds left when Canedy took a pass from Jones and converted it into a goal.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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