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Dribbles
Woodstock Academy freshman Adeline Smith dribbles down the sideline for the Centaurs against Old Lyme Oct. 13. Photo by Marc Allard.
The Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer team had a pretty productive week.
The Centaurs put themselves in position to clinch an Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I title with wins over East Lyme and Norwich Free Academy.
They also posted a victory over two-time defending Class S champion, Old Lyme, in the rain Oct. 13.
“This was probably one of the better wins for the program,” Woodstock Academy coach Dennis Snelling said about the Old Lyme win.
The 1-0 victory over Old Lyme came on the heels of a 3-1 victory over Norwich Free Academy Oct. 12.
The two victories raised the Centaurs record to 9-0-2.
“We managed it pretty well (Friday) with the minutes being shared. We brought up some JV players who did a good job. Other than the defensive line, which never subs out, it was a pretty conservative day for us with everybody else. It was an issue, but I knew we had plenty left for (Saturday),” Snelling said of the back-to-back matches.
Old Lyme did present problems.
Senior Mya Johnson is one of the better players in Connecticut, according to Snelling, and the Centaurs had to contain her.
That job fell to Ashleigh Angle.
“It was very difficult,” Angle said. “She had really good foot skills. I had to watch the ball the entire game. It was hard because I could not make as many passes as I wanted to Ivy (Gelhaus) and the strikers.”
Johnson did get a couple of shots off.
One Angle could not do much about.
Old Lyme was awarded a direct kick about 35 yards out in the first half and Johnson’s kick was tipped just up and over crossbar by Centaurs’ keeper Irene Askitis.
In the second half, Johnson sent a header toward the goal, but it somehow went wide to the right.
“I just watched it. She’s a very dangerous player, not in the effect that she is physical, but she’s a very good, very strong player,” Angle said.
Old Lyme (5-3-3) also had another good chance later in the half when it put another shot off the post.
Nothing, however, found the back of the net until just 5:57 was left in regulation.
The Centaurs were awarded a corner when Emma Redfield worked hard to tip the ball out off an Old Lyme defender and then lobbied the officials for the corner.
She got it.
Gelhaus walked over and asked Redfield if she wanted to play a short corner to her.
“We had been doing it in practice and in one game where we did a short 1-2 and I asked her if we should because there wasn’t a lot of time remaining in the game. Every shot is a shot and, luckily, it went in,” Gelhaus said.
Gelhaus launched from 23 yards out with 5:57 to play, and unlike a similar effort against East Lyme where her shot struck the cross bar, this one got over the keeper’s hands and under the cross bar.
It was the 15th goal of the season for Gelhaus and her fifth game winner.
“It feels great,” Gelhaus said of the win. “Last year, we lost 3-0 to them and they seemed like the dominant team. This year, we were.”
Gelhaus was the key figure in the Centaurs 3-0 victory over East Lyme to start the week.
The senior scored all three goals.
“I think our team is just so good and we have great chemistry. It’s easy for them to send me balls and it’s easy for me to get shots off because everyone on the team is working together so well,” Gelhaus said.
Gelhaus scored just 15 seconds into the game, taking a pass from Regan Stuyniski off the opening kick.
“It kind of set the tone for us,” Gelhaus said.
Her second goal came with 6 ½ to play in the first half and finished off the hat trick with 13:10 left when she scored off an assist from Aislin Tracey.
The Centaurs didn’t wait all that much longer to score their first goal against Norwich Free Academy.
Just six minutes had ticked off in the first half when Peyton Saracina took a pass from Redfield for the only goal of the half.
The Centaurs made it 2-0 just 1:50 into the second half when Saracina assisted on a Gelhaus goal and sophomore Gillian Price finished things up with her first goal of the season off a pass from Isabel Cintron.
“We hadn’t seen NFA yet and were curious what they had, but they have been bothered by injuries. It was a good win, we were even with them last year, and it wasn’t all that close this year. I’m happy with that,” Snelling said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
.