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It was a nice little break for the Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer team.
The postponement of a match with Stonington last week meant the Centaurs had only one game all week.
They responded well with a 5-1 win over Killingly Oct. 4.
“We needed the rest because it felt like we had seven games right away and never had time to practice or discuss much, it was just go and play these games. To have eight days off really helped us kind of decide what we want to do from here for the rest of the season,” said Woodstock Academy coach Dennis Snelling.
The Centaurs struck early against a good Redgals (5-2-1) team. Just seven minutes into the contest, Peyton Saracina headed in a corner from Grace Gelhaus to give Woodstock Academy the early lead.
Just a little over 10 minutes later, Emma Redfield found an open Gelhaus, got the freshman the ball and she put it in for the 2-0 lead.
That was how it remained for the rest of the first half.
But it quickly changed at the beginning of the second half.
Caroline Wilcox sent a header forward to Gelhaus who delivered again, from 25 yards out, just 28 seconds into the second half.
It was the 10th goal of the season for Gelhaus. She also added a second assist in the match.
Abbie Burgess did counter for Killingly off a direct kick but the Centaurs regained a three-goal advantage when senior Linda St. Laurent, with an assist from classmate Hallie Saracina, scored just three minutes later.
Saracina capped the scoring with her 10th goal of the year off a Gelhaus assist with just 15 minutes to play.
“It was important for everyone that we played well on the road. It was a good win against a quality opponent,” Snelling said.
The win raised Woodstock Academy’s record to 6-2, a tie away from qualifying for the Class L state tournament.
“If you told me at the beginning that at the halfway mark, we would be 6-2, I would have been very happy. We just want to continue to get better. We need to continue to get more confident, stronger. We’re still missing a lot of chances even though we’re scoring quite a few goals,” Snelling said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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