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Roundup
Girls’ tennis
team captures
ECC title
For a second consecutive season, the Woodstock Academy girls’ tennis team brought home an ECC divisional title.
The Centaurs won the Div. II regular season crown May 21 with a 6-1 victory over NFA.
“It’s really cool stuff,” said coach Keith Atchinson. “I’m just happy these senior girls got to have a strong season. We had some goals at the beginning of the season and winning ECC Div. II was one of them. It’s always good to accomplish a goal and now, we would like to win, at least, one round in the state tournament.”
The Centaurs finished the season 11-4, winning all three of their matches last week.
Ellie Bishop-Klee, Stella Atchinson, Emma Massey and Peyton Bentley all delivered singles victories against the Whippets.
“I think it was a good experience,” said the coach. “It’s going to be a big change next year for a lot of these kids and for us”
The Centaurs were coming off a quick junket to Vermont over the weekend prior where they got to play one match, a win over Stowe High School, and had a second match cancelled by rain.
The Centaurs won Ledyard, 7-0. Top singles players Addy Smith played well as she had to go to a tiebreaker to down Sarah Bailey. Jackie Trudeau, Sydney Schuler and Alex Fernandez all won their singles matches in straight sets and the doubles team swept.
Smith played even better May 21 with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Paige Raposo of NFA.
The Centaurs also celebrated Senior Day — Smith, Trudeau, Schuler, Fernandez, Morgan Bentley and Logan Reynolds will all depart the program at the end of the season.
This year isn’t over yet. The Centaurs play in the ECC tournament this week.
“We have a good draw for both Addy and Jackie, they should win, at least, one round. The second round is where it gets really competitive and they both have to bring their ‘A’ game. If they do, they have a good shot at winning in the (quarterfinals). Logan and Ellie at doubles are one of the favorites to win. They’re only seeded third, a little low for them, but you have to play everyone anyway. They’re ready to go and are excited.”
The state tournament begins at the end of the week.
Prep Soccer: Centaurs fall in champ tilt
The Woodstock boys’ prep soccer team gave it everything it had but fell short to the Boston Bolts 03/04 Central NPL side in the New England Premiereship Cup championship match, 2-1, May 21.
“It was a competitive match for sure. It got physical toward the end but it was a good match,” said Centaurs coach Joe Cherackal.
Boston scored just five minutes into the contest but the Centaurs hung in.
“They scored again with 25 minutes to go so we had to push numbers forward and went to a 3-4-3, played a little more kickball, dumping passes in to try and chase the first goal at least,” Cherackal said.
The Centaurs did score with six minutes left when Cheneek Park found the net.
The game got increasingly difficult as it continued. Not only because of the competition but also the conditions at Carver High School in Massachusetts as it was hot and humid.
The Centaurs travel to Potomac, Md., next weekend to play in two tournaments. The 17-year-olds will compete in one and the 19-year-olds in another.
“We expect the 17s to win their division and come back with a trophy,” Cherackal said. “The 19s are playing in the toughest bracket and will play the No. 1 team in the country. We’re just hoping to stay competitive in that game.”
Cherackal said despite the rapid approach of the end of the school year, the program is still pretty dialed in.
Girls’ Golf: Centaurs pick up key wins
Girls’ golf coach Earl Semmelrock has been pleasantly surprised with the season thus far. His young team improved to 5-7 overall and 3-4 in the ECC last week after a pair of league wins over Bacon Academy and Waterford.
It means the final week of the regular season will be important for Woodstock.
“If we put in three more good scores, we might make States. From where we were at the beginning of the year, that would be a remarkable accomplishment,” Semmelrock said.
The Centaurs finished with a 212 total against Bacon Academy (241) and Waterford (260) last week.. Senior Jillian Marcotte was her “Steady Eddie” self with a 50 for Woodstock.
Then, there is Sophie Gronski and Lily Bottone, both freshmen. Bottone, prior to joining the golf team, went out to the driving range with her father, Woodstock volleyball coach Adam Bottone, a couple of times but had never played multiple times in a week.
Gronski was even more limited. Her experience with the sport was limited to mini-golf before joining the team.
Both joined for the same reason.
“(Woodstock Academy assistant golf coach Jeff) Boshka approached us and, originally, I was thinking no. But Lily was like, ‘Let’s try it’ and my Mom (Melany) was also encouraging me to try. I decided to do it. I was at Roseland Park with Boshka and then coach Semmelrock came and said, ‘I want you guys to come and play varsity.’ We were like, ‘Oh, of course,’” Gronski said.
Against Bacon Academy and Waterford, Bottone shot a 51.
Gronski was just two strokes back of her teammate as she carded a 53 and was equally surprised.
In the round prior against Glastonbury, she had shot a 58.
“I was surprised. When I got that 58, I was like ‘That can’t be right.’ I triple-counted my scores. The match before, I had a 71 (in a loss at Berlin). I thought there was no way, but it was right,” Gronski said.
Gronski, unlike Bottone, did not putt well in her round.
“My irons are getting me out there especially my 6 and 8 irons. I’m using those a lot and getting good shots with them. My driver is more consistent. It goes a little to the left, a lot, but it’s OK because it still goes pretty far,” Gronski said.
She was on the driving range in practice to straighten out that problem.
Semmelrock said even though the Centaurs struggled a bit against Berlin and Glastonbury early in the week, it was beneficial.
The Centaurs play host to NFA (the match ended too late for this edition), at East Lyme and home against Bacon Academy on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Girls’ Lacrosse: Season Comes to a Close
It’s always an emotional time for seniors. Senior Day is, generally, one of the last times that they will step out on to their home field and play a game with their high school teammates.
Such was the case for seven members of the girls’ lacrosse team early last week. Shannon Gagnon, Sofia Murray, Tegan Perry, Stella Brin, Julia Powell, Claire Anderson and Sydney Haskins were all honored prior to their game with Montville.
“First, I will say that I love them and we’re all going to miss them so, so much,” said coach Mikayla Jones. “They started the game the way they should have, ended it the way they should have and played a good game. I know they wanted to win. Everybody wants to win on Senior Day. It just doesn’t always happen.”
Montville posted an 11-5 win in the game. Brin scored the only goal for the Centaurs in the first half.
Gagnon added a goal and two assists for the Centaurs while Haley Whitehouse had a goal and an assist.
Gabby Couture and Haskins also scored for the Centaurs.
May 19 the Centaurs were downed by the Fitch Falcons, 14-1, to end with a 4-12 record
Shannon Gagnon scored the only goal for the Centaurs while fellow senior, goalie Sofia Murray, made 12 saves.
Baseball: Seniors Honored
It was a great beginning to the baseball game. The end could have been a little better.
The Centaurs celebrated Senior Day with a game against Waterford. Woodstock honored seniors Zach Roethlein, Shawn Wallace, Jon Smith, Ethan Davis, Jackson Goetz, Brennan Blow, Hamilton Barnes and Brendan Hill prior to the game.
“They are just a great bunch of young men, a lot of them I have known for nine or 10 years. It’s going to be a tough group to let go. Even the newcomers, Shawn and Brennan, are great kids and give me everything they have,” said coach Brian Murphy.
It’s also a relatively large group of seniors, but Murphy isn’t overly worried.
“If you watch the JV team this year, there are probably four or five kids on that team who could play for some other teams. We were just very deep in our senior class with guys who deserve to be on varsity and that made it tough on some freshmen and sophomores. But we’re filtering some underclassmen who have deserved to come up.”
The Centaurs found themselves up early when Barnes, who had singled, later came home on a Roethlein fielder’s choice.
The Lancers struck for two runs off starter Kaden Murphy in the top of the fourth only to see the Centaurs tie it in the bottom of the inning.
Roethlein doubled and came home on a Carter Morissette single.
Waterford went up 3-2 in the top of the fifth but Roethlein tied it with an RBI triple that scored Smith and Roethlein came home on a successful suicide squeeze by Goetz.
Waterford chased Kaden Murphy in the sixth when they tied the contest.
“Murph gave us what we wanted and needed. Their first three runs were unearned and it would have been nice to have a three or four-run lead,” Brian Murphy said.
Instead, the game went into the seventh inning tied at four.
Waterford put it away with three runs in the top of the inning.
Roethlein finished with two hits, two runs scored and two driven in. Barnes, Smith and Morissette also had two hits. Woodstock finished up the regular season with a pair of road games, losing to E. Lyme 3-2 on May 20 and Ellington, 12-5 on May 21.
Woodstock finished the regular season with a 12-8 record.
The Centaurs fought back to tie the game twice against the Vikings. Barnes drove in the first run in the third inning for when he doubled, driving home Kaden Murphy who had doubled previously.
After E. Lyme went ahead, 2-1, in the bottom of the third, Morissette tied the game in the top of the fourth when he scored on an Eric Mathewson double.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the seventh when E. Lyme was able to score the game winner on a wild pitch.
Ellington broke out to a 3-0 lead in the first two innings but the resilient Centaurs clawed their way back into the game in the top of the third with a pair of runs.
Kaden Murphy walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, went to third on a Davis single and scored on a Morissette base hit. Davis came around on a single by Roethlein to make it a one-run game.
The Purple Knights answered with a pair of runs but Woodstock came right back in the fourth with two of their own when Marcus McGregor walked and freshman Brady Ericson clocked a two-run homer to right.
Unfortunately, that was the last of the good news for the Centaurs as Ellington put the game away with five runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
Tennis Team
The Woodstock Academy girls’ tennis team gathered on Senior Day at Pomfret School. The Centaurs downed NFA in the match to clinch the ECC Div. II title. Photo by Keith Atchinson.
Lacrosse Team
The Woodstock Academy girls’ lacrosse team honored its seven seniors in Senior Day festivities prior to its match with Montville last week. Photo by Jill Grant/Woodstock Academy.
Prep Soccer
Jabari Decoteau and the Woodstock Academy prep soccer team battled hard but came up short against the Boston Bolts in the New England Premiereship Cup championship match over the weekend. Photo by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.
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