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Roundup
Corradi leads
Centaurs to 2
big wins
The offense has been clicking for the Woodstock Academy boys’ hockey team. And no one has been more on fire than sophomore Maxx Corradi.
The winger scored five goals in a 9-2 win over Lincoln, R.I., early in the week and followed up that effort with a hat trick in a 10-0 win over the Suffield-Granby-Windsor Locks cooperative program on Saturday.
What has been more impressive, according to coach Mark Smolak, is the manner in which Corradi has been putting the puck in the net.
“A lot of his goals have come from absolute, pin-point accuracy shots,” Smolak said. “He hit one in Lincoln that whizzed right between the 3 inches that the goalie gave him between his head and the post. Maxx was able to throw that puck right there without hitting anything but the net. To have that kind of accuracy on his shots from extreme angles is absolutely ridiculous and great to see.”
The three goals against the Wildcats gives Corradi a team-high 20 coming into the week and gives the Centaurs another big scoring threat aside junior Noah Sampson who is still the team’s scoring leader with 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists).
“Most of Noah’s points last year came from assists while Maxx was equal between goals and assists and Don (Sousa) had significantly more goals than assists. What we’re seeing this year is that they are all leveling it out. They are evenly distributing the puck, staying level with assists vs. goals, which is great because that means they’re working together, moving the puck, capitalizing on chances and not playing selfishly,” Smolak said.
For example, Sampson assisted on the first five goals of the game against the SGWL cooperative and Sousa finished with two goals and an assist in addition to Corradi’s 3-goal effort.
The Centaurs also got production from outside their first line as Jayden Fuller and Ian Sherman (2 assists) each had two goals and Keegan Covello also scored. Andrew Newton and Jared Nielsen each had two assists.
If there was one thing that Smolak was concerned about, it was how the Centaurs started.
Corradi scored in the first period but it was the only goal Woodstock would generate until it scored four times in the second and five more times in the third.
“We’re starting to see some bad habits creep in. We’re not really ready to play at faceoff and that is a little of a concern moving forward,” Smolak said. “If we show up for the second and third period and not for the first, we’re going to be struggling in March.”
Part of that could also be the competition. The win over SGWL raised the Centaurs record to 10-1 overall and 5-0 in the Nutmeg Conference.
The conference has hardly been a challenge for the Centaurs who have won the five games by a 45-2 total. Only Tri-Town, which Woodstock Academy downed 8-2, has scored a goal against the Centaurs.
“It’s unfortunate because we are playing teams who aren’t going to qualify for the tournament and we’re getting this heightened sense of what we are as a team. Then, we go out and play really strong teams and the games tend to be significantly closer. We’re trying to mimic that intensity and be ready to play every team with the same determination and focus as we would against a Bishop Hendricken or North Haven,” Smolak said.
Even the first period against Lincoln was a bit of a slow start.
The Centaurs fought to open a 3-2 lead as Sousa, Corradi and Jacob Jurnovoy scored early for Woodstock.
Corradi put it away in the second period as he scored the first four Centaurs goals and Fuller added a fifth to put Woodstock up by six goals going into the final period.
Jurnovoy, who added two assists, concluded the scoring for the Centaurs in the third period.
Sousa added three assists in the victory.
Gymnastics
Gymnastics had a long winter’s nap.
The Centaurs opened the season in late December with a meet versus Killingly but didn’t get back at it until Saturday when they and Killingly played host to Norwich Free Academy.
“It was really nice,” coach Kasey Tocchio said of the break. “We had the time to practice and kind of regroup and come together.”
It must have helped a bit as the Centaurs picked up their first win of the year, 132.65-131.1, over the Wildcats.
Olivia Aleman led the way as she finished with a 9.4 total in three of her events.
That was good enough to net her a tie for first-place in the vault and second-place finishes on both the bars and on the floor.
The sophomore was the only Centaur athlete to finish in the top three in any of their routines.
“It was a little uncharacteristic for us, especially on beam, where we had some falls. But Allie Boyd had a beautiful beam routine so there were some good things, but also some not-so-good things,” Tocchio said.
Overall, there was improvement as the Centaurs scored a 129 total in their season-opening loss to Killingly in December.
“We’re going to keep climbing. We’re being picky with ourselves. If we’re going up in the numbers and still having more falls than we’re definitely making some strides but we have more in us,” Tocchio said.
The win over the Wildcats was nice as it was the first time Woodstock had seen what NFA would bring to the table this season.
Killingly, however, continued to impress as it finished with a 136.4 total.
“Being one big team, separated into two, is always tough, but Killingly had a killer meet (Saturday) so that was exciting for them,” Tocchio said.
The Centaurs did get another boost as Maitena Alvarez, back from winter break, did compete for the Centaurs.
“She competed on both floor and vault and did awesome. That was really cool. She does a flipping vault so we definitely counted her scores,” Tocchio said.
Girls' Hockey
There was a little drought for the Woodstock girls’ hockey team. After scoring just one goal against Burrillville Jan. 2, the Centaurs were shutout in their next two contests against the Mercy Co-Op and the East Catholic Co-Op.
The Centaurs got back on track a bit on Saturday when they traveled to Cromwell to play Mercy for a second time.
Woodstock didn’t come out on top but it did find the back of the net twice in a 4-2 loss to the Tigers.
“It was nice to finally get back on net, get some scoring. It was nice to muster up some offense and we actually outshot (Mercy). I think we outplayed them, we just had a couple of unlucky bounces,” coach Eric Roy said.
The Centaurs fell behind, 1-0, but rallied to take a first period lead when freshman Maci Corradi scored her team-best 10th goal of the season and senior Keynila Hochard tallied for a fourth time this year.
Those goals were assisted by Sophia Gouveia, Mia Williamson and Caitlyn Flynn.
Unfortunately for Woodstock (3-8-1, 3-5 vs. Connecticut teams), the Tigers roared back.
Senior wing Mackenzie Kelley finished with a pair of goals and both Shannon Aube and Alex Martin also tallied.
“There was a lot of improvement,” Roy said of the difference between Saturday’s contest and the one played against Mercy on Jan. 7 at the Jahn Ice Rink where the Tigers prevailed, 2-0. “We left (Saturday’s) game with no complaints. The passing on our part was better, the effort was there, but you can’t win them all. It was a much better effort than out previous game against East Catholic.”
The Centaurs came out of the gates a little rusty after a week off and suffered a 4-0 loss at the hands of the East Catholic Co-Op in a Martin Luther King Day holiday matinee earlier in the week.
Senior Elizabeth Morgis kept Woodstock in the contest as she made 52 saves in net.
The Centaurs could not get untracked offensively as they took only six shots.
Juniors Madison Archambault and Alexis Pacheco scored a goal in each half for the Storm (6-4-1) and Edith Hayes added a pair of assists in the win.
The Centaurs, outside of a scrimmage scheduled for Tuesday, do not play again until Monday, Jan. 30 when they travel to Fairfield.
“That’s good because at practice, we’ve been going back to the basics and now we have, at least, three sheets of practice before we play another game. That will give us the chance to fine tune some things,” Roy said.
They had best enjoy the rest as well because the following week has them playing back-to-back, home-and-home games against Fairfield on Monday and Tuesday and then home games against the Daniel Hand Co-Op on Friday and Avon Co-Op on Saturday, Feb. 4.
Boys’ Basketball
The boys’ basketball team was coming off a pretty tough week. It had battled hard against Cheney Tech only to fall short in overtime.
Then, it traveled down to Waterford and was unable to find the basket often in the first three quarters.
But it rallied to best its output in the previous three quarters in the fourth quarter alone only to fall five points short at the end.
The Centaurs needed something good to happen.
They got that early in the week as they rolled to a 58-28 win over Plainfield.
“We definitely needed this one,” said coach Donte Adams. “After a tough one at Waterford (a 51-46 loss the previous Friday), this was a great bounce back win for the guys and for the program.”
It was also the first game of the second half of the season and that’s what the Woodstock chose to focus on.
After getting only two wins in the first 10 games, the Centaurs were off to a new start at 1-0.
“I have the utmost faith in them that we are going to get it together in the second half,” Adams said. “We have (nine) games left and we’re 1-0 at the moment and we’re going to treat these last nine games as playoff games.”
It’s also a chance to see where the team has improved and still needs to improve.
Against Plainfield, the Centaurs didn’t waste any time. Woodstock scored 11 of the first 13 points and that helped lead to a 24-13 lead at the half. That lead was extended to 16 by the end of the third quarter and the Centaurs coasted from there.
Sophomore center Brady Ericson led the way against Plainfield with 16 points as he had some room to operate for a change.
Adams said Ericson, “played well in the paint. He didn’t shoot any 3’s but he dominated inside. He fed off the others, got a lots of balls dumped into him and had a lot of nice finishing touches in the paint.”
Ericson, who added six rebounds, has been double-teamed in the past several games and had a big post player to contend with against the Lancers.
Carter Morissette was the only other player in double figures with 10 points.
“We have various guys who can step up like (Garrett) Bushey, Carter, Hunter (Larson), it can be any guy’s night at any given moment and that’s the best thing about this team,” Adams said.
Unfortunately, the good news didn’t continue on Friday.
The Centaurs had their second matchup with the Fitch Falcons, a team they had lost to in overtime, in their season opener.
This one would not be as close as Fitch pulled away on their home floor in Groton and downed the Centaurs, 52-33.
The loss dropped Woodstock to 3-9 overall and 1-4 in Div. II of the ECC.
The game had all the looks of another nailbiter early as the Falcons and Centaurs both struggled to put the ball in the net and Fitch held a slim, 8-6, lead going into the second quarter.
But the next two quarters would belong to Fitch as it outscored Woodstock, 30-11.
The Centaurs again got a little healthier in the fourth quarter when they put 14 points on the board but it was just too little, too late.
Brandon Nagle and Garrett Bushey both finished with nine points for the Centaurs while Hunter Larson added seven.
Girls’ Basketball
Woodstock hung tough through the first three quarters but East Lyme pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 42-26 win Friday.
The Vikings (5-9, 1-3 ECC Div. I) scored the first five points of the game.
The Centaurs were able to tie the game four times in the first half, including 13-13 at the end of the first quarter, but just could never forge into the lead.
East Lyme scored the final five points of the first half to go into the locker room with a six-point advantage. It would expand it to double digits briefly in the third quarter before the Centaurs (9-5, 1-3) got a 3-pointer from Kaylee Saucier, a bucket by Reegan Reynolds and another basket by Leila MacKinnon to cut the deficit to three.
The Vikings re-established a 5-point lead at the end of the third quarter.
Neva Flickinger (11 points) opened the final quarter with a pair of traditional three-point plays and, after a basket by the Centaurs’ Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain, Izzy Pazzaglia, who led East Lyme with 14 points, hit a 3-pointer to put the game out of reach. Sophia Sarkis led the Centaurs with six points.
Earlier in the week, the youthful Centaurs hung in against the Fitch Falcons, but fell just short, 49-37.
Woodstock led by a point at the end of the first quarter and trailed by only five at the half before Fitch was able to extend the lead to double digits by the end of the third quarter.
Sophomore Eva Monahan paced Woodstock with nine points while D’Alleva-Bochain and Saucier added seven points each.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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