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The Woodstock Academy football team battles against the Griswold/Wheeler cooperative last Friday. Photo by Abby Ditzel/Woodstock Academy.
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A soggy Christian Menounos sports his new medal earned when the Woodstock Academy junior crossed the line in 26th place in the boys’ championship race at the Ocean State Invitational. Photo by Josh Welch/Woodstock Academy.
The improvement is plain to see. A year ago, Woodstock Academy junior cross-country runner Christian Menounos toured the Goddard Park course in West Warwick, R.I. in 17 minutes, three seconds.
In Saturday’s 2023 version of the Ocean State Invitational, Menounos was able to shave a minute off that time.
He crossed the line in 16:03, good enough for a 26th-place finish and was even given a medal to take home for his efforts in the boys’ championship race.
Colton Sallum placed 81st overall in 16:58 and that, too, was quite the improvement. The junior finished in 18:37 a year ago. Senior Charles Caggiano also had a personal best as he crossed the line in 17:34. Freshman Sam Greene medaled with a 21st place finish in the freshman event.
Earlier in the week coach Josh Welch expected a solid East Lyme team and that what his Centaurs ran into as the Vikings posted a 19-42 win in an ECC Div. I showdown.
Menounos had another test against an ECC opponent, this time with East Lyme runner Sean McCauley. The two battled throughout the 5K course with McCauley crossing the line in 16 minutes, 7 seconds, just eight ticks better than the Woodstock Academy runner. Sallum (17:10) finished second for the Centaurs in seventh overall.
Joel Koleszar came home in 13th for Woodstock Academy.
Prep 1 Soccer
The Prep 1 soccer team gave up its first goal of the season this past weekend.
It didn’t bother the Centaurs all that much.
The Prep 1 team recovered from the minor glitch and posted a 2-1 victory over RMPUS Friday in the opening game of the Next Level Showcase.
The Centaurs followed that up with a 1-0 win over Loomis Chaffee in the Sunday tournament finale to improve to 5-0 on the season.
Woodstock got on the board first against RMPUS when David Lee beat a defender and got the ball to Richard Sarpong who scored his fourth goal of the season.
RMPUS equaled the match with the first goal off the Centaurs this season.
But shortly after halftime, Lee was at it again as he delivered a pass to Jude Essuman who scored what proved to be the game-winning goal for Woodstock Academy.
The Centaurs looked like they had taken a 1-0 lead over Loomis Chaffee in the first half when David Lee put the ball into the net.
Unfortunately, the officials disagreed and disallowed the goal due to an infraction.
Woodstock would get the goal it needed midway through the second half when Kelvin Da Costa’s corner kick found Lucas de Pedro Sanchez on the back post. He delivered the ball to Hendrix Mota who sent it into the back of the net.
The shutout was the fourth of the season for the Centaurs.
The Prep 2 soccer team experienced mixed success at the Next Level Showcase. The Centaurs (2-2-1) picked up their first Global Education Sports Partners League win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Hoosac School from New York on Sunday.
Daniel Mesa Blazquez scored a goal in the first half off an assist from Jorge Castellanos. Charlie Bragg got the second tally of the match off a penalty kick and keeper Daniel Covelli did not allow a Hoosac goal.
The opener on Friday in Albany was not as successful for the Prep 2 squad.
The Centaurs played hard against Immaculate Heart Central but were shutout, 2-0.
Girls’ Cross-Country
The Ocean State Invitational was run on Saturday and the Woodstock girls’ cross-country doesn’t have another competitive race until Oct. 3.
“We now have our bye week which should help us prepare for the second half of the season,” said coach Joe Banas. “I think we over race at times. I would prefer to race every 10 days instead of trying to squeeze three races in over a 10-day period.”
The nice thing about the Ocean State Invite at Goddard Park in W. Warwick, is that, while it is a high school invitational, it’s also an event.
“It’s always a favorite for our girls. There are almost 300 acres and it features multiple tents of different running shoes and running gear. It’s a five-star event,” Banas said.
The veteran coach was especially happy with senior Julia Coyle’s effort. She produced the best 5K time she ever has, 21 minutes,9 seconds, to finish 31st overall in the girls Varsity 1 race. Sophomore Olivia Tracy was 76th overall in 22:19 and junior Kira Greene was 118th in 23:41. Freshman Avery Schaefer was 31st in the freshman 4K race in 18:47.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs had two runners in the top five, but East Lyme had a little more depth and posted a 23-34 win on the shores of Long Island Sound at Rocky Neck State Park Tuesday.
Banas said the score was a bit misleading as the Vikings were competing without their third runner and her presence would have likely split up the Centaurs top two runners even further.
It means Woodstock still has some work to do.
“Our score will be higher in either an invitational or championship meet because those use a different scoring system than a regular dual meet. Avery (Schaefer) has been a great addition as our No. 4 runner but the big gap between our fourth and fifth runners will make it hard for us to compete with top teams,” Banas said.
The matchup between the Vikings and Centaurs was the first ECC Div. I meet for both.
Woodstock did post a 15-50 win over Montville to go to 2-2 overall on the season.
Tracy placed third overall in 22 minutes, 33 seconds, Coyle (23:04) was fifth and Greene (23:33) placed eighth.
Boys’ Soccer
Woodstock ended its scoring drought a bit on Saturday. The boys’ soccer team scored the first two goals of the game against Windham. But the two-goal halftime deficit didn’t faze the Whippets who rebounded with three second-half goals to post a 3-2 victory.
The loss dropped Woodstock Academy to 1-4-1 on the season.
Just eight minutes into the contest, Austin Byer took a shot that was knocked aside by the Windham keeper. But the rebound got away and Will St. John came on to score his third goal of the season.
The Centaurs went up by two goals when Byer struck for his second goal of the season off an assist from Matt Johndrow.
But a 2-0 lead isn’t called the most dangerous lead in soccer for nothing.
Windham scored just five minutes into the second half and then tied the score 21 minutes later.
The Whippets captured their first victory of the season in four games when they put a third goal in with five minutes left in regulation.
The two early goals were welcome. The Centaurs had scored five goals in their first two matches. And then, had trouble finding the net in their next three.
That included Wednesday when Waterford handed Woodstock a 1-0 loss.
That was just 24 hours after the Centaurs had lost by that same score to Bacon Academy.
The loss to Waterford was not due to a lack of effort.
“I think this game showed what has been the case for the last couple of games. We went toe-to-toe, could not have asked for another ounce of effort or determination out of any of them. We just have to start taking chances and making them,” said coach Paul Rearden.
Rearden even tried something a little different in the second half versus Waterford.
He put three strikers up front to try and increase the offensive effort.
“Our defense was doing well I thought so we went with three strikers and three in the midfield. The chances just didn’t come around,” Rearden said.
The beginning of the match threw a lot off balance.
Just 20 seconds into the contest, a Waterford player fell and suffered an arm injury which delayed the match for 15 minutes.
Just 30 seconds into the restart, the Lancers’ Ian Rush scored the only goal of the contest as he came in from the right of keeper Eli Susi and sent the ball inside the far post.
“It was a lack of concentration on our part,” Rearden said.
“There were a couple of our lads who were shaken up (by the injury) because they were standing right by it but you just have to clear your head of those situations. They settled back into it. We didn’t”.
It was the only shot that Susi allowed in as he, once again, was stellar in goal making six saves including a couple of beautiful ones.
In one instance, with 20 minutes left in regulation, Matt Shampine of Waterford (4-1) broke through the defense.
He fired a laser at Susi who made the stop and then quickly gathered in the rebound just before the foot of Lancers’ forward Giovanni Ortiz got to it.
“Which one?” Rearden said with a laugh when he was asked about Susi making a beautiful save. “He made so many of them.
"He’s having a phenomenal season. He’s stopping them at that end. We have to start making them on the other.”
It was a tale of two halves earlier in the week. Rearden was not very happy with the first half.
But the second brought a much more favorable reaction from the Centaurs’ mentor.
Unfortunately, neither halves produced a goal as Woodstock was shutout by Bacon.
Susi made eight saves in the match.
Girls’ Soccer
The goals were hard to come by for the Centaurs girls’ soccer team in a pair of ECC Div. I contests.
The Centaurs began the week with a long night in East Lyme.
The scheduled 7 p.m. start got pushed back a bit by a match prior on the surface and the Centaurs and Vikings got locked up in a duel that ended in a 1-1 tie in double overtime.
Isabella Selmecki scored the only goal of the match, off an assist from Juliet Allard, for Woodstock in the first minute of the contest.
The Vikings rallied to tie the match 15 minutes into the second half.
Neither team scored in the two 10-minute overtimes that followed.
It was the second straight double overtime tie for Woodstock in an ECC Div. I contest.
But it was better than what happened on Friday.
The Centaurs returned home for another Div. I contest at home against Norwich Free Academy on the turf.
Unfortunately, the ball would not find the back of the net for Woodstock (2-1-2, 0-1-2).
The Wildcats scored with 29 minutes left in regulation to post the victory.
Field Hockey
The Centaurs field hockey team had a light week as it played only one game.
Woodstock battled Waterford but came up short, 3-1, to the Lancers.
Georgia Lukachie scored her first goal of the season for the Centaurs (2-3, 1-2 ECC) off an assist from Grace Pokorny.
Football
Injuries and illness. It’s the bane of any coaching staff at any level.
But it’s especially true for those who coach high school football where depth is at a premium.
The Woodstock football team was beset by both this past week and the results were telling as the Griswold/Wheeler cooperative was dominant up front in a 41-7 win over the Centaurs.
The Centaurs had to put together makeshift lines to cover the number of key players out and it showed as the Wolverines churned out 247 yards on the ground.
Griswold only threw four times but one of those was big.
The Wolverines completed a 7-play, 54-yard drive on their first possession with a 33-yard touchdown pass from Kolby Mills to Aaden Cutter to put the Centaurs down early.
Woodstock was also playing without senior quarterback Teddy Richardson who was out with an injury.
Junior Sam Clark stepped in and it took a bit for him to get his bearings.
The first two Centaur drives ended near midfield.
The Wolverines would go up 15-0 when Deondre Bransford capped a 10-play drive with a 2-yard dive at the beginning of the second quarter.
Clark and the Centaurs answered.
The quarterback hit Henry Wotton with a 24-yard pass, and after a couple of short run losses, followed that up with a 29 yard strike to Lucas Theriaque.
The senior captain was Clark’s favorite target as he found the receiver seven times for 97 yards including the Centaurs’ only touchdown, a 31-yard pass just one play after the 29-yard completion.
Unfortunately, that was to be the only real highlight of the night.
The Wolverines made it 22-7 at the half on a Josh Turner 3-yard run.
Kiyle Montigny struck early in the third quarter on a 57-yard run, Turner scored again on a 10-yard rush and Mills tallied on a 1-yard quarterback sneak to account for the final.
Clark completed 12 of 23 passes for 153 yards and was also the team’s leading rusher with 46 yards on 10 carries.
Wotton caught three passes for 40 yards and Jacob Lizotte reeled in two balls for 19 yards.
The Centaurs return home on Saturday for their Homecoming Day game against Montville at 11 a.m. at the Bentley Athletic Complex.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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