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Roundup
Key plays and
players guide
Centaurs to 2
more wins
Killingly was on a run. It had cut the Woodstock Academy girls’ basketball team lead to eight points midway through the fourth quarter Thursday.
Up stepped Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain.
The Centaurs sophomore guard put down a 3-pointer that ignited a Centaur run which helped guarantee a 51-36 victory.
“That came off a set in-bounds play and we’re a true team, we all do it together and have faith in each other. That set play calls for Isabel to take that three from the corner. I had confidence that she would knock it down and she knocked it down,” said coach Will Fleeton.
It had not been the best shooting night for D’Alleva-Bochain, but there was no hesitation.
“It’s just about momentum in these games, they were kind of coming back and we had to shut them down again. I think a lot of our baskets did that over the course of the game especially in a rivalry game like this, you just have to cut them off before they start getting hot,” D’Alleva-Bochain said.
There were a lot of individual moments like that against Killingly.
Junior center Eva Monahan got two quick fouls so Fleeton rotated in Sophia Sarkis.
Sarkis scored seven of her nine points in the second quarter and Woodstock went into the half with a 20-8 lead.
“Sophia came off the bench with Eva in foul trouble early and Sophia played so well that foul trouble was not an issue,” Fleeton said.
Through it all, point guard Kaylee Saucier did a stellar job, not only scoring where she led the Centaurs with 14 points, but also in distributing the ball.
“She was the quarterback (Thursday),” Fleeton said. “She hit some big shots when we needed them, she facilitated, paced the offense, kept everything in control. That was huge.”
Monahan added eight points and seven rebounds.
The win was the 11th in a row for the Centaurs and raised their overall record to 12-1. “We want more,” D’Alleva-Bochain said. “13 would be more special.”
The Centaurs now have a week off before playing at Norwich Free Academy on Thursday in an ECC Div. I clash.
Is it good for a team on a roll to have a break?
“I really don’t know because I take it one at a time, tomorrow I will answer that question because (Thursday) was all about (Thursday),” Fleeton said.
The school of thought in basketball is that it’s always important to have a good start to a game and play well at the start of the third quarter.
Do those two things and more often than not, things will turn out good in the end.
It also doesn’t hurt to have a really nice fourth quarter.
Such was the case for the Centaurs earlier in the week.
Woodstock went into the final quarter against Fitch in Groton up by a slim three-point margin.
It came out with a 44-28 victory thanks to a defense that allowed the Falcons just one point while the Centaurs’ offense put 14 down in the fourth.
“We play ‘D’,” Fleeton said. “If we can get after it defensively, every time we have those spurts with scoring issues, we’re still in the hunt, we’re never out of it. We didn’t score in the second quarter (against Fitch), it doesn’t get any worse than that but we only gave up seven (points). That margin is small enough that when we do get it going, in the blink of an eye, we’re back in it if we’re down and we take off with it if we’re up.”
Woodstock had jumped on top of the Falcons, 14-9, in the first quarter but went cold in the second and Fitch crawled back to a four-point lead at the half.
Monahan, who finished with a team-high 16 points, and D’Alleva-Bochain helped the Centaurs forge a 30-27 lead going into the fourth as each scored seven third-quarter points.
Saucier scored five of her 10 points and Reegan Reynolds added five of her eight in the decisive final quarter.
The win over the Falcons raised the Centaurs record to 4-1 in Div. I of the ECC. They hold a one-game edge in the win column over the New London Whalers for the top spot in the division.
Boys’ Basketball
Bushey, Larson lead Woodstock past Killingly
Prior to its game with Killingly, boys’ basketball coach Donte Adams wanted to see big things from players other than Brady Ericson and Hunter Larson.
Garrett Bushey complied.
The junior guard had his best game of the season, getting a double-double, 13 points and 14 rebounds plus five assists and three blocks to help guide the Centaurs to a 62-53 win over Killingly at the Alumni Fieldhouse early last week.
“Garrett is one of the glue guys and he has to come out and be aggressive. If we have an aggressive Garrett, we’re on the right side of things. I always tell Garrett, pick your spots, shoot your shots, let it fly. He’s one of the humblest guys I have come across, kind of laid back, but if we can get an aggressive Garrett all the time, we’re in good hands,” Adams said,
Both teams started slow, taking nine 3-pointers between them in the first quarter and not getting one to fall.
It was all layups and free throws but the Centaurs got more and led, 12-9, at the end of the opening quarter.
“I just need to see one go in,” Larson said. “Once that first one fell, my nerves went away and I was able to play freely like I normally do.”
Larson got his first 3-pointer in the second quarter and added another in the third as he led the team with 18 points.
Larson and Teddy Richardson both had to overcome something else.
Both had two fouls by early in the second quarter.
Adams didn’t blink and let the seniors play most of the rest of the way.
His confidence proved worthy, neither fouled out.
“It’s all about senior leadership,” Adams said. “Those guys knew that I trust them. We work every day in practice on a lot of defensive drills. I had the utmost trust in them not to get another (foul).”
The Centaurs, as a whole, finished with eight treys, three from T.J. Osborne.
They also rebounded the ball well, especially Bushey and Brady Ericson (eight boards).
Bushey getting not only second, but sometimes, third chances off the offensive glass.
“We’ve been working on that in practice; doing box out drills, a lot of work on offensive rebounding because second-chance points are a large part of the game. When you lead the other team in offensive rebounds, you usually win,” Larson said.
Bushey scored six points in the second quarter as Woodstock built a 26-19 lead by halftime.
The Centaurs followed with one of their best offensive showings for one quarter this season, getting 23 in the third, eight of those from Larson, to build a 49-31 lead.
“That’s great to put up 23 in a quarter. That was from Garrett being aggressive. They doubled on Brady and he wasn’t able to have one of his games (Tuesday), but we had three guys in double figures and that’s great.”
Ericson, despite all the attention, still finished with 16 points.
Bushey had another nice offensive game on Friday against Waterford.
But this one didn’t end up on the positive side for the Centaurs.
For a fourth time in eight games, Woodstock played an overtime game.
Host Waterford pulled out the win in the extra four minutes, 70-61.
The loss dropped the Centaurs a game below the .500 mark at 5-6 overall.
They are now 0-3 in Div. II of the ECC.
The Centaurs led much of the way with Ericson getting seven of his 15 points in the first quarter to put Woodstock ahead, 13-10.
That advantage doubled by halftime, 23-17, and the Centaurs went up by double digits early in the second half.
But the Lancers fought back.
Waterford was only down six going into the final quarter and tied it with 10 seconds left in regulation when Jordi Cassar misfired on a 3-point attempt but was fouled.
The Lancer senior didn’t miss at the free throw line to tie the game at 57.
Cassar (20 points) then hit a 3-pointer in the overtime where Waterford outscored Woodstock 13-4.
Bushey finished with 21 points and five blocks while Ericson had another double-double as he pulled down 14 rebounds.
Richardson added 12 points for the Centaurs.
The boys’ basketball team, like the girls, get to have a little rest as it does not return to the floor until Friday when it travels to East Lyme for a 7 p.m. game.
Wrestling
There was hope.
Both the Woodstock and Putnam High School coaching staffs were working on the details as the wrestling match between the two reached its later bouts.
The Centaurs had a chance at their first wrestling win since the program re-started this season.
“I was definitely thinking, ‘maybe,’” coach Cahan Quinn said. “They bumped up most of their guys to get the extra forfeit at 165 (pounds).”
And then, the Clippers made a fateful move at 175 to seal a 47-33 victory.
Instead of challenging Woodstock senior Lucas Theriaque, Putnam gave the forfeit to him at 175 and bumped Rob Dion up to 190 to challenge sophomore Dylan Phillips.
The forfeit reduced Putnam’s lead to 41-24.
If the Centaurs had recorded pins in the matches at 190 and 215, they were getting a forfeit at 285 which would have resulted in a 1-point Woodstock win.
But Dion did what he was supposed to do. He didn’t get pinned.
Phillips had to settle for an 11-4 win by decision and Putnam’s Lucas Benoit won by pin at 215 to improve the Clippers record to 6-10.
The early matches see-sawed back and forth between the teams.
Putnam won by forfeit at 106 but Woodstock tied it on a pin by sophomore Owen Hamilton late in the second period.
“It was a cradle,” Hamilton said. “I was just trying to tire him out the whole match.”
Jacob Olson recorded a pin for Putnam at 120 and the Clippers benefitted from a forfeit at 126 to go up, 18-6.
But the Centaurs (0-5) tied it with a pair of consecutive pins.
Sophomore Aidan Soukaloun recorded his just a minute, 18 seconds into his match.
“I took a shot, got him on his stomach and got him with a cradle,” Soukaloun said.
Freshman Jake Henderson followed with a second period pin.
“I got it off a reversal. I’m not sure it was a half (nelson) but it was a pin for sure,” Henderson said.
It was the first career pin for all three young wrestlers.
“That was awesome,” Quinn said, “The core of our team is young, we only have two seniors, sadly neither got to wrestle because they both had forfeits. It’s great to see how quickly (the young wrestlers) are developing. They are so young but are the future of program over the next three or four years and it will be great to see what they do as juniors and seniors.”
For the Centaurs, there was a little more in the way of excitement.
It was their first match at the Alumni Fieldhouse. “They loved it. The energy there was phenomenal, everyone was super-excited. I thought it was a lot of fun,” Quinn said.
The new wrestling mats arrived in late December, meaning the Centaurs could not only host matches again, but also practice at home.
“It has allowed us to slow down a bit and really focus on the fundamentals because that’s what we really need to work on. We need to make sure that we’re not advancing too quickly with more complicated moves that require a lot of technique. We need to get the basics down,” Quinn said.
Boys’ Hockey
Centaurs pick up much-needed win
The goal has been to get back to the CIAC Div. II state championship game.
But before the boys’ hockey team can worry about that, it has to qualify for the state tournament first.
That’s what made Saturday’s 7-2 win over Moses Brown School in Rhode Island very important.
It raised the Centaurs record to 3-5, meaning they have to win at least five of their remaining 12 games to get into the Div. II tournament.
“The next six games are vital for us. These are some of the games where we have a really good chance but we have to compete, play the way we know how to play and can play. This was a step in the right direction. This was a huge win, hopefully a reset, and maybe we can get a streak going here,” coach Mark Smolak said.
The Centaurs did have 10 days to prepare for Saturday’s contest.
They last played on Jan. 3 as the Jan. 10 game against Burrillville had to be moved to Feb. 20 due to weather.
Unfortunately, the weather also canceled a practice day for the Centaurs but there was some good to go with that bad.
“Having three days of practice (last) week would have been beneficial but losing the Burrillville game until Feb. 20 may have been a blessing because we’ve been fighting it and we have a confidence issue right now while Burrillville has been on a roll and beaten some really good teams. Having that reset gives us a chance to regain our confidence and go against them in February,” Smolak said.
Woodstock may have regained a little confidence Saturday as it came out of the gates quickly against Moses Brown.
Donny Sousa scored the first two goals of the game, less than two minutes apart, midway through the first period.
The Centaurs made it 3-0 when Maxx Corradi tallied later on in the first period.
Noah Sampson, who finished with a pair of goals and three assists, scored his first goal just 29 seconds into the second period to give Woodstock Academy the commanding lead and Sousa finished things up late in the third period to complete his hat trick.
The Centaurs also got Seamus Coleman back into the lineup which helped them roll three lines against Moses Brown.
It gives Smolak the flexibility to use Coleman, Cam Perrault, Keegan Covello or Brady O’Brien on that third line.
“If our upper lines aren’t doing what we want, we have someone to push them, and we aren’t dropping off, in terms of skill, as much as we have in the past,” Smolak said.
The coach is also hopeful that flexibility can also translate into more goals than just from the first line.
Sousa (9 goals this season), Corradi (8) and Sampson (7) have accounted for 83 percent of the Centaurs scoring thus far with only five goals coming from other players in the first eight games. No other player has more than one goal this season.
“We’ve been talking with the kids about that throughout the season. We moved (Brady) Lecuyer (who had two assists vs. Moses Brown) up from defensive forward and moved Jared (Neilsen) back and that gives us a different dynamic. Our second line wasn’t forechecking, no one wanted to hit, if there is one thing that Brady Lecuyer loves to do, it’s to hit. Having him being first on the puck to create space and open things up, we think will help. He has a goal and two assists in his first two games as a forward so that’s the right direction,” Smolak said.
It’s not only the offense that the coaching staff has been tinkering with but also the defense.
“We’ve been running around a little too loosey-goosey the past couple of weeks so we wanted to clean up a few things, protect the front of the net, protect (goalie Brady) Hebert, he’s been saving a lot of pucks, way too many pucks. We want to defend the center of the ice, want the wingers to stop flying the zone too early and we made a huge step in the right direction in protecting the front of (Hebert) and clearing out bodies. We still need a little more work with the wings on the sides,” Smolak said.
The Centaurs will have some more time to work on that this week. They hosted Pilgrim (R.I.) High School Monday (the game ended too late for this edition).
Another Ocean State-based team, East Greenwich, comes to town for a game at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Jahn.
Girls’ Hockey
Third period dooms Centaurs again
The Woodstock Academy Co-Op hockey team ended its two-week break on Friday as it traveled to the shoreline to play the Daniel Hand Co-Op at the Northford Ice Rink.
The Centaurs hung in for the first two periods for the Tigers but, once again, the third period was their downfall in a 7-3 loss.
Woodstock is now 2-8 on the season.
The Centaurs did get a trio of goals in the first two periods.
Sophia Gouveia, Mia Auger and Grace Lescault all tallied as Woodstock trailed by only a goal, 4-3, going into the third.
Unfortunately, the Tigers went on a 3-0 run to seal the victory.
Ellary Sampson and Maci Corradi added assists for the Centaurs.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
Sophomore Aidan Soukaloun didn’t waste any time last Wednesday as he pinned Putnam’s Ceydian Campos in 1 minute, 18 seconds in the 132-pound match between the two local schools.
Sophomore Owen Hamilton holds down Putnam’s Justin Vukas in the 120-pound match in Woodstock last Wednesday. Hamilton won the match by getting the pin 3 minutes, 41 seconds into the event.
Sophomore Olivia DiGregorio, right, battles Putnam’s Julis Lang in the 150-pound match in the first home match of the season for the Centaurs. Lang won the bout with a pin early in the second round. Photos by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.
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