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Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer coach Dennis Snelling was doing his best to avoid what was seemingly inevitable in an ECC semifinal at Waterford last week.
Penalty kicks.
“I tried to keep sending people forward to try and end it a different way,” Snelling said. “We had not practiced penalty kicks. We took three or four on (Centaur goalie) Rebecca (Nazer) prior to the game thinking it may happen but we hadn’t had a lot of practice time with them.”
But it’s something that may rear its head again as the Class L state tournament looms.
The Centaurs and Lancers battled through 80 minutes of regulation and two overtime periods and no one found the net.
It was the Lancers who prevailed in penalty kicks, 4-3.
A mistake on a goal kick by Waterford resulted in a shot for the Centaurs that went wide. Another opportunity came off a corner kick but a shot from about 30 yards out just cleared the crossbar.
Nazer made eight saves in net.
“Waterford missed the first of its penalty kicks which gave the Centaurs the early advantage in the first round of five.
Macy Rawson, Freya Robbie and Juliet Allard hit their PK’s.
Robbie and Leah Costa were named ECC All-Stars with Allard being named Honorable Mention.
The team’s ECC Scholar-Athlete is Taylor Lamothe with Kayla Leite as the recipient of the team’s ECC Sportsmanship award.
From the ECC tournament right into the state tournament.
The Centaurs are the 20th seed in the Class L state tournament and didn’t have to travel far for their first-round match
Woodstock played at Killingly on Monday (The match ended too late for this edition).
Volleyball
The Centaurs volleyball team made it all the way to the Class L state semifinal last year.
They did not make it past the ECC Div. I tournament quarterfinals, however.
“Last year, we made it here and we lost on our home court. This is really good. A little revenge-type thing. We’re here and we made it to the semifinals this time,” said junior Sophie Gronski.
Fitch upset the Centaurs a year ago. Bacon Academy could not repeat that performance by the Falcons.
The Centaurs quickly bolted out to a two-set lead and then weathered a bit of a storm in the third to post the 3-0 victory. The win sent the Centaurs into the ECC semifinals.
The Centaurs were hoping the third time against Waterford would be the charm. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case.
No. 3 Woodstock fell to the second-seeded Lancers, 3-0.
It was the first time that the Centaurs had hosted the ECC semifinals.
The hosts looked like they had the upper hand early.
Woodstock led much of the first set and had doubled up on the Lancers, 18-9, at one point.
But Waterford went on a 10-4 run to cut that deficit to three.
The Centaurs and Lancers split the next four points putting Woodstock on the precipice of a first-set victory, 24-21.
They could not close it out. The Lancers scored five unanswered points to take the set, 26-24.
Woodstock also held a late lead in the second set, 21-20, only to once again see the Lancers reel off five consecutive points for a 25-21 victory.
Waterford led almost the entire third set and completed the sweep with a 25-16 victory.
Liliana Bottone paced the Centaurs with eight kills and 14 digs. Gronski added 22 assists. Izzy Mojica had six kills and Cassidy Ladd contributed 10 digs.
It was a different story in the quarterfinal earlier last week. The Centaurs made it look easy in the first two sets.
Four aces in the first 10 points, two each by Gronski and Reegan Reynolds, catapulted Woodstock to a 10-3 lead and the Bobcats never recovered.
The Centaurs easily took the set, 25-14.
Ladd had all five of her service aces in the first eight points of the second set and gave the Centaurs an 8-1 advantage.
This time, the effect of that early deficit was even more pronounced as Woodstock posted the 25-11 win.
But there was a little cause for concern. Woodstock had six errors in the first set and four in the second and five in the third.
Adam Bottone said, however, 15 service errors in a match could come back to haunt the Centaurs down the road.
Liliana Bottone paced the Centaurs with nine kills. Vivian Bibeau added six and Gronski, who finished with 31 assists, added five short-range flip kills.
Mojica and Mia Sorrentino also had five kills for the Centaurs.
Liliana Bottone and Gronski were selected as ECC All-Stars with Mojica named as an Honorable Mention choice. Emma Kerr is the team’s ECC Scholar-Athlete and Reegan Reynolds was the team’s ECC Sportsmanship award recipient.
The season is not over for Woodstock. The Class L state tournament is next on the Centaurs agenda but if the numbers play out, it will not be all that much different from the ECC tournament.
East Lyme, the top-seed in the ECC tournament, is the top seed in Class L. Waterford, the second seed in the ECC is second in Class L and the Centaurs, the ECC third seed, are the fourth seed in the state tournament.
The Centaurs are the only one of those three who will not receive a first-round bye as 29 teams qualified for the tournament.
Woodstock hosted the last of them, No. 29 Torrington, on Tuesday (the match ended too late for this edition).
Football
Early on, things were good in Groton for the Woodstock football team. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t stay that way.
The Centaurs held the lead briefly in the first quarter and fought back to a tie in the second.
But the two early touchdowns would be all Woodstock could muster while Fitch had plenty more to come and walked off their home field with a 54-14 win.
The Centaurs (3-5, 0-3 ECC Div. I) forced Fitch to punt on its first possession and then was the beneficiary of a recovered fumble on the Falcons’ second possession.
The Centaurs took over on the Fitch 33-yard line and got a nice 12-yard run from quarterback Teddy Richardson (11 carries, 35 yards) on the first play from scrimmage.
Woodstock lost a yard over its next two plays but on third-and-11 from the 22-yard line, Richardson (11-20 passing, 126 yards) found Lucas Theriaque open and he threw him a strike to put the Centaurs up 6-0.
The joy didn’t last long as Fitch answered on a 31-yard pass from Benjamin Perry to Calvin McCoy and hit the extra point to go into the second quarter with a 7-6 lead.
Woodstock Academy used an attempted onside kick by the Falcons, got good field position and drove to the Fitch 32 to start the second quarter. but then the engines went in reverse and a sack led to a turnover on downs at their own 45-yard line.
Perry made it even more costly when he hit Adonis Fine who was open over the middle, made a nice juke around a Centaur defender, and ended up in the end zone for the 45-yard touchdown.
It was just the first of three big plays for the Fitch senior.
The Centaurs, however, were not about to pack it in.
They got good field position off the kickoff at the Falcons’ 48 and running back Gabe Luperon-Flecha (18 carries, 58 yards) made it even better with his longest run of the night, a 32-yard gallop, down to the Fitch 16. One incomplete pass later, Luperon-Flecha found the end zone.
A Richardson to Jacob Lizotte pass for the 2-point conversion tied the game at 14.
Fitch returned the kickoff to the Woodstock Academy 26 and two plays later, Perry used his legs to score from 19 yard out to put the Falcons back on top.
A Woodstock mistake was costly. The ensuing kickoff was fumbled by the Centaurs at their own 25.
Perry converted on the next play with a touchdown pass to Raheem Porter Carter.
The Centaurs were forced to punt on their next possession and a Fitch field goal failed to split the uprights.
But the Falcons would go up by 20 at the half when a Lizotte punt was caught by Fine at the Fitch 32 and he brought it to the house 68 yards downfield to put Fitch in firm control, 34-14.
Fine added an 80-yard touchdown run in the third quarter while Carter had a 53-yard run and Devin Cook had a 7-yard run in the fourth quarter to account for the final.
The Centaurs return home on Saturday, Veterans Day, to host Norwich Free Academy at noon at the Bentley Athletic Complex.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
captions:
The Woodstock Academy football team’s offensive line does all it can do to stop the Fitch pass rush.
Volleyball Award
From left: ECC Div. I volleyball all-star Liliana Bottone, honorable mention Izzy Mojica, Sportsmanship award recipient Reegan Reynolds, Div. I All Star Sophie Gronski and Scholar-Athlete Emma Kerr all received their awards prior to the ECC championship match. Photo by Adam Bottone/Woodstock Academy.
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The Woodstock Academy Prep 1 soccer team experienced something it rarely has this season.
In a match on its home turf, the Centaurs found themselves trailing early Saturday.
But they overcame that adversity, rallied and held off Northwood School from Lake Placid, N.Y., 3-2.
The Centaurs followed that up on Sunday with a 4-0 home field win over Hoosac School, to improve to 12-0-1.
The Centaurs are the No. 1 prep team in the country according to prepsoccer.com.
“It’s nice to have that recognition. It means you are doing well but at the end of the day, the polls don’t mean anything,” said coach Owen Finberg. “Every game is hard. It’s hard to score goals, hard to win matches and certainly every team by now knows how good Woodstock Academy is and they give us their best shot. We have to be ready for every play in the 90- minutes every time we step on the field.”
To get them ready for that sort of challenge, the coach comes up with other challenges to not only build team chemistry, but also the team’s will and the team has responded to those challenges which don’t always take place on the pitch.
“They definitely have a strong character amongst the group,” Finberg said.
He and the coaching staff tested the team’s resolve on Friday.
They took the group up to the public swimming area at Muddy Pond and sat in the 40-degree water for six minutes.
“When we got back to the locker room, I told them, ‘You guys can do hard things. In life, you will have some of those things coming your way,’” Finberg said.
It was prophetic as Woodstock had to deal with a little adversity against Northwood School.
The Centaurs fell behind the Huskies, 1-0, when Mitchell Baker from Melbourne, Australia, scored off a corner from Cedric Lemaire 14 minutes, 27 seconds into the match.
“We made a great response before I could even talk to them at halftime,” Finberg said.
Just about 4 ½ minutes after the Northwood School goal, the Centaurs responded with a goal of their own when Enoch Joseph took a pass from Choeil-Hui Cho and buried it into the back of the net to tie the match at 1.
Freshman Richard Sarpong then put the Centaurs ahead just before the half when he took a shot that was saved by Huskies’ keeper Elm Pentinat Llurba. But the rebound got away from Llurba and Sarpong never gave up on it, sticking the rebound in to give Woodstock the lead with 1:45 left in the first half.
“You have to be hungry in the box. That’s what we talk about because that’s where games are won or lost. Sometimes a keeper can make a save, sometimes shots are deflected and you can’t watch. You have to put yourself in a position to anticipate where the next ball will drop and he did a great job of doing that. He has done it all year long,” Finberg said.
It was the 10th goal of the season for the youngster.
But the trials and tribulations were not over yet for the Centaurs.
Northwood School was able to tie the match just 3:24 into the second half off another set play.
A corner to the right side of Woodstock keeper Alvaro Medrano Jr. found the head of Baker who directed it on to the foot of Camilo Pereda for the equalizing goal.
“Unfortunately, I think we gave them both their goals which made the game a lot harder for us. They have a good team, they fought hard for 90 minutes and they made us earn it. Baker is a big forward and was a handful. You give good teams chances, they make you pay,” Finberg said.
But the Centaurs weren’t taken aback.
They doubled up on their effort and less than five minutes later, a beautiful cross from Jude Essuman found Hendrix Mota coming on to the net and he scored his fifth goal of the season.
“I just got into the box and coach always says to run to the first post. Jude took on the defender, crossed it in, and I just had to tap it in. Collaborative work from the whole team, I was just the man who finished it,” Mota said.
Finberg agreed with Mota. Teamwork was key.
“That was an awesome pass there. That’s something that we work on, getting the ball wide and letting (Essuman) and Richard, especially, take players on. Hendrix did exactly the right thing and made the run to the front post and he’s an excellent finisher and certainly showed it there. That was a tough ball to put into the back of the net,” the coach said.
The Centaurs finished the Prep Premier League regular season with 19 points and will be the top seed from the East Region in the league tournament after the win over Hoosac on Sunday.
They will face Phelps School Nov. 17 in a league semifinal in Tinton Falls, N.J.
Woodstock didn’t take long to get going against Hoosac.
Just two minutes into the match, Daniel Valdes took a corner for the Centaurs which Yeochan Yang turned into a goal with a diving header.
Valdes played a role again just before the half when he sent a ball to Essuman who converted for a 2-0 lead.
Sarpong and Harrison Vail helped on a second half goal as they combined on an overlap and Vail made the cross to David Lee for the Centaurs’ third tally.’
Sarpong finished off the scoring, displaying his excellent skills with the ball, beating three defenders on the left side to get to the net for the goal.
Alvaro Medrano Jr. and Daniel Covelli combined for the shutout in goal for Woodstock Academy. It was the fourth time in seven league games that the Centaurs have posted a shutout.
Da Costa commits to Syracuse University
Prep 1 senior soccer player Kelvin Da Costa had a big moment earlier in the week as he officially committed to play for Syracuse University in New York next season.
“It’s a dream of mine. I’ve worked hard for it. I could not have done it without my teammates and the coaching staff who have helped me in practice to get better every day,” Da Costa said.
Da Costa, who hails from Mozambique, did have some injury troubles this season but was able to get on to the field against Northwood School on Saturday.
The Orangemen are the defending NCAA Div. I champions having defeated Indiana a year ago on penalty kicks after playing to a 2-2 draw.
“Guys are here to move on in their careers both academically and athletically and that’s our focus is to get guys prepared for the next step. They have to do those sorts of things here to get those opportunities but then through their experiences here, they’re ready,” Finberg said. “Kelvin is certainly in that mode. He will have an opportunity to step on to the field I think in the best league in country right away next year as a freshman. He was also just named a high school All-American so there are a lot of good things for Kelvin and a lot of good things coming for some of these other guys as well.”
Da Costa also met a future teammate at Syracuse as Sachiel Ming, who plays for Northwood, has also committed to Syracuse.
“That’s exciting. It was nice to get to know him,” Da Costa said.
Prep 2 Finishes Strong
The Centaurs Prep 2 soccer team also had a strong finish on the home field on Sunday.
The Centaurs held off Hoosac School’s second squad, 4-2, in a Global Education Sports Partners League match.
Woodstock improved to 9-3-2 overall and 6-0 in the GESP with the win.
Nico Ochoa blasted one in from 40 yards out for the Centaurs first tally.
Jaiden Banton and Francesco Colantuoni then combined for the next two with Banton scoring the second off a Colantuoni assist and then assisting on a Colantuoni goal.
Matias Solano finished off the scoring off an assist from Jorge Castellanos.
Calvin Field picked up the win in the net but fellow keepers Zeeshan Desai and Sten Lehmann also played.
They got some time on the field as the Centaurs are battling some injury woes.
Woodstock was coming off a 1-0 win over St. Thomas More in Oakdale earlier in the week.
Kevin Thomson’s blast from 25-yards out halfway through the second half was the only goal of the match.
Covelli delivered the shutout in goal for the Centaurs.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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Fire
marshal
can work
on the road
PUTNAM — The Putnam Fire Marshal’s Office recently received a $4,100 fire prevention grant from FM Global, one of the world’s largest commercial property insurers.
Putnam Fire Marshal Scott Belleville said the grant will be a huge boost to the fire marshals’ work, making it much more efficient.
He said the funds will be used to buy two computers with cellular technology. These computers (and wireless printers) would be used in the field. They will allow the fire marshal and deputy fire marshal to write reports, inspection forms, plus interviews and statements at the scene of a fire and more. The computers can connect from the field to the server in Town Hall so the fire marshals can look up past inspections, forms, reports and more. “We can have internet anywhere,” he said. The marshals can look up codes, anything they need.
For example, he said, he can conduct an interview at a fire; type in a statement and then print it out right there and ask the interviewee, “Is this correct?”
Belleville estimated the department should have the computers in about a month.
FM Global makes these grants to assist with fire prevention activities in the community to help educate the community and reduce the number of fires.
Because fire continues to be the leading cause of property damage worldwide, during the past 40 years FM Global has contributed millions of dollars in fire prevention grants to fire service organizations around the globe.
“At FM Global, we strongly believe the majority of property damage is preventable, not inevitable,” said Michael Spaziani, assistant vice president – manager of the fire prevention grant program. “Far too often, inadequate budgets prevent those organizations working to prevent fire from being as proactive as they would like to be. With additional financial support, grant recipients are actively helping to improve property risk in the communities they serve.”
Through its Fire Prevention Grant Program, FM Global awards grants to fire departments—as well as national, state, regional, local and community organizations worldwide—that best demonstrate a need for funding, where dollars can have the most demonstrable impact on preventing fire, or mitigating the damage it can quickly cause.
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Moon Setting
This "winter's coming" chilly photo was taken in East Woodstock recently by Doug Porter of Woodstock.
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Girls’ team
is chasing the crown
PUTNAM — The Ellis-Putnam girls’ soccer team is ending its season with a 14-0-2 record and is currently ranked #2 in Class S. If the team wins Saturday, they come away as the CTC champions.
The newly formed co-op team showed its potential from the jump. The girls started their season 7-0, and then had a hard-fought tie against Windham Tech after a devastating last-minute goal from the Windham Tech Tigers.
Ellis-Putnam bounced back after that game and later defeated Windham Tech 3-1, marking Ellis’ first program win over Windham Tech. Now Ellis-Putnam is preparing for its third match up against the Tigers at 6 p.m. Nov. 11 at Cheney Tech. This highly anticipated game has a lot on the line for both teams, with Ellis-Putnam fighting to establish themselves as a competitive team, and Windham Tech fighting for revenge after their previous loss. The winner of this game will come away as CTC champions.
Putnam senior and team Captain Lily Goyette said: “We’re going into this tournament with a lot to prove. We’ve exceeded a lot of expectations during the regular season and now everyone knows we’re a threat. This is the moment we’ve been working towards all season and we’re ready to prove ourselves.”
By Isabel Vergoni
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