Roundup
Centaurs boys
come up with
1st victory
It may have taken a little convincing by first-year head coach Donte Adams but it appears Brady Ericson has found a true home for the Woodstock Academy boys’ basketball team.
In the paint.
The 6-foot, 60 inch sophomore has the range to step outside for the 3-pointers, but is much more valuable inside for the Centaurs.
He proved that the week before when he put 27 points down in a loss to Windham without the benefit of a trey.
He followed that up on early last week with a 16-point effort, with all the hoops coming from inside, to lead the Centaurs to their first win of the season, 68-62 at Stonington.
Ericson also had a double-digit effort against East Lyme on Thursday, but Woodstock came up just short, 56-55, in overtime to fall to 1-3 on the season.
“He was really big on the boards and he was a beast down low,” Adams said about Ericson’s effort against Stonington. “That’s where he has to live at. I know he can stretch the floor a bit and we can rely on him to do that but we need him to play in the post because that’s where he will make the greatest contribution to the team. The last two games, he has bought in and it has worked because he is playing his best basketball so far.”
That, despite, battling shin splints.
Ericson scored half of his 16 points in the decisive fourth quarter against the Bears but he got some help from another sophomore, Garrett Bushey.
Bushey was ice from the line as he made 5-of-6 free throws in the fourth quarter to finish with 11 points.
“(Stonington) started to cut into our lead and Garrett came up big as far as making free throws to help us seal the game. That was great poise by him,” Adams said.
He wasn’t the only one playing with poise. The Centaurs were playing without senior guard Brandon Nagle who was out with an injury.
Junior Hunter Larson stepped into the starting role and finished with 10 points.
“He approached the game better than what I expected,” Adams said as Larson was making his first varsity start. “I told him that the first two games we played were in the past and to forget about them. He started and handled the pressure really well, being that he had to handle the ball more, and played his type of game.”
Junior Teddy Richardson also saw his time on the floor boosted due to Nagle’s absence and he responded with a 10-point effort of his own.
“I told (Richardson) all he had to do was find his groove and he let it come to him. He came off the bench, played hard, got some offensive rebounds, dove on the floor and that led to him getting some open shots,” Adams said.
Carter Morissette also tossed in 11 points, and according to Adams, had the best defensive effort on the team against the Bears.
It was an up-and-down game for the first three quarters.
The Centaurs led, 17-13, after the first quarter only to see Stonington (2-1) put down 20 points in the second quarter to take a 33-29 lead at the half.
The Bears went up by eight points in the third but Woodstock rallied to take a 51-47 lead into the final quarter and held off the Bears by getting two more points than them in the fourth.
“I told the guys that once we get one (win) on the board, we will be fine. The great thing about it is that we went into Stonington, a very tough environment, and they were 2-0 and we were 0-2. It finally came full circle for us. We were up the first game, came back in the second game and this was a mixture of the two. We were up, down, fought back, and were finally able to finish a close game,” Adams said.
Unfortunately, that was not the case against the Vikings.
The Centaurs traveled to East Lyme on a stormy Thursday night and had an up-and-down night on the court as well.
Woodstock, behind three first half 3-pointers from Bushey (11 points), built a 31-18 lead at the break.
The Vikings (2-1) couldn’t cut into that deficit much in the third quarter as they still trailed, 46-34, going into the fourth.
But things got better for the hosts in the final quarter as they were able to tie the game at 50 and forced the overtime where they finished one point better than the Centaurs.
Ericson led Woodstock with 14 points while Larson added 11 to the effort. Nagle did return to the lineup and finished with nine points.

Short-handed Centaurs win
There is plenty of sickness going around throughout the state and country, never mind northeastern Connecticut and some of that hit the Woodstock girls’ basketball team last week.
Starting freshman guard Kaylee Saucier and junior forward Leah Danis were both homebound due to illness and two other varsity players, Leila MacKinnon and Vivian Bibeau, were out with injuries.
It left coach Will Fleeton with just eight healthy varsity players.
It turned out to be enough as the Centaurs raised their record to 3-1 with a 37-28 win over E. Lyme in their only game of the week.
“Having others step up is what you hope for as a coach and that’s what it’s all about. We definitely follow the ‘next man up’ philosophy,” Fleeton said.
The win also came against an ECC Div. I team on its home floor which also could help the Centaurs’ confidence a bit.
Woodstock played in Div. II last year before being shifted up to Div. I this season.
“It was probably more important for the kid’s confidence to reassure them that they’re OK. I know we’ re OK, but I think they need proof. (Tuesday) provided some of that proof that we can play with some of these teams in our league,” Fleeton said.
A fast start is always important on the road and the Centaurs got that.
Woodstock jumped out to a 20-6 lead at the half.
“It was a very good defensive effort, not only in the first half, but the whole game,” Fleeton said. “The kids executed the game plan and played extremely hard. We beat them on the boards after playing good possessions on defense.”
Offensively, sophomore Sophia Sarkis got the Centaurs rolling.
The forward scored eight points in the first quarter as she put home a pair of 3-pointers.
 “She got it started right away and helped us get out to that early lead,” Fleeton said.
The second half belonged to another sophomore, Eva Monahan. Like Sarkis, she finished with 11 points, only seven of her points came in the final quarter.
“We went to her a little extra-heavy in the fourth because they were paying extra attention to her. She made some great passes, got some other players involved, which forced them to back off with their double teams and help so she caught a lot of 1-on-1 action and was able to win those battles,” Fleeton said.
Monahan finished with a double-double as she also pulled down 12 rebounds. Freshman Sidney Anderson finished with six blocks. Junior Reegan Reynolds also was a big defensive contributor as she finished with five steals, five rebounds and, with help from Lennon Favreau, held E. Lyme’s top scorer to just seven points.
The good news for the Centaurs, was that they now have a week off prior to heading to the Cranston (R.I.) tournament which began on Tuesday (the game ended too late for this edition).
“I think it’s good right now, I might have said something different a week ago,” Fleeton said of the brief break. “But with sickness going around and a couple of injuries, it gives us a little time to nurse ourselves and get back together.”

Centaurs finish even with Rockets
Lots of rotations. Mixing up the lines.
Woodstock girls’ hockey coach Eric Roy has done what he can early in the season to get his players familiar with each other in the brand-new cooperative program.
It paid off last Wednesday as the Centaurs skated to a 2-2 tie with the Auburn (Mass.) Rockets.
It’s the same Rockets team that just the week before had skated past the Woodstock cooperative team, 4-2.
“That’s a great result,” Roy said. “After what they did to us last week, we were able to hang with them. We wanted to clean up our game and have some fight and get away from the first period jitters and everything looked a heck of a lot better out there.”
The Rockets did have the better of the play in the first period.
They outshot the Centaurs, 11-6. But the important thing was that no puck went into the net.
It accomplished the goal of getting over the slow starts that the Centaurs (1-3-1) had been bothered by in three of their first four games.
Auburn did break through for a goal with just 1 minute, 42 seconds left in the second period, however, when Maddi Langevin picked up a rebound off a shot from Maddi Wall and stuffed it into the Centaurs net.
But Woodstock would answer. With just 29 seconds left in the period, Juliette Hammer took a shot from the left point, it was deflected by teammate Mia Williamson on to the stick of Caitlyn Flynn who re-directed it into the Auburn net.
It was a focus that the Centaurs had been working on in their three practices leading up to the Auburn game- battling in front of the net for position.
“We fought,” Roy said. “Every time, we fight which I’m proud of these girls for. They battle back. They don’t get down and discouraged. That’s a good sign.”
That fight was on display again in the third period.
Auburn again forged ahead when Leah Medeiros with help from Maddi Leonard and Fiona Knott put one past Woodstock goalie Elizabeth Morgis with 8:10 left to play.
The Centaurs, however, forged the tie when freshman Maci Corradi, with help from senior captain Bryn Miller and fellow freshman Riley Faber, equaled things up with 5:24 to play.
“We had a good breakout and as we got it into the zone, I went to the net, crashed it, tipped it and put it in,” Corradi said.
It was her team-leading sixth goal of the season.
“She’s a sparkplug,” Roy said of the freshman. “She has a way to put a puck in the back of the net. She can shoot, is always in the right spot. She’s a great teammate and a great leader.”
Morgis was solid all game long as she made 20 saves on the 24 shots that Auburn put on net. “She’s been a rock for us. She saw one game last year and has just been thrust into it this year and has done a heck of a good job. She comes to work and she wants to win hockey games,” Roy said.
The team, as a whole, is starting to come together.
“After the first few games, coach saw who could play together and he worked us together so that we could bond a bit,” Corradi said.
For example, Flynn is from Norwich Tech, Hammer hails from Ledyard and Williamson from E. Lyme and they combined to score the first goal.
“You can see it, they’re starting to gel,” Roy said. “It’s different to have so many schools and girls coming from different places. But they’re getting along at practice, always picking each other up. It’s a good group of girls.”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information


..captions:

The Woodstock Academy

Crashes
Woodstock Academy senior captain Bryn Miller crashes the boards chasing the puck in a 2-2 tie against Auburn.


Chasing Puck
 Senior Caitlyn Flynn, who scored a goal for Woodstock in a 2-2 tie with Auburn, skates after the puck. Photos by Marc Allard

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