Roundup
Centaurs
boys’ hockey
team captures
first win
Saving the best for last. It’s what the Woodstock Academy boys’ hockey team did last year.
“We were a third period team,” said Centaurs coach Mark Smolak. “Our best period was the third. Our goal differential in the third period was higher than any other.”
Why change a good thing?
That kind of play led Woodstock to the CIAC Div. II state championship game.
It looks like the Centaurs have picked up where they left off.
Last week, Woodstock broke open a close one-goal game with two goals in the first 2 minutes, 2 seconds of the third and skated to a 6-3 win over their former Nutmeg Conference rival, the Eastern Connecticut Eagles Co-Op.
It evened the Centaurs record at 1-1.
“The win was a good thing to have but the bigger focus was cleaning up things in our own end,” Smolak said. “The last two games we had, the scrimmage vs. Notre Dame-Fairfield and at Prout, we were just scrambling too much in our own end. We weren’t covering our proper people and just fell apart. The positive (vs. Eastern Connecticut) was not so much the win as much as getting back to the game that I know we can play.”
Just 54 seconds into the game, Noah Sampson delivered a hard forecheck to get control of the puck and fellow senior Don Sousa was sitting in the slot with no defender nearby.
“He dished it right in front and I beat the goalie short side,” Sousa said.
The Eagles (1-2-1) tied the game up but with 2:42 left in the opening period, junior Maxx Corradi put the Centaurs back on top with his second goal of the season and 96th point of his career.
Sousa didn’t wait around for long in the second period either as his second tally of the game came just 40 seconds in on the power play.
“We were just passing it back-and-forth and it got to me at the point and I just ripped it from there. It was a low one-timer, went right over the goalie’s shoulder and Corradi had the screen in front and (the goalie) had no idea it was coming,” Sousa said.
The Eagles kept it close as they answered with a goal less than a minute later and that 3-2 score would hold through the period.
While Smolak was not overly pleased with the play of his Centaurs in the second period, he had little to complain about in the third.
Jared Nielsen gave Woodstock back the breathing room it had lost when he re-directed a shot by Alex Gessner into the Eagles’ net just 1:48 into the third.
Just 14 seconds later, Sampson tallied.
“I was talking in school (Wednesday) and I was saying how if we didn’t win and I had a hat trick, it would be the end of my hockey career,” Sousa said.
He got the best of both worlds.
Sousa would finish off a nice night, personally, when he completed the hat trick with just over seven minutes to play.
He still has a career one that he is chasing. His hat trick left the senior eight points shy of the 100-point mark.
“It wasn’t even the goals that I liked about Donny last night. We had a conversation about his work ethic and hustling away from the puck and moving his feet. Especially on the breakaway goal (in the third period), I have never seen him skate that fast. He got separation from the defender. The quickness that he got to the puck and attacked the goalie with, when he’s moving feet and using his physicality, he will be an even more dangerous player and we saw that (Wednesday),” Smolak said.
The win wasn’t only important to get on the winning side of the ledger.
It was also important to add a little confidence going into this week’s Mt. St. Charles’ tournament.
“Going into that tournament 0-2 against those teams would not have been ideal. The fact that we have a win under our belts going into this tournament is going to be great,” Sousa said.
The tournament in Woonsocket, R.I. lasts three days with the opening game for the Centaurs against a top New York high school Div. I team in St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute.
In addition, there are teams that hail from Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
“It’s a good group of players and a good group of teams,” Smolak said. “As a coach I both like and hate the unknown. Every team we play, I kind of have an idea who they are. Like St. Joseph’s; I know they are a very solid team that did extremely well in this tournament last year. But we’re going against a team I have never seen and I don’t know what the New York style of D-I hockey is like. Is it comparable to Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island?”
The rink will be a little smaller than what the Centaurs are used to and recent practices took that into consideration.
“It’s going to be play smart, play simple, do the right things at the right time and anything can happen,” Smolak said.
Boys’ Basketball
The Centaurs almost opened their holiday break on a really high note.
Instead, they had to settle for a really good effort that came up just short.
Playing on their home floor on Friday against New London, the Centaurs were able to take the Whalers, a perennial ECC contender to overtime but New London was able to pull out the 47-45 victory.
It didn’t look all that good for Woodstock with just over three minutes to play.
The Centaurs (2-2) trailed 41-33 after a successful free throw by New London’s Julius Washington.
But 22 seconds later, Woodstock senior Hunter Larson (13 points) launched a fall away 3-pointer that found only the twine to cut the deficit to five.
New London turned over the ball on an offensive foul and the teams followed with a pair of turnovers each.
Woodstock got a look at the basket on the ensuing possession, missed the shot, but got the rebound and kicked it out to Cam Nason who made it a one possession game with a 3-pointer with 1:15 to play.
New London (3-1) missed its next three shots and then committed an untimely foul with six seconds left.
Garrett Bushey was sent to the line and calmly sank both to tie the game and force the overtime as a 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer for the Whalers failed to find the mark.
New London junior Savanh Warren stepped up in the extra period.
He gave the Whalers the lead for good with a bucket with 2:50 left in overtime and, after a Centaur turnover, was fouled.
He made one of the two free throws to put New London up by three.
The Centaurs closed to within one on a pair of Larson free throws with 22 seconds left but Woodstock was forced to foul and Warren made both from the line to re-establish a three point New London lead.
Woodstock’s Brady Ericson scored the last two of his 10 points with 10 seconds left but it was too little, too late as the Whalers prevailed.
Points were also at a premium on Wednesday night in Coventry.
When that happens, a team has to hope its defense steps up. Such was the case for the Centaurs.
A key defensive stop late in the contest helped lift Woodstock past the host Patriots, 47-41, in a non-league game.
“Defense played a big role,” said coach Donte Adams.
In his mind, it was decided by one Coventry possession.
“In a time out, Teddy (Richardson) came up to me and said ‘Let me guard their best player,’ He got the stop. That was big for a senior leader, the kind of thing you look for. All the defensive work we do in practice really paid off because the guys were locked in and got the stop,” Adams added.
For the Centaurs, it also pushed the memory of a difficult loss to Waterford in the season-opening game further back into the gray matter.
Not that Adams thought it was affecting the club that much anyway.
“After that loss, the guys came back to practice, and came into the locker room and have been ready to go for the last two games,” Adams said.
The Centaurs followed up that loss with a 60-46 win over Killingly.
On Wednesday, the game was tied at 21 at the half and no one could establish much space on the scoreboard in the second half either.
Larson led the team with nine points. Richardson, Bushey and Nason each contributed seven and Adams was happy with that balanced effort.
“Everyone is on the team for a reason, everyone is needed, everyone has a role. We have multiple scoring threats and that’s a great thing. If one person is not having the type of game, it’s the next man up,” Adams said.
Gymnastics
At the end of the meet, the two teams came together, both listening to their coach — the same coach.
The Woodstock and Killingly gymnastics team share the same gym, workout space and Head Coach in Kasey Tocchio.
But three times a year, if the ECC championship meet is included, the two teams have to square off against one another.
Such was the case on Friday.
“It’s interesting and I really didn’t know (who would win) with these two (teams) so I was excited to go and see what the (final) said. Like I told both teams, it really comes down to beam and the little details especially competing against other teams. We need to clean it up a little,” Tocchio said.
In this case, it was Killingly that got the early jump on Woodstock as it posted a 138.05-136.45 season-opening win.
The close result means the outcome could be different when the two teams meet again in early February.
“There is wiggle room both ways so, hopefully, we can make those little adjustments and shoot for close to 140. I think they could do really well,” Tocchio added.
Woodstock junior Olivia Aleman, the defending ECC individual champion, picked up where she left off.
Aleman finished with a 37.2 total to place first in the all-around competition.
She was one of the few not intimidated by that little strip of surface known as the balance beam as she was best of all the competitors with a 9.5.
“Beam was our last event and when it’s last, it all just builds up and since it is just 4 inches wide, it’s really hard to stay on. I was a little shaky and nervous but I’m happy,” Aleman said with a little relief about her performance.
She also placed first on bars (9.15), second on the floor (9.4) and third on vault (9.15).
“I haven’t done a ton of vaults because my back is still a little iffy and pounding on it hurts. But coming back into the gym, doing a lot more vaults and upgrading it, will help,” Aleman said.
Tocchio was pleased with the junior’s performance.
“She’s still watering down floor and bars, training for a bigger vault, so I think come midseason, she will be really raising those scores,” Tocchio said.
Sophomore Julia Kerr had a good day with her floor routine, finishing third with a 9.35 total, and was also solid on the beam.
“Julia did a beautiful floor routine and had just a little fall on beam; she can look so beautiful on beam. Emma (Long) really stepped up for us on bars and floor (Friday) so that was really exciting,” Tocchio said.
Livia Gerum was second on the team in bars and third on beam while Angelina Auger was second in vault and third on bars.
“There is still some work to do,” Aleman said. “We need some confidence especially on beam. I think it helps when beam isn’t your last event. I think we just really need to work on fresh routines so that our confidence on beam builds up.”
The Centaurs will have some time to do so. They don’t have another meet until Jan. 10 when they travel to the Connecticut shoreline to meet the East Lyme/Waterford/St. Bernard Co-Op.
Girls’ Hockey
Holding up through three periods of hockey was something the Woodstock Academy Co-Op girls’ hockey team did not excel at this past week.
The Centaurs saw two games slip away late and fell to 2-5 on the season.
On Saturday, Woodstock trailed by only one goal going into the third period.
But the Hamden Green Dragons Co-Op put three on the board in the third for the 4-0 win.
“We ran out of gas,” said coach Eric Roy. “We were with them and then we went on ‘e’.”
Hamden and Woodstock were essentially dead even through the first two periods with the exception of on the scoreboard.
The visitors took a 1-0 lead 5 minutes, 34 seconds into the second period when Giada Broccoli came off the bench and skated into the neutral zone.
No one saw her come on to the ice except the Green Dragons’ captain, Trinity Sweeney, who threaded a pass through the Woodstock defense and on to the stick of her junior teammate. Broccoli took advantage of the breakaway, lifting the puck over the outstretched left arm of Centaurs’ goalie Renee Porter (31 saves) and into the back of the net.
Sweeney and defensive partner Sara Norton not only played well on the defensive end but also on the offensive side as they accounted for all four assists for Hamden (3-2).
“They played tough hockey down there, it was tough to find any real estate in the offensive zone,” Roy said. “You could tell this team runs through its defense. The offense, every play in the neutral zone, shoots right through them.”
Sophomore forward Ava Martin put the game out of reach as she scored once with just 11:21 left in regulation and then added a second with 5:40 to play.
The Centaurs were forced to pull Porter late and Broccoli scored her second goal of the game into the empty net with 29 second left to account for the final.
“We were definitely happy with the effort. The fight is there. We have to find the gas for the third period and then we will start putting (some wins) away. We’re in games,” Roy said.
The Centaurs opened the week with a game in Hamden against the Amity/Cheshire/North Haven co-op and opened a 3-0 early lead.
Maci Corradi and Ellary Sampson both scored their third goals of the season and both assisted on each other’s goal. Riley Faber also added an assist on both the goals as well.
Mia Williamson made it 3-0 in the second period.
But the Amity Co-op rallied. It closed to within a goal going into the third period and despite a Sophia Gouveia goal for the Centaurs, managed to tie the game at four and send it in to overtime.
Amity won it with a goal just 1:17 into the extra period.
Indoor Track
The early ECC indoor track meets do not feature team scores but they are important for individual aspirations.
Several Woodstock athletes qualified for state competition as a result of the most recent ECC meet at the Coast Guard Academy on Saturday.
Senior Jillian Edwards qualified in the high jump where she finished first in the meet, clearing the bar at 4-feet, 10-inches.
Edwards had a good day as she also qualified for state competition in the 55-meter hurdles with a second-place finish in 10.04 seconds, just 2/100ths of a second behind East Lyme’s Lacey-Lee Karamides.
On the boys’ side, senior Charlie Caggiano qualified in the 1000m in a personal best time of 2:49.28 which was good enough for a third-place finish.
Caggiano was also a member of the 4x800m team, along with Colton Sallum, Christian Menounos, and Sam Greene, that finished first (8:45.39) and also qualified for States.
Other standout performances included junior Juliet Allard who dominated the 300-meter race, finishing 2 ½ seconds better than second-place finisher Rachel Quadrato of East Lyme.
Senior Julia Coyle also brought home a first-place finish in the 1600m while the team of Allard, Olivia Tracy, Coyle and Avery Schaefer were second in the 4x400m relay.
The 1440m boys sprint medley relay team of Aidan Kane, Anthony Beaudreault, Caggiano and Menounos also brought home a first-place finish.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

Junior Olivia Aleman was in winning form on the beam in the season-opening gymnastics meet. She won the event with a 9.5 score and was first in the all-around with a 37.2 total.

Livia Gerum competes in the floor competition. Photos by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.

Juniors Sophie Gronski, left, and Liliana Bottone, right, flank Woodstock Academy girls’ volleyball Head Coach Adam Bottone after receiving their Class L second team All-State honors. Photo by Amanda Bottone/Woodstock Academy.

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