Roundup
Third period
the charm for
girls' team
The third period has typically not been a good 15 minutes for the Woodstock Academy girls’ hockey team this season.
It was last Wednesday night for a change.
“I don’t know. It was like a flash from the past,” said Centaurs coach Eric Roy. “Last year, we couldn’t play in the first and second periods and we were always good in the third. This season, we flipped the script and (on Wednesday) we reverted back to last year.”
The Centaurs rallied from a three-goal deficit in the final 15 minutes to post their third win of the season, 4-3, over the Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe Co-Op.
The special teams got the party started in the third period for Woodstock as it successfully killed a Fairfield 5-on-3 advantage.
It led to Sophia Gouveia getting the rally started. She scored just two minutes into the period off an assist from Paige Hinckley.
Maci Corradi tied it for Woodstock Academy with a pair of goals just two minutes apart from each other.
The Centaurs won it with 3:32 left when Avery Nielsen made her first career goal a memorable one as it proved to be the game winner.
Nielsen did a lot of the work herself as she picked up the puck in the defensive end, looked up and didn’t see anyone free (on the offensive end) so she skated it out, got it out of the defensive end and fired it on net from just outside the offensive blue line much to the shock of the Fairfield keeper.
It’s something that Roy said the coaches have been trying to instill in Nielsen.
Mia Williamson added two assists for Woodstock.
The win broke an 11-game losing streak.
The Centaurs did put another strong effort together on Friday as they took the Marcy-Northwest Catholic-East Hampton Co-Op to overtime but came out just short, losing 3-2, in Simsbury.
The Centaurs fell behind early, 2-1, with Sophia Gouveia scoring her eighth goal of the season.
Woodstock tied the game 13 minutes, two seconds into the second period on a tally by senior captain Mia Williamson.
The two teams were unable to break the tie in the third period which led to some extra hockey.
The Mercy Co-Op ended it with a goal just 1:27 into OT.
The Centaurs saw their record fall to 3-14 on Saturday when Avon/Southington handed them a 7-1 loss on the ice. Stella Morrison had the only goal for Woodstock.
Boys’ Hockey
In their previous two games, the Woodstock boys’ hockey team had fallen behind by two goals in the first period.
They did that one better on Saturday.
The Fairfield Warde-Ludlow Co-Op bolted to a three-goal lead in the first period over the Centaurs.
In addition, it was a pretty one-sided game beyond the score as the Mustangs took 21 shots to the Centaurs one.
Woodstock rallied in the second and third periods to pick up the win and break a two-game losing streak with a hard-fought, 6-5, victory.
The Centaurs (6-8) did settle down defensively.
Senior Ryan Wallace, playing in his first game of the season since returning to the Academy, settled down in back and eventually things came around.
Jayden Fuller scored 8 minutes, 25 seconds into the second period and senior Noah Sampson followed. He took a pass from Donny Sousa just 34 seconds after the Fuller goal and put it past Mustangs’ goalie Tristan Baker to cut the lead to one.
There was a little kink in the second-period comeback.
Fairfield’s Ryan Tymon scored his 100th career point and a 4-2 lead for the Mustangs (10-5-1).
But the Centaurs would go into the locker room down just one when Sampson tallied for a second time with just six seconds to play in the second period.
It took the senior only 49 seconds in the third period to finish the hat trick and tie the game at four.
But then, a Woodstock player incurred a five-minute major penalty.
Instead of the lengthy Fairfield power play putting a fork into the Centaurs’ comeback, it actually seemed to embellish it as Woodstock again took a page from its 2022-23 playbook.
Troy Daviau put the Centaurs ahead to stay just two minutes after Sampson’s tying goal and just moments after the penalty when he put in a shorthanded tally.
Daviau came off the bench to join a one-man counter by Donny Sousa and recorded his third goal of the year. It was soon joined by another goal courtesy of Sousa.
The senior again broke out against a gassed Fairfield team that brought only 12 skaters, with Maxx Corradi in tow. He flipped a blind pass back to his linemate for a second shorthanded tally.
The win was definitely needed. “We’ve been playing a lot of tough teams lately, holding our own, but losing by one or two goals. This win is a step in the right direction. As the season finishes up, I think we can put on a tear and make a run at the playoffs,” Sousa said.
The Fairfield Warde-Ludlowe Co-op was ranked No. 5 in the state.
That was actually a step down for the Centaurs who played the top team from Rhode Island, Bishop Hendricken, on Wednesday.
This one didn’t end as well the Providence club pulled out the late win.
James Carrera scored with 59 seconds left in regulation to give the visitors a 4-3 victory.
Hendricken took an early 2-0 first period lead before Sampson cut the deficit in half for the Centaurs with a goal off assists from Sousa and Corradi.
Hendricken went ahead by two again with the only tally in the second period.
Daviau took a feed from Sousa and put it into the net 6 minutes, 48 seconds into the final period. Five minutes later, Corradi scored an unassisted goal to tie things up for the Centaurs only to see the Carrera goal foil their hopes in the final minute.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs traveled to New Canaan, the third-ranked team in the State.
Everything was going fine until the game was delayed for about an hour when a glass pane was broken during warmups.
 As a result, the hosts scored two quick goals in the first 7 minutes, 45 seconds and those tallies stood up as New Canaan posted the 3-1 victory.
Sousa scored his 12th goal of the season off an assist from Sam Desmond 12:12 into the second period to account for the Centaurs only goal.
Girls' Indoor Track
It may be difficult to believe but the high school winter athletic season is indeed rapidly winding down.
The first of the ECC championships was held on Saturday as the boys’ and girls’ Div. I indoor track championships.
The Woodstock girls’ team had some strong individual performances but could not keep up with the numbers that Norwich Free Academy had.
The Wildcats walked away with the team championship with a 147 total followed by East Lyme (101) and the Centaurs (85).
Junior Juliet Allard contributed 10 points to the effort with a first-place finish in the 300m (41.94 seconds); added another eight with a second in the 55-meter hurdles and joined Julia Coyle, Talia Tremblay and Emma Weitknecht to win the 4x400-meter relay for another 10 points.
Jill Edwards rebounded from a disappointment in the hurdles to win the high jump. After she tripped on a hurdle and finished some two seconds off her normal finish, she had to report to high jump immediately after. She quickly wrapped up first place in the event as she cleared the bar at 4-foot-10 inches and just missed on a 5-foot-4 attempt.
Fellow senior Julia Coyle was not only a member of the 4x400m relay team but also captured second as a member of the 4x720 relay and another second by herself in the 1600m.
Talia Tremblay captured a third-place in the 600m, Olivia Tracy was third in the 1600m and fifth in the 1000.
In the throws, Avery Plouffe threw the shot 32-feet, 4-inches for a second-place finish.
While the Centaurs finished third in the ECC, Welch thinks a top-five finish in the Class M state competition Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Floyd Little Athletic Center is not out of the question.
The coach believes Edwards could finish on top in the high jump, Allard could also win in the 300 with Coyle and Tracy getting distance points. The 4x400m relay could also finish on top.
Boys’ Indoor Track
There were some highlights for the boys’ indoor track team at the ECC Div. I championship.
Junior Colton Sallum clicked off a personal best in the 1600-meter as he placed third in 4 minutes, 30.58 seconds.
Fellow junior Christian Menounos usually makes a lot of headlines but he had a pedestrian meet as he placed third in the 1000m in 2:40.93.
Eli Manning qualified for Class M competition in the shotput with a personal best throw of 38-feet, 10-inches. Anthony Beaudreault also qualified for States in the 300m.
Overall, the Centaurs finished fifth, well behind the winner, East Lyme, which accumulated 154 points.
Welch feels the boys could do well at the Class M state championship Saturday.
Girls’ Basketball
Five players in double figures usually translates to something good. The girls’ basketball team dropped Ledyard, 61-45 on the Colonels’ home floor.
The lack of games bothered the Centaurs a bit prior to contests against New London and Bacon Academy the week before.
The guard play was key. Sophomores Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain and Kaylee Saucier each dropped a trio of 3-pointers on Ledyard.
D’Alleva-Bochain finished with a team-high 17 points while Saucier added 11.
The frontcourt was not going to be left out.
Junior Eva Monahan and sophomores Sidney Anderson and Vivian Bibeau each contributed 10 points apiece.
The win raised Woodstock’s record to 14-4 overall.
Boys’ Basketball
The boys’ basketball team was hoping to pick up its eighth win of the season this past week and that turned out to be a pretty difficult task.
The eighth win is significant as it would qualify the Centaurs for the Div. IV state tournament.
But losses to St. Bernard and Somers meant Woodstock will have to wait until its next contest, its last regular season home game against Norwich Free Academy on Tuesday (the game ended too late for this edition).  
The Centaurs could not find a lot of offense in Somers and sputtered in a 47-38 loss to fall to 7-9 on the season.
Woodstock fell behind the Spartans when Troy Maia scored all 11 points for Somers in the first quarter when it opened a six-point lead over Woodstock.
Maia added seven more to keep Somers on top, 22-15, at the half, and finished with a game-high 25 points.
The Centaurs did not have a player in double figures as Brady Ericson led the team with nine and Garrett Bushey tossed in six.
Earlier in the week, Woodstock was the ninth consecutive victim of St. Bernard. Six players scored for the Saints as they put up 25 points in the first quarter and rolled from there to a 67-42 win over Woodstock.
St. Bernard (13-2) built off that strong first quarter and owned a 41-17 advantage at the half.
Ericson kept the Centaurs in it as best he could as he scored 10 of his 18 points in the first half. Matt Hernandez and Carter Tosetti both added a pair of 3-pointers each for the Centaurs.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

Senior right wing Donny Sousa (13) had a pair of key assists in the Centaurs come-from-behind, 6-5, victory over the Fairfield Warde-Ludlowe Co-Op. Photo by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.

The Woodstock Academy boys’ and girls’ indoor track teams the end of the ECC championship meet for both at the Coast Guard Academy in New London Saturday. (Photo by Josh Welch/Woodstock Academy)

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