Roundup
Centaurs finally down Fitch
The celebration following the Woodstock Academy boys’ lacrosse victory over the Fitch Falcons was probably a bit more than a normal regular season match usually sees.
But this was one the Centaurs had circled on the calendar.
“That’s huge,” said coach Jason Tata after the 11-9 victory. “I’ve never (coached a team) that has beaten Fitch. We’ve come close over and over again. It’s really hard in the (ECC) because there is a lot of good competition so it’s really nice when I can start checking off first wins. I’ve been here long enough, I feel like I should have had one sooner, but, man, that is a good win.”
It was also not an easy one. It was a see-saw contest especially in the first half. The Centaurs found themselves down, 5-2, late in the first quarter.
But the Centaurs responded with Gunnar Basak scoring late in the first quarter off an assist from Sam Desmond and then Dylan Phillips tallied just 34 seconds into the second quarter to cut the deficit to one.
Fitch scored one of its own but then Basak scored with 7:16 left in the half.
Desmond, who finished with four goals, gave the Centaurs the halftime lead with a goal with 1 minute, 13 seconds left in the second quarter.
“We anticipated that,” Desmond said of the close contest. “Fitch is always a team that we battle to the very end and this time, we came out on top, which is huge for us.”
Fitch scored twice early in the second half and the Centaurs added one of their own to tie the game at eight.
But a sophomore would get what proved to be the game winner as Patrick Griswold took a pass in close from Basak and made it 9-8 in favor of the home team with 2:39 left in the third quarter.
The Centaurs would not trail again as Seamus Coleman and Basak finished off the scoring for the Centaurs.
Basak finished with three goals and three assists while Keegan Covello added three assists.
“Keegan and Gunnar are big contributors to our team. They lead us with emotions. They are our captains, get us going every game. They are a huge factor for us,” Desmond said.
Desmond received the team’s hard hat award for the game, not only for his four goals, but for his heady play.
“We were a man down and he picked up a long pole. It wasn’t something like ‘Here’s a long pole.’ No, he took it from the player that was coming off the box because of a penalty. He did everything. He wanted that win more than almost anyone on that field,” Tata said.
It was also a game that Tata enjoyed, not only for how his team played, but just how the game, in general, was played.
“That was good lacrosse,” the coach said.” It had everything. There were beautiful transitions, beautiful possessions by both teams; a couple of good, hard hits, getting a little gritty, a little grimy. It just all came together.”
That despite the fact that his Centaurs had not played a game for 12 days due to spring break.
“It was tough and even in practice, I think I had 11 guys during spring break. More times than not, I was suiting up with the guys so we have even numbers for (6-on-6). Of course, that in-between was a little nerve wracking too, I had wished for one more game before Fitch. I knew this was going to be a tight game, but the guys came in, dialed in and ready to go,” Tata said.
The defense also came to play. Quan Sangasy made 18 saves in the net.
“Quan stood on his head and the four defenders, Quan, (Jacob) Say, David (Geney) and Ethan (Schultz) all just played phenomenal. Fitch has one of the better attackers in the ECC (Roman Rich) and we played great team ball against him,” Tata said.
It was good the Centaurs had a chance to celebrate early in the week as East Lyme and E.O. Smith made things a little difficult later in the week.
The Vikings rolled past Woodstock, 18-2, on Thursday.
Covello had a goal and an assist for the Centaurs who slipped to 1-2 in Div. I of the ECC. Griswold had the other goal and Logan Del Farno had an assist.
The Panthers came to town in the rain on Saturday and doubled up on the Centaurs, 12-6.
The loss dropped Woodstock to 2-4 overall.
Phillips and Covello each had a pair of goals for the Centaurs while Desmond and Griswold added one apiece.
Girls’ Lacrosse
Maggie Marshall was just coming off an injury and had not scored a goal yet this season.
But she saved her first for a very important time.
The senior scored about five minutes into overtime to lift the Centaurs to an 8-7 victory over the Falcons last week.
“It started from the back. It was the foundations of good throwing and good catching,” said coach Heather Miller.
And being in the right place at the right time.
Abby Converse took a shot that was knocked down, the Centaurs picked up the ground ball and Marshall found herself open for the shot.
“I’m so proud of Maggie because she has work so hard. She’s coming off an injury and I was very happy when she scored. She’s a great player, a great teammate and that goal was beautiful. I was right there; she put it into the right corner. It was awesome,” said junior Clara Dowdle.
Dowdle had her own moments as she scored three goals and added an assist.
“I, obviously, like to score, but it’s more important to work as a team,” Dowdle said.
And important in this case. The Centaurs were playing without junior Kaylee Saucier who leads the team with 14 goals due to an illness.
“Kaylee is great and I love her a lot. You always feel like, ‘Oh no, we don’t have one of our top scorers’ but it’s a team effort and we pulled out the win,” Dowdle said.
Emma Forcier added a goal and an assist while Olivia Manbeck, Kaelyn Tremblay and Baylee Rosinski also scored for the Centaurs.
“It’s been awesome. The girls have definitely stepped up on their stick work, teamwork and cohesiveness. They have made some huge improvements off of the foundation that we established last season. In all phases, just worked beautifully to rally together, not give up and get that win,” Miller said.
The Centaurs did run into a perennial power later in the week as they lost to the Vikings in East Lyme, 17-1.
Dowdle scored the only goal off an assist from Saucier. The loss dropped the Centaurs to 2-4 on the season.
Volleyball
A bit nervous. That’s what boys’ volleyball coach Adam Bottone was early last week as the Centaurs welcomed Norwich Free Academy. He had rights to be.
The Wildcats were one of the top teams in the Connecticut Volleyball League a year ago and downed the Centaurs in both of their meetings,
But there was another X-factor.
“The last time we touched a ball was Thursday (of the week before) and that means three days without even touching a ball. I was nervous, that’s not usually my M.O. but I wasn’t going to make them practice on Good Friday or Easter and I wasn’t going to have them practice on a Saturday,” Bottone said.
So when the Centaurs came out and delivered a 3-0 victory over NFA, it brought a smile to his face.
“I was happy that we were able to execute in that respect. We did have a couple of balls that dropped and I’ve been addressing that significantly and will continue to do so but I think they see that they have the potential to make good things happen. We just have to learn that we can’t let the lulls last too long.”
The Centaurs were bothered by that a bit in the first two sets when the hosts just came away with 25-22 and 25-23 victories.
They got better in the third set when they completed the three-set sweep with a 25-15 victory.
“This shows a lot of improvement over last year,” said sophomore Brayden Bottone. “Even though we lost eight seniors, we are, arguably, doing better.”
The Centaurs, once again, had a balanced attack.
Owen Budd had eight kills and nine service points, Brayden Bottone had seven kills, eight digs and three aces, Jake Henderson tossed in 20 assists and Nathan Billings had nine digs.
“Overall, our serving and setting has got a lot better. That lets us be more aggressive on offense,” Brayden Bottone said. “Like (Monday), we just pulled everything together in the last set and tightened everything up that we needed to.”
Adam Bottone also pointed out that NFA has 15 seniors and juniors on the roster, the Centaurs have only one senior, Billings, who plays big minutes.
“We’re sophomores and we’re competing against these teams and, in some cases, beating them. It wasn’t easy. They are a good scrappy team when they are out of system. They were aggressive with what they were doing. They were smarter with their out of system offensive play than we were. We were making it too easy. In the last set, we tried to be a little more aggressive offensively and that’s what allowed us a greater margin of victory.”
The win was the fifth of the season for the Centaurs.
“That is something we talked about pre-match. We had a little chat. We were halfway to making States, this got us three wins away, and we need to think about that for seeding purposes,” Adam Bottone said. “I’m happy with the win.”
Woodstock made it look much easier later in the week as it downed Innovation High School in Hartford, 3-0.
Brayden Bottone had six kills while Evan Chernik and Owen Budd added five kills each. Henderson finished with 12 assists, Christian Hart had 11 service points and Billings had seven digs.
But their five-match win streak came to an end on Friday night in a lengthy Connecticut Volleyball League match against Putnam.
The Clippers posted the 3-2 victory and dropped the Centaurs to 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the league.
The Centaurs got out of the gates quickly with a 25-12 first set victory but the Clippers rallied for a 25-22 victory in the second set and then took the third, 25-19.
Woodstock forced the fifth set for a first time in a match this season with a 25-23 win in the fourth.
But the Clippers (4-7) took home the win with a 15-7 victory in the last set.
Brayden Bottone had 16 kills and Budd added 10 while Hart was active all over the court again with 16 digs, 10 service points and six aces. Henderson had 31 assists.
Softball
The best way to get out a slump — put together a really strong effort.
The softball did that on Wednesday as it rolled past New London, 23-2.
The win was the first in four games for the Centaurs in Div. II of the ECC.
Madison Bloom had the highlight hit of the day as she hit a three-run, inside-the-park home run for the Centaurs.
Maci Corradi and Ellary Sampson both had three hits to pace the 14-hit attack and each knocked in a pair of runs.
Julia Tellier and Campbell Favreau also had a pair of RBIs in the win.
The good feelings carried over to Friday.
The Centaurs had to travel to Colchester to play Bacon Academy and fought their way back to the .500 mark (4-4) with a 6-4 win over the Bobcats.
The two teams went into the top of the seventh tied at 4.
Freshman Ella Chitmanotham had a one-out double.
She would score what proved to be the game-winning run when Corradi reached on an error.
Corradi advanced to third on a ground out and added the insurance run when Sampson had her third hit of the game, and third run batted in, with a single to right field.
Senior pitcher Grace Delsanto finished it up as she allowed a lead-off single in the bottom of the seventh but got a fielder’s choice and a pair of fly outs for the win.
Woodstock opened the scoring against the Bobcats when Corradi doubled in the first, was sacrificed to third and scored on a Sampson single.
Bacon tied it in the bottom of the inning but fell behind again in the third when Favreau had a two-run single and Sampson hit a home run to center field.
The softball team got some hits earlier in the week against Ledyard. It just didn’t put enough of them together.
“We moved (junior catcher) Ellary (Sampson) to lead off so that the bottom of the order could get on base for her and it worked a few times today which was beautiful. We just need the middle part (of the batting order) to step it up and get us going through the entire order,” first-year coach Hannah Burgess said.
The Centaurs were able to push a couple of runs across on a cloudy, raw, breezy day but Ledyard was more adept at that and posted the 8-2 victory over the Centaurs.
Ledyard scored twice in the first inning when Faith Dalton and Aleecia Helme both singled to lead off the game and Dalton came home on a Mia Starling infield single. The Colonels made it 2-0 on an infield ground out.
The Colonels raised the lead to six runs in the third, two coming on a Starling home run to right field.
Ledyard put another one over the fence in the fourth when winning pitcher Alexa Lemmon went yard to right-center field.
“They hit it very well,” Burgess said. “(Woodstock Academy pitcher) Kaya (Nichols) was pitching great but it’s tough when the other side has great hitters as well.”
The Centaurs did push a run across in the third when Corradi singled to right, went to third on a bunt single by Favreau, and scored on a passed ball.
Corradi, the eighth hitter in the lineup, delivered a single to right in the fifth and Favreau followed with a base knock to center with Sampson, who finished 2-for- 3 with a double, adding an RBI.
Girls’ Golf
It was a rude welcome back for the girls’ golf team from spring break. The Centaurs had played one match prior to the week off on the road at Quinebaug Valley.
They returned from spring break to be greeted by four matches in four days.
“It’s just tough because you can’t get practice time in and it has been a grind of a week. Sometimes, the girls get into bad habits and we can’t work out of them because there is no practice. We’re doing the best we can,” said coach Earl Semmelrock.
To make matters even more difficult, the Thursday match against Suffield at the Quinnatisset Country Club was the first time the Centaurs had even set foot on their home course this season.
“It’s kind of amazing when you think about it but it’s the way the schedule worked out with the late Quinnatisset opening and school vacation. This was the first time we saw the course. It is what it is,” the coach added.
The Centaurs were successful in their first home outing as they downed Suffield in the non-league match, 206-213, to improve to 3-2 on the season.
Sophomore Reagan Scheck finished a 49 and senior Bella Mawson added a 52. Freshman Colbie O’Connor, playing at Quinnatisset for a first time, was two over par for the first three holes and finished with a more than respectable 53.
“I’m excited about how good a couple of the youngsters can be and how they can help contribute to the team’s success,” Semmelrock said.
The Centaurs had mixed results during the week as they took on Coventry in a non-league match to get things started and fell short, 171-192.
Scheck had a season best thus far as she shot a 41 at the Windham Club.
But Woodstock rallied Tuesday to win its second ECC match of the season as it downed East Lyme, 226-255.
Reagan Scheck led the Centaurs as the sophomore carded a 50 and Lily Moran followed with a 54.
The Centaurs did lose their first ECC match of the season, 198-223, to Norwich Free Academy on Wednesday.
“We played pretty well at a course that we don’t typically play well at but NFA is a good squad and they beat us,” Semmelrock said.
Scheck shot a 48 in that match but Caroline Goderre was medalist with a 40 for the Wildcats.
Boys’ Golf
When it comes to a long wait, it was hard to beat the boy’ golf team.
It had its only match prior to spring break postponed by course conditions and then had a week off for school vacation.
The Centaurs finally got underway last week with a successful effort at the Raceway Golf Club in Thompson.
The Centaurs took their first win against the Quinebaug Valley co-op, 7-0.
Logan Rawson was the medalist for the match with a two-over par 38 with fellow senior Jayden Fuller finishing just one stroke back.
Brady Hebert and Max Kopp both finished with 45 totals for the Centaurs.
But their first home match of the season was not as successful.
The Centaurs hosted perennial ECC contender, East Lyme, and fell 4 ½ to 2 ½ at the Quinnatisset Country Club.
Rawson was only a stroke off his first match effort but lost to Tyler Moore who carded a 37.
He wasn’t even the medalist for the Vikings.
That honor belonged to Jack Bucko who shot a 36.
Senior Sam Clark and sophomore Brady Hebert did win their matches as they shot a 44 and 45 respectively.
The Centaurs raised their mark to 2-1 with a 7-0 shutout over Bacon Academy.
Rawson had his best outing thus far with a one-under par 34 while both Fuller and Aidan O’Connor finished with identical 41 totals.
Girls’ Track
Some early adversity almost derailed the hopes of the girls’ track team Wednesday.
The 4x100m relay team fumbled the baton exchange and was disqualified.
Add to that, a 4x800m relay that didn’t quite go the way the Centaurs hoped and some nerves were frayed.
“It got nail-bitingly close where it may not have needed to be,” said coach Josh Welch. “But what the girls did a really good job with, which we used to struggle with, was when things didn’t go in their favor, they really rose to the occasion.”
Ella Lidonde and Elise Coyle helped that resurgence as both posted personal bests and first-place finishes in the triple and long jumps respectively and led the team to an 83-67 win.
The Centaurs are now 2-0 overall and 1-0 in Div. I of the ECC.
Lidonde finished with a 33-foot, 101/2-inch leap in the triple and Coyle cleared 17-3.
“That was like a foot and a half personal best and she is second in the Class for the state. Ella is also super close to the school record and qualifying for Nationals. It was a really exciting win. Our 4x400m did really fantastic too. We’re tops in the state for that,” said senior Juliet Allard.
Allard and Emma Weitknecht both brought home three first-place finishes.
Allard was best in the 100 and 200-meter races while Weitknecht took first in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles and the two came together to help the Centaurs finish first in the 4x400m relay.
“They are fantastic. You can’t rely on anyone more than that. They get it done every time,” Welch said.
Weitknecht is just 1/100th of a second off the school record in the 100-meter hurdles, something she just missed by that same margin in indoor track.
“She is anxious to nail that down,” Welch said. “It’s going to come soon.”
Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain was tops in the high jump and javelin and also finished second to teammate Olivia Tracy in the 800-meter.
Elise Coyle brought home two first-place finishes in the 400-meter and long jump where she accomplished a personal best 17-foot, 6-inch leap.
Avery Plouffe won the shotput with a throw of 34-feet,9-inchesand Lily Morgis was best in discus, recording a 117-7.
“The throwing events were pretty insane. We had a lot of good personal bests in shotput with Lily and Kiley (Elliott) and Kate (Dobosz) all doing amazing. Lily had a really good personal best in discus, more than four feet better than last year plus Isabel is currently in first in the state in javelin which is super exciting for her,” Plouffe said.
Boys’ Track
Owen Williamson had quite the productive day for the boys track team as he finished first in the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles, tied for first in the high jump and anchored the winning 4x100-meter relay team.
“He was incredible,” said boys’ coach Gerry LaMontagne. “He’s one of those guys that you try and place where you can maximize his points. He had a great personal best in the high jump where he was having his struggles and that was a nice breakout for him add to that, his great efforts in the hurdle events and relay and that was a very solid performance.”
Unfortunately, even an effort like that could not produce a team win as the Centaurs fell to the Vikings, 80-65, Wednesday.
It was, however, one of the closer meets the Centaurs have had in recent memory against East Lyme.
“About halfway through the meet, you could hear the murmur going through the team about how the meet was going back and forth,” LaMontagne said.
That only intensified when the Centaurs swept the javelin event with Eli Manning finishing best and then won the 4x400-meter relay.
Unfortunately, the Vikings rallied to sweep the 200-meter and also brought home a first-place finish in the shotput which was the decisive event.
Christian Menounos did not win the 1600-meter but he did break a school record that had been standing since 2004 with a second-place finish in the event in 4 minutes, 22 seconds.
“He scored some really great points. Normally, the 1600 would be a sweep on East Lyme’s part but Christian broke that up,” LaMontagne said.
The senior also captured a first-place finish in the 800-meter.
Baseball
The offense just never got started in Groton for the baseball team on Thursday. The Centaurs mustered just two hits and lost to Fitch, 6-0.
The loss dropped Woodstock to 2-5 overall and 0-4 in Div. I of the ECC.
Haydon Rowland singled in the second inning and Brady Ericson had a base knock in the fifth but for the most part Griffin Pollard held the Centaurs at bay despite yielding eight walks.
In a back-and-forth game earlier in the week, it took just one swing of the bat to make the difference.
Waterford senior Matt Shampine took a 1-1 pitch over the left field fence in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the host Waterford Lancers past the Centaurs, 4-3.
The Centaurs struck first in the fourth inning when Ericson walked, advanced to second on an error and scored on a single by Caleb Simoneau.
The shortstop continued to wield a hot bat for Woodstock as he went 3-for-3 and was hitting .500.on the season going into the Fitch game.
Simoneau would come around on a passed ball for the 2-0 Centaur lead.
Waterford cut the lead in half with a run in the bottom of the inning and then went up, 3-2, in the bottom of the fifth.
The Centaurs tied it in the top of the sixth on a pair of back-to-back doubles by Ericson and Simoneau.
Ericson went six innings on the mound, gave up just five hits and no earned runs and struck out 11.
Tennis
It was a lengthy Friday night for the girls’ tennis team.
The Centaurs battled the Fitch Falcons for 3 ½ hours at the Pomfret School with four of the seven matches going the three-set distance.
Unfortunately for the hosts, it was the visitors who pulled out the 4-3 victory to drop Woodstock back to the .500 mark on the season at 3-3.
Gianna Musumeci was the only singles player to pick up a win for the Centaurs as she upended Ada Ellis in three sets, 6-0, 6-7, 6-0.
Kerrigan Reynolds came close at third doubles. Reynolds took the first set 6-3, but lost the next two 4-6, 3-6. The second doubles team of Delilah Kesselman and Catherine Trudeau also had to go to three sets before pulling out a 6-2, 3-6,6-3 win over the Fitch pairing of Kelly Turley and Jillian Arallia.
The third doubles team of Madyline Ead and Kate Bruce also posted a victory.
The Centaurs were coming off a 6-1 victory over Windham in a match earlier in the week.
The Centaurs swept the singles with everyone taking home two-set wins.
Wynter worth won at first singles, 6-0, 6-3 with Musumeci shutting out her opponent 6-0, 6-0; Reynolds winning 6-2, 6-4 and Kesselman posting a 6-0, 6-1 victory.
Mary Oliinik and Trudeau won at second singles and Ead and Bruce also posted a win at third singles.
It was not the easiest match for the girls’ tennis team to have coming back from spring break to start the week.
The Centaurs had to travel to East Lyme to play the Vikings who had won three of their first four matches this season.
East Lyme picked up its fourth as it held off the Centaurs, 6-1, in an ECC non-divisional match.
Musumeci had the only win for Woodstock (2-2) as she downed Isabella Villareal in second singles, 7-5, 6-3.
Ead and Bruce put up a battle at second doubles but fell short to Veronica Castro and Nina McKernan ,6-3, 6-2.
The boys’ tennis team had just one match in its return from spring break.
The Centaurs traveled to Groton and lost to Fitch, 6-1, to fall to 1-3 on the season.
Daniel Jameson and Owen Murdock posted the only victory for the Centaurs as they downed Jason Greene and Daurd Pan, 6-6 (7-4), 6-2.
Leo Larkin and Stevie Wilmot lost the first set of their doubles match with Jeffrey Hipsky and Max Romilly 2-6, came back to win the second 6-4, and were up 9-4 in then tiebreaker only to see Fitch rally for the 11-9 victory.
Ryan Chabot had the best match for the Centaurs in the singles pairings, falling to Evan Whittier 1-6, 3-6 at third singles.
Woodstock was supposed to play Ledyard on Saturday on the road but rain forced postponement of the match until May 19.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
captions:
1693: Reagan Scheck lines up a putt on the fifth hole at the Quinnatisset Country Club.
1682: Freshman Colbie O’Connor, left, and junior Lily Moran from the Woodstock Academy girls’ golf team compare putting notes.
1665: Senior Bella Mawson tees off against Suffield on the fifth hole.
1544: Junior shortstop Maci Corradi makes contact for the softball team.
1560: Campbell Favreau awaits the call of the umpire as she slid into home. Photos by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.
IMG 1586: The Woodstock Academy boys volleyball team was all smiles after a win over Norwich Free Academy last week at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
IMG 1596: Woodstock Academy defensive player Jacob Say carries the ball up field in a win over Fitch at the Bentley Athletic Complex
IMG 1633: Woodstock Academy’s Dylan Phillips tries to ward off a Fitch defender in a Centaur victory last week.
(photos by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy)
Resized: Woodstock Academy sophomore Brady Hebert tees off against East Lyme on the third hole at the Quinnatisset Country Club last week
(Photo by Rich Garceau/Woodstock Academy)
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