Helping Hands
Sept. 12 was a glorious day for the DKH cancer survivor picnic at Roseland Park and the Putnam Rotary Club’s Interact Club and the Putnam Lions Leos Club were on hand to help. They assisted with parking, wheelchair assistance, check in and drawings. Interact Advisor Roberta Rocchetti thanked Leo volunteers; Brooke Mayo, Sophia Scandalito, Julia Scandalito, Emma Martineau and Mia Cosentino and advisor Mary Ann Pezanko. Rocchetti, who was there helping, also thanked Interact volunteers Suzie and Quinn Lefevre, Sierra Girard, Lucas Cornell, and Mike Rocchetti. Shown are Interact members helping; Quinn Lefevre, Lucas Cornell and Sierra Girard. Courtesy photo.

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Davis leads
Centaurs to
heart-pounding
win
On the final play of the first half Sept. 10, the Centaurs found themselves down by a point to Windham in Willimantic.
Offensive coordinator Connor Elliott asked head coach Sean Saucier what he wanted to do. The Centaurs were 34 yards away from the end zone.
“I told him that we had to do something,” Saucier said.
Elliott put it in senior quarterback Ethan Davis’ hands.
Davis moved around in the pocket, ducking and dodging Windham defensive players while looking downfield and waiting for receiver Carter Saracina to get open.
Davis saw the opening and fired a strike for the 34-yard touchdown pass that gave the Centaurs a 1-point halftime lead.
If Woodstock Academy needed a big play, he delivered, and in the process, led the Centaurs to a season-opening 40-27 win over the Whippets.
Davis completed 14 of 21 passes for 144 yards and rushed for 153 more including touchdown runs of 2, 37, 11 and 1-yard.
He also never panicked.
The fourth quarter especially was a see-saw battle between the two.
The Whippets scored with four seconds left in the third quarter to take a 20-13 lead.
But less than four minutes into the final quarter, Davis found some daylight and raced 37 yards for a score to tie the game at 20.
The Academy’s defense then held and forced Windham to punt. A bad snap sailed over the punter’s head and the Centaurs recovered at the Whippets’ 22-yard line.
A penalty moved them back 5 yards but it still only took Davis three carries, the last going 11 yards, to put the Centaurs ahead, 26-20.
The Whippets scored with 3:53 left and got the extra point to go up, 27-26.
Davis again answered as he engineered a 10-play, 63-yard drive mixing in the run with the pass to get it down to the one where he bulled in for what proved to be the game-winning score with 47 seconds left.
Davis also got the two-point conversion to make it a seven-point game.
But the quarterback’s night was not over. Forced to play linebacker because of injuries, Davis crashed the center of the Windham line and then pulled back into coverage.
Windham quarterback Zach Robinson Smey never saw him.
“It was another tremendous athletic play. He spied the quarterback’s eyes and I don’t think (the Windham quarterback) knew (Davis) was there,” Saucier said.
He tipped Robinson-Smey’s pass, caught it on then run and had only green grass in front of him for a 25-yard pick-six that socked the win away.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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It’s never easy to lose that leader of the pack. Especially in a sport like cross-country where that leader is truly in front of the remainder of the team for both practice sessions and meets.
Such was the case with Ethan Aspiras. “People talk about him, at least, every other day,” said senior Seamus Lippy. “He always told us to work hard, do everything, and don’t be afraid to talk to one another and be a good teammate.”
Aspiras rose through the ranks and as a junior reached the pinnacle, winning the ECC individual title.
He led the team again in 2020 in a much different way.
He and the Centaurs as a whole had little in the way of competition among the local teams they ran against and there were no state or regional competitions to take part in.
That will change this year. If all goes according to plan, the Centaurs will again be running schools of their size in the ECC and both the state and New England championships will return.
“We ran on like three courses over the whole season last year. A lot of cross-country is the courses. It’s a lot of the fun. Most every meet is different,” Lippy said.
That variety returns in 2021. E. Lyme, Fitch and NFA back on the schedule. But the Centaurs will not entirely lose the local flavor.
“(Woodstock Academy athletic director) Sean (Saucier) did a fabulous job. I don’t know how he did it but we have meets with Griswold, Montville, and Plainfield along with those bigger teams,” said Woodstock Academy coach Pete Lusa.
The meets against the local schools will generally take place in a tri-meet and it will give the Centaurs something to shoot for in addition to an upset victory over one of their ECC Div. I schools.
The Centaurs meet with E. Lyme will include Stonington and Windham. Plainfield is scheduled to join the Centaurs versus Fitch and Griswold will be involved in the showdown with NFA.
The Centaurs will also run invitationals such as the Wickham Park and Ocean State. The Wickham Park Invite is used by many as a strategy session for the state championship races which will follow later on the same course in S. Windsor. “You made your move here in the Invitational, are you going to do it earlier or later (at States)?” Lusa said of the importance of the Wickham Invite. “It’s not a football field. We haven’t run there in two years. They aren’t going to remember what the course is like."
Ian Hoffman, who has been doing outdoor track where he displayed leadership skills, is out for cross-country for a first time, joining the likes of Lippy.
Lippy said he has been working hard during the offseason, putting in some 400 miles this past summer. “It may or may not be realistic, but I’m trying to get below 18 (minutes) by the end of the season. Right now, I’m at 19:30-ish. It’s a lot,” Lippy said of the personal goal. But he points out that he started out his sophomore year in the 23-24 minute range and got it down to 21 ½. He shaved off two more minutes last season.
Lusa will also rely on Vince Bastura to be a part of the lead pack. “We have to build experience and do so while running against East Lyme and Fitch. Last year was nice, but now we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. We just want to keep everyone healthy and looking toward what they can accomplish this season and what can we do next year. We have a bunch of juniors returning and only a few seniors so it’s rebuilding in that sense but also a re-focus. Where are you now? Where do you want to be next year?” Lusa said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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