Roundup
Centaurs season comes to a close in Class L semifinals
The task, needless to say, was daunting. The Woodstock Academy girls’ volleyball team made it to the Class L state semifinals for a third time in the last four years.
But waiting for them in the final four was East Lyme.
The same East Lyme team that had beaten the Centaurs twice in the regular season and again in the ECC by the same score, 3-0.
The same East Lyme team that had not lost a set, never mind a match, to an ECC team all season long.
That streak continued as the Vikings advanced to the Class L state championship with another 3-0 victory over the Centaurs.
“They are just consistent with everything they do,” said senior outside hitter Kaylee Bundy. “They don’t make a lot of mistakes. They are aggressive and they bring everything to every team they play instead of waiting for that team to take it to them.”
The loss ended the Centaurs season at 18-9.
It was a familiar finish for Woodstock coach Adam Bottone but also a satisfying one from a team that he may not have expected to accomplish as much as it did.
“That’s what we were talking about after the match. Three times in four years we’ve made it to the semifinals. Not a lot of programs can say they have got here that often and, eventually, we will break through and get back to the state championship,” Bottone said.
While the Centaurs did have troubles, at times, containing the Vikings outside and middle hitters, setter Isabella Diep was by far a much larger concern.
Not for her hitting or even setting (29 assists) but for her ability to serve.
She gave the top-seeded Vikings a big boost of confidence early by serving the first eight points of the match.
“It’s a good, hard float that comes over the net with a lot of movement and it makes it difficult to get a good read on it and make a good pass off of it,” Bottone said. “It’s like a knuckleball. It’s coming at the players and its moving. When they think they have a read on it and, at the last minute, it drops down, and they have to reach for it. There is only so much they can do.”
East Lyme went on to win the first set 25-12.
She was even better in the third set when she gave the Vikings (23-1) a 13-0 lead after 13 consecutive service points. Diep finished with 27 service points including six aces.
 “She’s good,” Bundy said. “She picks and chooses the spots she will serve to, the weakest spots on our side of the court, and she aims for them. Her serve is just hard and it floats. The ball moves around in the air which throws off the passing.”
The Vikings held off a late surge to post the 25-16 win over the Centaurs in that decisive third set.
In between, the Centaurs did have a chance to become the first ECC School to hand the Vikings a loss in a set this season.
Woodstock hung around in the second set, falling behind at one point, 19-13, but rallying to tie the set at 20.
Finnley Wilson had one of her 10 kills for East Lyme to put the Vikings back on top but Kennedy McCooey (7 kills, 8 digs) had two kills in a row off Lily Morgis sets – the Woodstock setter had 18 assists – to put the Centaurs back into the lead.
A service error by the Centaurs put the momentum back on to the East Lyme side of the court and the Vikings scored the next three points, two on aces by Isabella Albert, to claim the 25-22 victory.
“When we can pass the ball more aggressively with their hitting, we can definitely hang with them and we did that in that set. We were up late and just could not keep the pressure on them and made some errors at inopportune times,” Bottone said.
It was the last time that the seniors on the Woodstock side will don the Centaurs jersey but they went out with heads held high.
“Making the semifinals is definitely a big accomplishment. I’m proud we made it. I’m going to miss this team a lot. We had a lot of fun here,” said Bundy who will continue her volleyball career at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass.

Prep Soccer
It has been one of the few things that has escaped the grasp of the prep soccer program.
The Centaurs Prep 2 soccer team has won the Global Education Sports Partners League regular season crown in each of its three years of existence but it had never won the league tournament title.
That changed on Friday. The Centaurs downed St. Thomas More, 5-1, to claim the championship for a first time.
Prep 2 senior and captain Jack Buyers was all smiles when the clock finally hit triple zeroes as their Prep 1 teammates rushed the field to the congratulate them.
“This is the big one,” said coach Owen Finberg. “In America, the playoffs matter most so we’re really thankful that the guys were able to battle back from going a goal down. It was a great performance by them, they deserved it.”
Prep 2 senior and captain Jack Buyers was all smiles when the clock finally hit triple zeroes as their Prep 1 teammates rushed the field to the congratulate them.
“Very important after three years. We came up short last year and the year before that. It feels good to finally win one,” Buyers said.
It was not so nice a feeling early as the Centaurs (13-3) found themselves down early.
The Chancellors got on the board first when Guilleremo Martin passed the ball to Caio Bueno who broke through the Centaurs defense and was able to put one past sophomore keeper Ajani Osborne (six saves) just under 30 minutes into the contest.
 “I think both teams decided to sit deeper defensively and that always makes for a slower game and harder to create chances and break teams down,” Finberg said. “I did think we had some good possessions and good chances. We did score one but it was called offside and we missed a couple of others by not too much. It was really big to get the goal before halftime to tie it up.”
That goal came from Haesung Kim who took a pass from Mack Gallagher and put it into the Chancellors net with just 1:47 left in the half.
The Centaurs didn’t wait as long in the second half. Just 6:42 into the second 45 minutes, Buyers took the ball down the right side and passed it back into the middle for the oncoming Mark Maruyama. The freshman punched it in for his eighth goal of the season.
“I got it through to Mark and he just came in and scored – it was great. He finished it nicely,” Buyers said.
The goal got the Centaurs going. “I think we had some different guys come on that brought some energy to the game which allowed us to stick to the game plan and once we got the second goal, we felt a lot better especially since it came early in the second half, that was helpful. When we got the third (goal), we knew it was ours and we just poured it on at the end,” Finberg said.
The third goal came from Gallagher with just 10:08 left and it opened the floodgates.
The Centaurs got another from Victor Schougaard just three minutes later and Yuki Kato finished things up with just under three minutes to play.
Schougaard, Maruyama and Jorge Castellanos all added assists in the win.
The Prep 1 team now takes center stage as it begins its quest for another Prep Premiere League championship. The Prep 2 victory certainly won’t hurt.  “You want to have good momentum and that spans throughout the program. (The Prep 1) team brought a lot of energy among the crowd (Friday) which benefitted the (Prep 2) group and, hopefully, the same happens (on Saturday) and we will keep marching on,” Finberg said.

Prep 1 
The Prep 1 boys’ soccer program began its defense of its Prep Premiere League title on Saturday with a 4-1 victory over the High Mowing School in a league tournament quarterfinal match.
Arthur Masson had a pair of goals for the Centaurs who improved to 13-0-1 with the victory. Reed Pickett and Richard Sarpong also scored for the Centaurs.
Pickett, Jeongbin Lee, Jorge Castellanos and David Cho provided assists for Woodstock Academy which will now travel to the Capelli Complex in Tinton Falls, N.J. for a league semifinal match at 10 a.m. Friday.

Football
Long drives were not the hallmark of the Woodstock Academy football team on Friday. Quick strikes were.
That was fine with the coaching staff as the scoreboard reflected what the Centaurs had accomplished as they posted a 35-19 win over the Wolves on the road in Montville on Friday.
The win raised Woodstock’s record to 3-6 going into the final game of the season at Killingly on Thanksgiving Day.
A player with the first name of Elijah was at the center of the Centaurs early success.
And this time, his last name was not Poh.
Elijah Laprade created his own highlight film in the first half as he was instrumental in all four of the first-half touchdowns for Woodstock.
The Centaurs took the ball down to the Montville 26-yard line on the opening kickoff and Poh (10-for-15 passing, 149 yards) found Laprade for a pass that the receiver took down to the Montville 1.
Junior running back Cooper Harris (13 carries, 62 yards) finished things off with a 1-yard dive to give the Centaurs the early 7-0 lead.
But the Wolves, as Ledyard had done the week before, showcased their ability to run the ball against the Centaurs early.
Montville (2-7) did not attempt a pass in its first possession but held on to the football for 9 minutes, 10 seconds and quarterback Chantz Jones scrambled in from seven yards out for the tying score.
Laprade put the Centaurs back on top quickly.
Poh hit Alec Nunes with a 12-yard pass, Aidan Soukaloun ran for seven and Caydem Herlihy caught another pass for eight yards to bring the Centaurs to the Montville 30.
Poh went to Laprade on a quick fly down the sideline and he found the end zone virtually untouched to put Woodstock Academy back into the lead, 14-7.
The best defense for the Wolves was to keep the ball out of the Centaurs hands.
They did that effectively in their second possession as well, holding on to it for more than five minutes until Khaj Roache scored from five yards out.
Montville remained a point down when its extra point attempt was blocked.
The Centaurs only lengthy drive for a score on the night followed as they held on to it for over five minutes.
Poh hit Laprade, who caught three passes for 70 yards in the first half, with a 15-yarder that brought the Centaurs to the Montville 15. Harris got 13 of those in one carry and two players later, bulled his way in from the 2 to extend the Centaurs lead to eight, 21-13, with 1:58 left in the half.
“He’s a very capable kid,” coach Connor Elliott said of Harris. “We’ve been trying to get the run game going all year. I do think there are times where teams are afraid of our ability to run the ball which allows us to pick them apart in different ways like screen passes and quick passes but it’s nice to be able to rely on a kid like Cooper.”
The last two minutes of the half were interesting.
Griffen Bloom intercepted a Jones’ pass but on the next play, the Centaurs gave it back when Poh threw an interception.
The defense then stepped up and forced Montville to punt.
Laprade went back to receive and fielded the kick at the Woodstock 27. He saw daylight down the left sideline and returned it the 73 yards to put the Centaurs up, 28-13.
“It was him getting around the edge and the whole punt return unit doing a great job, holding guys up and doing their blocking assignments. Something that stood out to me was our tight end, Cayson (Barile-Castillo) was 30 yards downfield blocking the last guy,” Elliott said.
Just for good measure, Laprade also stopped Montville’s final possession of the half when he intercepted a Jones’ pass and his return ran out the clock.
Laprade is one of several individuals who hail from a very talented sophomore class for Elliott that includes Caydem Herlihy, Keegan Brown, Joe Spring and Kai Brailsford among others.
“It’s a very talented class and we’ve been waiting for that breakout game from Elijah. We’ve been telling him ‘use your speed, you are one of our kick and punt returners for a reason.’ Sometimes, he tries to dance a little where he could get to the edge but tries to do a little stutter step. On Friday, he just ran. It was great to see that breakout performance from him,” Elliott said.
The Centaurs put the game out of reach in the third quarter when Soukaloun recorded the team’s third interception of the night.
It stopped a Montville drive at the Woodstock 27 and the Centaurs, literally, ran it down the field.
Harris had four runs, amounting to 43 yards in the drive that took only 3:26 to complete. The running back put the finishing touches on it when he ran into the line, bounced it outside when he saw nothing was there and scored his third touchdown of the night from two yards out.
“Coming out of halftime, it was a two-score game but they were getting the ball. We told the team that we had to stop them and score and we would put the game away and that’s exactly what we did. It was great to see that coming out of the half because we’ve been slow out of the half all year and it has hurt us. It was nice to see that wasn’t the case Friday,” Elliott said.
Woodstock did make a defensive stop at their own 4-yard, wasted five minutes on the clock but were forced to punt from their own 19.
The Wolves put one last score on the clock when Jones hit Andrew McElwee with a 12-yard touchdown toss into the left corner of the end zone with eight seconds to play to account for the final score.
The Centaurs now have some time to get ready for the Trailblazers although Killingly is not easy to prep for as it will come into the game on its home field with a 9-0 record.
“It was nice to get the weekend off and then we will help out with the Centaurs Challenge (flag football game) on Monday and Tuesday, we will get going, practice Wednesday to Saturday, practice Monday and Tuesday, walk through Wednesday and go out and play a football game on Thursday. The message is simple; it’s our last time with this crew playing together. We’re going to have fun, enjoy being together and let the chips fall where they may. There is no pressure on us,” Elliott said.

Girls’ Cross-Country
Freshman Emelia Langevin had a fine finish to the girls’ cross-country season last week and it didn’t take place on the course. Langevin attended the annual cross-country All-State banquet.
Langevin earned All-State honors for her eighth-place finish in the Class MM state championship meet.
“A goal that I had before I even started the season was to try and do better than 21 minutes, not knowing how that would go. When I was running low-to-mid 20s, it made me really happy,” Langevin said.
It also made her coach, Joe Banas, happy this year especially her efforts at the Ocean State Invitational and the ECC championship race.
She won the freshman race at the Ocean State which features some of the beast runners in New England.
She then finished second, just behind her cousin, Lyman Memorial senior Hazel DeLucia, in the ECC championship race.
“It was fun. We joked around a lot especially on the starting line. We told a lot of jokes and it was inspiring to see how much she has done and how far she has come,” Langevin said.
But running behind DeLucia helped Langevin not only break 21 minutes but actually saw her finish under 20 in 19 minutes, 54 seconds on a difficult Norwich Golf Course.
“That was the race I was most proud of because I got my best time on it and it’s a harder course. That good time on a harder course was really good for me,” Langevin said.
Langevin followed that up with an eighth-place finish in the Class MM state championship which qualified her for the State Open. There she was in the top 25 for the first two miles of the race but had to settle for a 44th overall finish which was still very impressive for a freshman runner.
“I was a little nervous but it was a good experience to have as a freshman. I didn’t know if I was going to make it that far or not so I was happy when I did,” Langevin said.
She was also dealing with some late injuries in the last couple of races including a nagging hamstring issue.
“I know the season didn’t end well for Emme with various injuries but having the experience and the exposure to racing in the State Open as a freshman will only help her for next year,” Banas said.
The veteran coach is now looking forward to her what the freshman can do in the future.
“As long as she conditions for it, I will be turning her training schedule up a notch. I’ve never pushed a freshman to their maximum level. As we saw, that only increases injuries that can be possibly avoided with a better foundation the following year,” Banas added.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

captions:
2025 Langevin:
Freshman Emelia Langevin proudly displays her Class MM All-State award. Photo by Joe Banas/Woodstock Academy.

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Jorge Castellanos jumps for joy with the GESP Tournament Cup in hand after the Centaurs downed St. Thomas More, 5-1, to win the championship. Photo by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.

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The Prep 2 soccer team is all smiles after winning the Global Education Sports Partners league tournament championship match. Photo by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy

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