5th win for
football team
Huck Flanagan had this one gift wrapped, but no one was complaining.
The Woodstock Academy sophomore saw a ball knocked out of a Stonington running back’s hands fall right into his in the fourth quarter of the football game Oct. 26.
The only thing ahead of him was 67 yards of turf.
He beat everyone to the end zone and gave the Centaurs a 14-7 win over the Bears.
“Talk about taking your opportunity when it comes,” said Woodstock Academy coach Sean Saucier. “He got on to the field only for a couple of plays and look what happened. That’s amazing. And everybody was disciplined enough not to block in the back or anything like that.”
Flanagan was quick to credit to his teammates for helping him. Freshman Evan Roy did the hard job. He reached around and popped the ball out.
“It landed right in my hands, like a baby in my arms and it was auto-pilot from there on,” Flanagan said. “When I realized it was in my hands, I was like ‘I have to run now.’ Luis Miranda was behind me the whole way down the field, yelling in my ear the whole way, ‘Go, go, go.’ I just ran it in. I was full of adrenaline. I was just going. I was gassing it.”
The touchdown was what the Centaurs needed as Stonington scored a late touchdown to make it close, but not close enough.
The victory raised the Centaurs’ record to 5-1.
The win total is the most ever for a Woodstock Academy team in a season.
“Getting five right now feels great because we don’t have to worry about getting five any more. It’s already accomplished. Now, we can focus on what’s ahead and keep working,” said senior Aidan Morin.
Saucier said it was important to him to get it done against Stonington because of its significance.
“I wanted to get it against a team the quality of Stonington High School. It makes it really special. It’s another historic football program, just like Ledyard. It just feels that much better,” Saucier said.
The win also raised the Centaurs record to 2-0 in Division II of the ECC, tied for the lead with Waterford.
The game didn’t start out well for Woodstock Academy. It turned over the ball on its first possession to Stonington (0-6, 0-3 ECC Div. II).
The Bears got it on the Centaurs 34 and went all of 8 yards before turning it over on downs.
It was the story of the day for Stonington which mustered only 143 yards offensively.
“I think it was a pretty special effort defensively. We have a strong defense. We work together. Have good pass coverage and can stop the run most of the time,” said Woodstock Academy corner Adam Schimmelpfennig.
It took the Centaurs just three passes to get deep into Stonington territory.
Sophomore quarterback Ethan Davis (9-for-20 passing, 171 yards) hit senior receiver Nick Bedard (4 catches, 60 yards) for 10 yards, went to Morin for 32 and then hit Trey Ayotte over the middle for 10 more to get the Centaurs to the Bears’ 22-yard line.
A holding call negated a touchdown pass to Bedard one play later and two more incomplete passes left the Centaurs with a fourth-and-20 on the 29.
Davis put up a pass down the left sideline for Morin.
He was ruled out inside the 1-yard line.
A Davis keeper did the rest and the Centaurs led, 7-0, with 3:12 left in the first quarter.
That was also the score at the end of the first half.
The Centaurs did have one more threat in the first half, this one generated in part by the feet of senior running back Ian Welz. Welz rushed for 80 yards in 22 carries.
Welz had three straight carries of 10, 15 and five yards to get the ball down to the 25-yard line.
Davis hit Travis White with a 12-yard pass and then carried the ball himself to the Stonington 7 only to see the drive end there.
A 24-yard field goal attempt by Morin went wide left.
Woodstock Academy got into Stonington territory on both of their possessions in the first half, but could not punch one in.
Flanagan’s fumble recovery gave the Centaurs a little breathing room,
Josh Curtin (19 carries, 79 yards) scored on a 1-yard dive for the Bears with 2:57 left to play to make it a one-touchdown game. Nick Bessette covered the attempted Stonington onside kick for the Centaurs following the score and Woodstock Academy was able to run out the clock.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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caption, page 2:

Catch Ya Later
Woodstock Academy’s Ethan Aspiras watches as East Lyme’s Luke Anthony pulls away a bit. Aspiras would catch Anthony and win the ECC cross-country championship. Photo by Marc Allard.



Aspiras heads
for State Open
Woodstock Academy junior Ethan Aspiras walked through the finish line, spoke for a moment with former teammate Kenneth Birlin, and then got down on the ground and did a flurry of push-ups and sit-ups.
It was hard to tell that he had just run 3.1 miles and, more importantly, won the ECC individual boys’ cross-country championship early last week.
“It’s a real intimidation factor,” Aspiras said with a smile. “I do that in every single race and people look at me like I’m crazy.”
Aspiras was crazy good early last week.
He defeated E. Lyme sophomore Luke Anthony by one second, coming home in 17 minutes, 13 seconds,
Aspiras followed his normal strategy early on in the race.
He was mired back around 20th place in the first half-mile of the race, saving up his energy for that final push.
“They are really getting into this negative split (completing the second half of a race faster than the first half), it might not be (based on) time, but instead on effort because it’s hard to base it on the hills,” said Centaurs cross-country coach Joe Banas. “He had the discipline to hold back when others went out.”
With about a third of the race left, Aspiras made his move and took over first from Anthony.
“I was feeling pretty good at that point. I didn’t know what the other kid’s kick potential was but I felt really good because Ethan was sort of bounding along. You can settle in, go at someone else’s pace and mentally go on vacation and just let your body do it. Then, when you come back in with focus, you can take off. That’s what he did,” said Centaurs coach Peter Lusa.
But Anthony wasn’t done yet. He passed Aspiras with about 1,000 meters to go. Aspiras wasn’t about to let a first-place finish escape his grasp. He answered the kick and never let Anthony back ahead again and cruised across the finish line.
Aspiras worked hard for the progress throughout the off season but still, he didn’t think even all that work would give him an ECC championship.
The Centaurs placed seventh as a team with Hamilton Barnes coming home in 24th. Aspiras places 4th
Aspiras followed up the championship effort with an equally good performance Oct. 26 at the Class MM state championship meet and bettered his time by 24 seconds from the ECC championship, finishing in 16:49, and placed fourth.
The effort was good enough to net him All-State honors and a spot in the CIAC State Open cross-country championship.
“It was awesome. He did his typical race, started off slow, and picked people off.” Banas said.
Barnes tried to keep up with Aspiras early on in the season but the sophomore also plays baseball and, even worse, is a catcher.
Barnes finished 42nd (18:21); senior Evan Gianfriddo was 88th (19:21); freshman Vince Bastura (19:24) placed 90th; freshman Maxwell Auker (19:41) was 104th and freshman Adam Thompson (20:00) was 110.
The team finished 13th overall.
ECC member East Lyme was the Class MM champ for a third consecutive time.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy



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All Together
Here's autumn in a nutshell. Every color represented alongside Rt. 44 in Pomfret. Linda Lemmon photo.

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