By David Miles, Standard Correspondent
Things come in threes and that was certainly the case for the Woodstock boys soccer team as it opened the playoffs by romping past Springfield 9-0. Three early goals (including two in the first two minutes) gave the team all the momentum. Three more in the final five minutes of the half essentially closed the door. And the final cluster of three, midway through the second half, were the icing on the cake.
It may have been the third easy win over the Cosmos this season, but it was still an impressive display of teamwork. Eight of the nine goals were assisted and the only one that was not came on a penalty kick.
“We take no opponent lightly,” said senior Curran MacDonald. “We prepared as hard for this game as for any.” He did feel it was an advantage to have matched up with Springfield twice already, so that the Wasps knew their play style and had an idea of what to expect.
Coach Tom Avellino expected the visitors to “pack it in on defense. We wanted good ball movement to attack that and to leave open space where we could move to.” And he felt his squad did that most of the time. He was also happy that, with the big lead, everybody could see action in the second half.
Seven different players scored for the Wasps. Mason Thompson and Cody Carnehammar both scored twice, with Thompson scoring both times right off the bat, less than two minutes into the game. Carnehammar tallied on the penalty kick.
Alex Crompton, Cullan McCarthy, MacDonald, Jack Arthur and Peter Wilson all scored once. Crompton led the team with three assists, while MacDonald had two and Carnehammar, Wilson and Arthur all tallied one.
The assist was Wilson’s first varsity point. He enjoyed it so much that very shortly thereafter he scored his first varsity goal. He assisted on Arthur’s goal; Arthur then returned the favor by setting up Wilson’s score just 2:11 later.
“We didn’t change what we did in preparing for this game,” said Avellino. “We respect our opponent, no matter who it is, no matter what the situation is. We’ll do the same thing beginning tomorrow when we find out who we play Saturday.”
As the top seed in Division II, Woodstock has earned the right to host up to three playoff games at home. Fair Haven and Hartford matched up later in the day in the No. 8-No. 9 seed tussle for the right to advance and come to Woodstock Saturday afternoon. (Game time is still to be determined). No matter the opponent, Avellino and his charges know that they will have their hands full in the quarterfinals. The Wasps concluded their season with two hard-fought overtime wins against these two very teams just last week.