Woodstock
“It’s not the game,” said the 10th-year coach, whose squad lost, 12-7, to BFA-St. Albans in the Vermont Division I semifinals. “It’s that we don’t get to hang out together anymore.”
The curtain came down on the No. 2 Wasps’ season courtesy of a No. 3 Bobwhites team that has won eight of its last nine games. Their lone loss came to five-time defending state champion Champlain Valley, which they will meet again in the title game at the University of Vermont. Woodstock finishes 14-3, and BFA-St. Albans is 12-4.
“We came out with energy, and it got taken away real quick,” said Woodstock senior captain Cullen McCarthy, whose team was tied, 5-5, two minutes before halftime but trailed, 8-5, at the break. “They score in bursts, and it’s hard to keep up with. Defensively, they were on our hands as soon as we got the ball.”
Woodstock didn’t play the Bobwhites, No. 1 CVU or No. 4 South Burlington during the regular season, when it lost by two goals to No. 5 Essex. It faced three Division II teams and played five contests against Division I foes Rice, Brattleboro and Rutland. That trio won a combined 13 times.
It was evident early that Woodstock had its hands full. BFA-St. Albans boasts an athletic, hard-hitting back line and granted the Wasps notably less time and space than they’d enjoyed most of the season. The hosts had only two extended offensive possessions during the first half, and when the Bobwhites struck for goals 93, 48 and 15 seconds before halftime, they took momentum into their huddle.
Woodstock kept the ball pinned in the visitors’ end for nearly four minutes during the third quarter but couldn’t score. The Bobwhites broke out and fired home three more goals before the final stanza started, pushing their advantage to 11-5. BFA-St. Albans held only a 30-25 shot advantage, and ground balls were 20-20. However, the visitors capitalized when the game became scrambly and denied Woodstock fast-break chances.
“They have depth, and I think that was the difference,” said McCarthy, who hopes to play club hockey or club lacrosse at Fordham University in New York.
“We run three attackmen who don’t sub all game and three offensive middies who maybe have one sub. (BFA-St. Albans) pounded our defense, which just got gassed.”
Woodstock’s Gabriel Marsicovetere made 11 saves, while counterpart Foster Horton was called upon to stop five shots. Caden White, Patrick Potter and Lucas Piconi each had two goals, and the latter was particularly eye-catching, several times fighting his way through multiple defenders for shots on net. McCarthy had a goal and an assist, and Micah Schlabach had two assists.
“We dodged hard to the goal and they collapsed on us and took away options,” said Little, whose program loses only four seniors to graduation. “I could see other ones, but the players didn’t see them. We needed to move the ball a little bit quicker.”
Woodstock, which last won a state title in 1999, reached the finals most recently in 2003 and was a semifinalist in 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2014.
BFA-St. Albans also knocked the Wasps out of the playoffs in 2016, when the No. 10 Bobwhites beat the No. 7 Wasps, 9-7, during a first-found contest.
BFA-St. Albans overcame a pair of three-goal deficits that afternoon and denied Woodstock a trip to the quarterfinals for the first time since it made its playoff debut in 1993.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.