Thomas Manty ’19 received the puck at center ice, dodged defending Hotchkiss players, and shot the puck into the bottom left corner of the net. Manty’s goal ultimately propelled Andover to a 4-1 victory over Hotchkiss.
The game against Hotchkiss was just one of four at the Flood Marr Tournament, where Andover also competed against Westminster, Nobles, and Milton. Unfortunately, according to Head Coach Paul Tortorella ’80, the team was not as triumphant coming out of the tournament as it had hoped, winning only the game against Hotchkiss. On Wednesday, Andover secured a 5-3 win against Tilton, raising their standing season record to 4-1.
Coach Tortorella said, “We played some good teams. The Nobles game was disappointing — that’s the game that got away from us — but [the game against Milton] was a close game. We had the better of it for half the game, and Milton had the better of it for half a game. It was a back and forth battle.”
Although the team fought its hardest, it was still frustrated with the outcome of the games and has resolved to work harder, according to Matthew Veneri ’21.
Veneri said, “We had high expectations going into it, and I don’t think anyone was satisfied. I think everybody knew it was sort of a reality check to make sure that’s what can happen if we don’t play well. We were expecting to come out of there a little bit more victorious than we actually did. That was a good time to collect ourselves and re-evaluate how we can win more games as a team.”
Despite the disappointing results, there were learning opportunities to be taken from the tournament so that the team can improve its game for the remainder of the season, according to Veneri and Sawyer Moody ’19.
“During the tournament, what was highlighted was that we didn’t necessarily play as a team. I personally think that playing as a team is the only way that you’ll be able to successful. We had flashes of that during the Flood Marr Tournament, but that’s really not enough… The teams that we played and lost to were not more skilled than us, but what they did do was they took that skill and played together as a team, which we failed to do at times,” said Veneri.
Moody added, “As the tournament proved to us, we need to work on coming out strong in the first period. We don’t usually do that, and we find ourselves trying to claw back after every goal in the second and third periods. I think if we come out strong, then we’ll have a strong second half of the year.”
This Saturday, Andover will face off against Exeter at home.
