During the third period of Boys Hockey game on Wednesday, goalie Charlie Archer ’20 blocked a shot from a Deerfield offender with his stick, maintaining the 1-1 score. Andover went on to defeat Deerfield 3-1. The win broke a three-game losing streak, including Saturday’s 0-3 loss against Loomis Chaffee, bringing Andover’s record to 8-10.
Wednesday’s game started slowly; the first goal only came midway through the second period when Deerfield scored on a powerplay. While it initially seemed as though the momentum had shifted in favor of Deerfield, Post-Graduate Dante Maribito ’18 scored two goals and Quinn Doyle ’18 scored another in the third period.
Forward Alex Cleveland ’18 said, “We were ready to step up and play like a team, so we talked about that in between the second and third period, and we really went out in the third period. We took it to them right away.”
Defenseman Carter Giampietro ’19 added, “We definitely came out with a lot more heart in the third period [against Deerfield]. Against Loomis, we sort of just sat there in idle, and in this game, we came out with purpose, and the purpose was to win.”
According to Cleveland, the team had to work together to fight through Deerfield’s strong defense.
“They have a good goalie, so we were trying to get some people in front of him and get some screens going,” said Cleveland.
In Andover’s matchup against Loomis, Andover displayed strength in its offense; however, the lack of teamwork in the backline made it impossible to take advantage of scoring chances, according to Forward Christian Powers ’19.
Powers said, “We made their defense make mistakes, and we got the puck to the net and pressured their defence… We couldn’t score, we couldn’t capitalize on our chances, and we also we couldn’t connect that well in the neutral zone and the [defensive] zone. We weren’t making great passes, so we couldn’t generate that much offense from our own zone”.
Andover looks to improve its passing and opportunize more on its open chances for its Friday matchup against Belmont Hill.
“Something we are looking to do better in the future is connect more with our passes and play it better as a team in our [defensive] zone, and work to cycle the puck down low in the offensive zone, and capitalize on our scoring chances,” said Powers.
Giampietro added, “I think we hope to play a full sixty minutes of hockey. That’s something that we’ve struggled with in the past, and we would love to put a complete game together. That, I think, would lead to our success.”
