Sports

Ultimate Notches Two Wins; Defeats NMH for First Time Ever

On Friday the Ultimate team faced Newton North High School and came away with a 15-4 victory. This was the first time the Big Blue had beaten Newton North. They did so by playing a tremendous game. Captain Jonah Guerin ’07 said of the game, “Our zone defense was really effective in the first half, and we used our speed to score some points.” Upon starting the game, Andover quickly took it to the Newton North team with quick passes and runs up and down the field. Also, the zone defense really slowed down the unprepared Newton North offense. At the end of the first half, the Big Blue was dominating the game with an 8-0 lead. As the second half began it became apparent that Newton North had figured out the Big Blue’s zone defense and began to score some points. Andover quickly changed their strategy to a man-to-man defense. This really helped to force turnovers enabling the Big Blue to add another seven points to achieve a final score of 15-4. This Wednesday Andover barely pulled out a victory over Northfield Mount Hermon in an extremely close 13-12 win. Of the game Eliza Burns ’06 said, “We had such a close game today. It was one of our best offensive games, and because we came back from behind it really demonstrated our persistence.” The game began with the Big Blue facing some rough wind and playing weak defense. Even though Andover scored the first point, they were unable to maintain the lead, and trailed 4-8 at halftime. However, the Big Blue redeemed itself during the second half. The defense was much stronger, particularly by Sean Beckett ’08 who made some incredible blocks, while also managing to score two points. Danny Silk ’07 and Aaron Weisz’06 played well in the midfield. Of the midfield Captain Guerin said, “Our midfield was really running hard today, and making some effective as well as quick cuts, to move the disk up the field.” As the time diminished and Andover reached the soft cap that they had placed on all of their games, they were still trailing. Yet by the time that the hard time cap had run out, Andover had managed to score five consecutive points. Ben Feng ’07 made the final catch to give Andover the 13-12 victory. Captain Guerin said, “This was a great game that went back and forth. It required our offense and defense to connect. It really demonstrated how well we work together as a team.”