Sports

Boys Lacrosse Beats Tabor in Between Losses to Deerfield & Loomis; Andover, After Leading 9-7, Falls on Penalty Shot to Loomis

On Saturday April 29th, the Andover Boys Lacrosse was defeated 10-5 in a game against Deerfield Academy. Captain Matt Yeager ’06 commented, “Although we lost by a lot, I don’t think it showed the effort that we had during the game”. Dylan Green ’06 added, “Coming into the game, we knew this would be a tough test for us, but there was no real pressure because we knew we were the underdogs.” Deerfield has one of the strongest teams in the nation but the team still played admirable effort and intensity. Andover started out slow, lacking the possessions they needed and giving up some early transition goals leaving Andover down 7-1 at halftime. Green continued, “On the road, against a great team it would have been easy for us to pack it in there, but we came out and played some great lacrosse in the second half.” Offensively the team had better possessions and got some good looks at the goal. One came from Green as he dodged his way to open space in front of the crease. Attacker Patrick Curtin ’07 fed him the ball and Green snapped into the back of the net. In similar situation, later in the half, Green cut to the goal and received the ball from another strong pass by Curtin. Green one-timed it, hitting an upper corner and eating away at the Deerfield lead. The Big Blue defeated 7-6 Tabor Academy in an away game last Wednesday. The team faced a few challenges, playing in wet and slippery conditions. Although the rain affected the team’s sharpness, Andover still came out with a victory. By halftime the team had a 4-2 lead. When the team came back at halftime they increased the lead to 5-2. Nearing the end the game came down to a man-down defensive stand for two minutes. Aaron made a series of great saves, eventually adding to over 20 for the game. With about six seconds left the team finally cleared the ball and called a timeout end the competition. This past Saturday, Andover lost a close 9-10 game to Loomis, one of nation’s top ten teams. Going into the game Andover was clearly the underdog, however with five minutes of playing time left in the game, Andover was up 9-7. Loomis slowly chipped away and tied up the game. In the final, a penalty put Loomis up a player, and they scored the winning goal of the game. Andover managed to get one last possession but the Loomis goalie made a great save in the final moments, ending Andover’s chance.