Led by a dynamic offense, Andover Field Hockey cruised to a two-win week, extending the team’s win streak to an impressive six games. Deerfield and Andover have an extremely competitive past; last year Andover came out on top 1-0 in the semifinals. This game was expected to be one of the most challenging of the season. Andover jumped out to an early lead, however, ending the first half up 3-0. The ball was kept almost entirely in Andover’s offensive end throughout the first half. The few times that the ball crossed over the fifty, Andover’s defense quickly stopped Deerfield’s attack. Co-Captain Avery Stone ’10 led the defense as sweeper, clearing every ball that came her way. On the home field Andover both started and ended the game strong; a weak point for the team in the past few games has been starting the game off slowly. After the ball got stuck in Deerfield’s goalie’s pads, Andover was given its first penalty stroke of the season. Kyleigh Keating ’10 stepped up to the line and fired a shot at the upper left corner of the goal, to give Andover its third goal. Andover’s other goals were scored by Colleen Flanagan ’10, Summer Washburn ’11 and Co-Captain Kaitlyn McInnis ’09 and all of the goals were scored in different situations: a fast break, a corner, a stroke, and a rebound put back. Andover’s goalies Shannon McSweeney ’11 and Alina Pechacek ’09 split time, both having some very strong stops. On one of Deerfield’s breakaways, a player rifled a low shot to Pechacek’s far right. Pechacek lunged and stopped it dead on her stick and then cleared it out of the circle. Deerfield only managed to slip one goal in the contest. “We managed to connect all of the little things that we had been working and execute them in the game” Flanagan explained. Andover continued to dominate against BB&N, winning by a final of 5-0. All of the five goals were scored by different players. Eliza Flynn ’10 scored early at to the start of the game, to begin the game off strong. Andover scored three goals all within the first 15 minutes of the game. Katie Fanikos ’10 scored the only goal in the second half to make the score 5-0. On a breakaway, Fanikos charged the net and faked right before shooting the ball into left corner. The goal was her first goal of the season. Both McInnis and Katie Riley ’10 had goals as well. Overall Andover once again dominated offensively keeping the ball in the attacking end of the field for most of the game In the first half of the game, Andover played with poise and composure and executed on offensive corners. Andover lost a lot of momentum in the second half, only scoring one goal. “We came out really strong in the first half and fortunately that lasted us the game because in the second half we lost our offensive momentum.” Pechacek said. This Saturday Andover will play Cushing.
