Led by a two-goal performance from Captain Brooks Dyroff ’09, the Andover hockey team defeated rival Exeter 4-1 in front of a packed home crowd on Saturday. Despite a hat trick by Chris Kreider ’10, Andover only mustered a 3-3 tie on Wednesday at St. Sebastians. Against Exeter, both teams battled for puck control in the opening period. After a back and forth first period, Andover and Exeter entered the locker rooms locked up in a scoreless tie. Andover started scoring in the 2nd, as Kreider hit a streaking Garnet Hathaway ’10 with a perfect pass. Hathaway capitalized on the breakaway by beating out the Exeter goalie on the left side. Some good opportunities followed for both Exeter and Andover, but both failed to capitalize. Glenn Stowell ’09 played spectacularly as he made great save after great save for the bulk of the period. Exeter then responded to a good penalty kill by Andover with a goal to tie up the game with two minutes left in the period. The period ended in a 1-1 tie. Andover broke the game open in the third period as Dyroff finished on a centering pass by Kreider to put Andover up 2-1. Trevor Braun ’10 beat the opposition’s defense around the left side. He sent a wrist shot just past the goalie to give Andover a two goal lead. Exeter then pulled their goalie with a minute and a half to go, and Dyroff knocked a loose puck in from the blue line with 52 seconds remaining to put Exeter away for good. As the final buzzer sounded, Andover emerged victorious and improved its record to 9-2-1. Stowell played great in net, making many saves to shut down Exeter’s offense. Luke Duprey ’10 and Bennett Carroccio ’10 forcing the Exeter offense to turn the puck over continuously. Andover faced a tough St. Sebastian’s team on the road and tied the Arrows 3-3. Kreider scored a hat trick, while line-mate Dyroff assisted on two of his goals. Andover held the lead for the first portion of the game. St. Sebastian’s tied the score up in the third period with two unlucky goals. Dyroff almost scored late in the third in an attempt to break the tie, but his shot hit the crossbar and bounced out. Although St. Seb’s is a very talented team, Dyroff knows that Andover can be better. “We need to work on limiting our penalties and becoming more disciplined,” he said.
