Coming off a dodge up top and a leap in the air, Chris Kreider ’10 capped off his three-goal performance against Deerfield with a crossbar-down shot that wowed the crowd. Despite Kreider’s efforts, Andover lost to Deerfield with a score of 9-4. Kreider shone this last week, scoring one goal against Tabor and three out of the four goals against Deerfield. Last Saturday, Andover took on Deerfield, a perennial lacrosse powerhouse which has been undefeated for the past two years and remains atop the New England rankings every year. According to laxpower.com, Deerfield was the 14th ranked team in the country going into the game. Andover knew it would be a tough test, despite the close games that have come in years past. Unfortunately for Andover, all the hype about Deerfield’s level of play was true. The Deerfield defense played very well, and shut down the Andover attack. The strongpoint of Deerfield’s offense was their midfielders. With Luke Duprey ’10 suffering from a hamstring injury, Andover had trouble containing the prolific and electrifying Deerfield offense. Going down 3-0 early in the game, Andover started off very slowly, losing face-offs and not keeping possession. Despite the score, the Deerfield goals came in one short spurt, which speaks volumes about the Andover defense’s consistent play that co ntinued throughout the night. In the second quarter, Deerfield once again came out firing. However, Kreider was able to strike by carrying the ball end to end and taking advantage of transition games by scoring twice. At the half, Andover was down 4-2, almost striking a perfect match with last year’s game, which ended up 4-3 at halftime. In the third quarter, Andover’s defense began to get tired. Deerfield took advantage of the defense, and once again went on a shooting spree that gave them three more goals. As in the first, Andover’s offense was shut out in the third. The fourth began with a goal from the Deerfield offense that came off of a sour transition play. Andover’s offense came to life, though, with a goal from Kreider. Deerfield once again scored on a man-up opportunity, and Will Walker ’11 closed out the game with a goal in transition to make the final score 9-4. Special recognition goes to goalie and Co-Captain Spencer Rice ’09, who wowed spectators by playing one of the best games of his life. “He really stood on his head out there. He made some of the best saves I have ever seen and really kept us in the game. Tonight, Spence proved to us all that he can play with the best,” said Spencer Macquarrie ’10. Even though it was a hard loss, the game was played with great passion, and the festive atmosphere created by the crowd made for a very exciting night. Walker ’11 said, “It was a really intense game under the lights. Everyone felt like they played as hard as they could, but Deerfield brought their best.” Andover looked to rebound from the Deerfield loss on Wednesday against Tabor. For Andover, the offensive woes continued. Tabor came out running a zone defense, which forced Coach Carr to change up his offense. Unfortunately, the change did not work out too well for Andover. Possession issues and unforced turnovers kept the Andover offense out of the game. Despite the efforts on the defensive end from the trio of Andrew Pohly ’09, Forrest Cox ’09 and Theo Lederfine-Paskal ’09, the game ended with a final score of 5-3. Andover looks to come back from the disappointing losses against a very strong Loomis Chaffee squad on Saturday.
