Sports

Andover Closes 8-6 Season With 9-4 Loss to Exeter in Friday Night Away Game

In one of the highlights of the Friday night game against rival Exeter, Chris Kreider ’10 made a heroic effort on a one-man clear. He then proceeded, in his usual physical fashion, to power through Exeter’s defense and put the ball past Exeter’s senior goalie for Andover’s first goal of the game. Unfortunately, Kreider’s efforts weren’t enough to beat a versatile Exeter squad, as lost the game 9-4. In front of a roaring crowd of mostly Exeter fans, Andover stepped on to the field with confidence, knowing that it hadn’t lost an Andover-Exeter game in six years. After a lengthy possession following the opening face-off, Andover gave up the ball on a forced shot. Exeter capitalized on the turnover by scoring the first goal of the game in transition. The rest of the first half looked anything but problematic for Andover. The usual scoring suspects chimed in during Andover’s offensively dominant first half. Kreider tallied another goal for Andover to make the game 2-1. Attackman Spencer Macquarrie ’10 also contributed a goal in the first half off of a feed from Co-Captain Jack Walker ’09. Walker did not keep his point total confined to the assist column, as Andover’s star attackman scored late in the second quarter. Despite being relatively inactive, Exeter’s offense was not kept completely quiet. They generated one more goal in the half to bring Exeter to within two goals of Andover. Andover led 4-2 entering halftime. The solid defense of the first half started to gradually break down, and the offense could not keep possession long enough to open up the scoring opportunities that were present in the first half. The start of the second half did not bode well for Andover, as Exeter won the opening face-off. Compared to the first half, the Exeter offense looked completely different because it could keep possession for long periods of time. Over the course of the second half, Exeter scored seven unanswered goals. One thing that Exeter did particularly well was ride. Andover had trouble clearing against the Exeter zone ride, which was set up so that the attack and midfielders dropped back, giving up the first pass. This was perfect against Andover’s clear, which usually consisted of Kreider and John McKenna ‘10 clearing the ball by themselves. The zone ride did not give the two middies any room to move in the open field, denying them the option of gaining speed and going through the defense single-handedly. Overall, Andover allowed its poor play in the third quarter to get the best of it. Everything was certainly left on the field, but the execution failed to come through on both the offensive and defensive ends of the field.