In a two and a half hour season opening battle, Andover crushed Newton North 15-6. “We had a good win today. It’s always awesome to get a win in the season opener and today we followed through. We have things we need to work on, but hopefully we can carry this intensity through the rest of the season. It always feels great to start the season off with a win,” said David Russell ‘12 Lead by Captain Duncan Crystal ’10, Andover took the offensive with touchdowns from Dylan Gully ’12, Kyle Leahy ’10, Rob Stevens ’10, J.osh Feng ’10 and Brandon Wong ’12. The highlight of the game came when Feng made a great pass to Wong in the end zone, as Wong made an incredible diving catch to score Andover’s 14th point. Lucas Christopherson ’12 and Crystal led the defense, as they had two blocks apiece. “A win is always great, but I was most pleased by Kyle’s performance. We have a lot of new kids this year , and Kyle stands definitely stands out among them. He had a great game and helped us grab a win,” Gully said. In his first appearance ever on an Ultimate field, newcomer Leahy stepped up to the challenge and excelled on the varsity level. Leahy scored two touchdowns in addition to two assists. “It took me a while to get the hang of it. But the guys on the team were great about giving me advice and being patient with me. I felt more and more confident as the game went along,” said Leahy. Even though it won by such a large margin, Andover still has much to work on in the coming days. “We played sloppy. We were making bad throws and missing opportunities to score. We have a lot of stuff to work on in practice this week before the next game,” said Crystal Also, by winning Wednesday’s game, Andover qualified for the A division in the Amherst Tournament. Last year, because of the swine flu epidemic, Andover was not able to compete in the tournament. The Amherst tournament hosts teams from around the region, both public and prep. By qualifying for the A Division, Andover will be facing the best teams in the area. “After the game, coach told everyone that we qualified for the A division. It was very exciting. Last year we were unable to compete in the tournament because of swine flu, but this year we are healthy and ready to go,” said Wong. Andover will play Concord-Carlisle on Saturday.
