Andover Boys Hockey jumped to an early lead in last Saturday’s heated fight against Exeter but could not continue to capitalize and fell in the end. Andover stepped on the ice ready to play this Saturday and dominated all areas of play in the first period. Minutes into the game, Michael Lata ’14 was able to put Andover on the board first when he scored off a rebound from a shot from Michael Kim ’14. However, Exeter answered back only a few minutes later on a breakaway. With roughly 10 minutes remaining in the first period, Kim took a shot from the bottom of the circles when Exeter’s goalie was out of position to put Andover back in the lead. Andover headed into the second period with a target on its back, as it had only a one-point advantage. Exeter was able to tie the game four minutes into the second period when an open Exeter forward positioned on the side of the net was able to slip the puck past goalie Tyler Kirsch ’12. Andover rebounded only three minutes later when Co-Captain Eddie Ellis ’13 received a pass from David Belluche ’14 and took a shot from the slot on an odd-man rush to put Andover back up 3-2. Unfortunately, an Exeter player was able to find the net again once more when he skated down into Andover’s zone and took a backhander that went in. Exeter was able to bring the to score to 4-3 on the penalty kill when one of its players flew down the wing and drove to the net. The period ended with Andover down by one. Andover tied the game up five minutes into the third period when Ellis placed a shot into the top right from the slot once again. Andover kept fighting but Exeter found the net twice more before the end of the game to take the victory 6-4. “Exeter has a couple of very dangerous forwards, and they converted on a lot of their opportunities. We kept a lot of pressure on them after they went up by two but couldn’t score. I was proud of our effort. It was unfortunate we came up short,” said Coach Dean Boylan. “I think for us as a team, it was a learning experience. We had a number of guys who were young and could bring a lot of talent to the team, but it took them some time to get acclimated to prep school hockey. The older kids kind of had to step up and lead the way, but once everybody was clicking, we were a totally different team,” said Co-Captain Tommy Shannon ’12. “We’ll have a lot of returning players next year, who will have a season of experience behind them. It will be interesting to see how everyone develops over the next few months and through the summer. I’m already looking forward to next year’s season,” said Connor Light ’13.
