With about one minute remaining in the game and Andover Girls Lacrosse trailing Brooks by one goal, Nekele McCall ’14 tied the game on a drive that started from behind the net.
McCall said, “The play we called was eleven. I had the ball behind the goal and drove around the right side of the crease once everyone else had moved to the other side of the arc. I tried to get a shot off as soon as I had enough angle to do so, so I didn’t curve all the way to the front of the goal. I shot high both times because the goalie was good down low but not as good up high.”
42 seconds later, McCall scored the game-winning goal from almost the same spot from which she scored the previous goal.
A Mallory Tyler ’12 save 10 seconds later secured Andover’s 9-8 victory and tenth of the season.
Wednesday proved to be an ultimate comeback, as Andover trailed 8-5 with nine minutes to play.
Brooks also led 7-4 early in the second half, but Andover trimmed its deficit to two with 11:15 left thanks to a long pass from Caroline Garrity ’15 to McCall, who then proceeded to successfully finish the play.
Less than two minutes later, however, Brooks increased its lead to three again.
A shot by Hailey Novis ’13 with 8:35 remaining provided Andover with its sixth goal. Andover had numerous opportunities to come back, including penalty shots by Lizzie Paul ’12 and Captain Greer McBeth ’12, but it failed to capitalize until McCall scored off of her own penalty shot with about five minutes left in the game.
On Saturday, Andover squeaked out a 10-8 victory against New Hampton.
Andover raced out to an early 3-0 lead, but New Hampton then responded with two unanswered scores.
However, after scoring with just five seconds remaining in the first half, Andover entered halftime with a 6-3 lead.
“During this game, we had Hannah Sorkin [’14] face guarding, meaning she stayed a foot away and never left to help and was focused on this one girl because she was the majority of her team,” said Amy Morin ’14.
“We got a lot of draw controls which really gave us an upper hand on offense. The offense also did a very good job re-defending the ball in the midfield and coming up with interceptions and forcing turnovers,” added Hannah Beinecke ’12.
Andover managed to grab a 9-5 lead midway through the second half, but New Hampton still made things interesting at the end with some late goals before Andover ultimately secured its ninth win of the season.
Andover hopes to conclude the regular season on a high note against rival Exeter tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.
