Charlotte Welch ’18 recieved the puck after a combination play from Elizabeth Welch ’18 to Tookie Wilson ’18, hitting it into the top corner of the net to give Andover Girls Hockey a 1-0 lead against Worcester Academy. A late goal by Worcester locked the game at a 1-1 tie and moved Andover’s regular season record to 5-0-3.
Andover scored its lone goal at the end of the first period. Worcester netted the tying goal with six minutes left, propelling the game into hard-fought overtime play. Although it maintained the lead for the majority of the game, Andover’s offense demanded more from its forwards.
“I think in today’s game we were a really resilient team, which helps us a lot,” said Wilson. “I feel like we could have done more on offense to try and score more goals. When the other team scored, our energy definitely increased and we had a refuse-to-lose attitude. Looking forward, we will be practicing finishing, because it is one thing that is lacking right now, but overall our mentality of never giving up is really awesome.”
Goalie Alexa Matses ’18 said, “We had trouble scoring and lost our one goal lead, but we definitely are going to work on power play for next game considering we are having a hard time setting it up and getting shots off. I think we did a good job bringing up our pace in the latter periods and holding until the overtime.”
In addition to the offense, Andover looks to shape up its defensive discipline to ensure no goals slip past the team in the final minutes of the game.
Elizabeth Welch said, “We struggled in the defensive zone with marking our checks and maintaining position when it got chaotic. We need to work on our composure in the defensive zone, which will lead to quicker breakouts and offensive opportunities. We are also definitely going to work on our power play, which will allow us to capitalize on those opportunities.”
Worcester’s aggressive defensive pressure challenged Andover’s offense and intensified the game in the third period. Matses kept Andover alive from the net during overtime, playing a crucial role in preventing a loss.
Charlotte Welch said, “[Worcester’s] forecheck was really good, which put us on our heels. I’m looking forward to practicing our new power play in practice and getting that down which will help us a lot.”
“I think in overtime and in the second period we did a good job maintaining possession in the offensive zone, which allowed us scoring opportunities. We were aggressive and quick to the puck, which established pressure and forced them to make errors which we could capitalize on,” said Elizabeth Welch.
Co-Captain Kasey Welch ’16 said, “[This] game wasn’t our best. We have been struggling to put the puck in the net in the past few games, something we are definitely going to focus on going into this weekend against Choate. That being said, we were strong defensively, and Alexa was great in net.”
Andover’s offense looks to redeem itself in its game against Choate this Saturday.
