With only two minutes left on the clock, winger and Post-Graduate Andres Marx ’18 zigzagged past three opposing defenders, cut into the box, and fired a the ball into the top right corner of the goal for Andover Boys Soccer against Milton last Wednesday. Despite its efforts, Andover suffered a 3-2 loss against its opponent. Prior to this matchup, Andover faced off against Brooks last Saturday with a tied final score of 1-1, putting the season record at 0-1-1.
Co-Captain Will Raphael ’18 contributed two headers out of the three total goals in the two games.
Hayden Weatherall ’18 said, “The best highlight of the past two games was Will’s header to tie the game [against Brooks]. It was an absolutely huge play in terms of our response to being down a goal and also looking ahead to future games, and it shows that we will score goals from the air. Also, it was a [beautiful] header.”
Owen Glover ’19 also played an important role by using his agility and endurance to create multiple chances for Andover to score, according to Weatherall.
“Owen had an excellent game, despite being on the receiving end of bad tackles and calls. He received the ball well, kept his cool, and diced their left back again and again, giving us a lot of opportunities in the box. Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize on it,” said Weatherall.
While Andover may have put up their best in both games, it still has room to improve on its passing, according to its players.
Glover said, “We had to adjust to a much larger field for today’s game, so I think we did a pretty good job of using all the available space. Honesty, I think we played better against Brooks but there were moments when we worked the ball from Max [Levi ’19], our goalie, all the way to Andrei [Dumitrescu ’18], our striker, and that is something really important for our team.”
Weatherall said, “It was great to be back on Smoyer. We are a passing team, so getting the ball moving around on our turf is our game. Today, we moved the ball well, but we will need to move it faster and more decisively to be dangerous moving forward.”
According to Raphael, Andover hopes to learn from their mistakes and improve on its flaws for its upcoming match against Loomis this Friday at home.
Raphael said, “The team has been working on moving the ball quickly and with a purpose, and there are moments in the game where players have tried to implement combinations and work on ball speed. We need to continue to play our game and learn from the previous two games, and when we do I think we will experience more success than we have in the last two games.”
