Post-Graduate (PG) Andres Marx ’18 is the only PG on Andover.
After receiving a pass from Owen Glover ’19 on the wing, Luc Pan ’19 shot the ball just over the the opposing goalkeeper’s head to score Andover’s only goal of the game. Andover was eventually defeated by St. Paul’s 3-1, putting its record at 3-3-1.
According to Glover and Co-Captain Morgan Cutts ’18, Andover underestimated the St. Paul’s team and did not prepare to the best of their ability during warmups.
“Frankly, we went into the game knowing that St. Paul’s was a team we really should be beating by a lot. I don’t think the mentality was there right at the beginning. I think people thought of it as an easy game, and it was [St. Paul’s] parent’s weekend, so they came out really fired up and ready to go,” said Cutts.
“We showed up to the game, and we never got our act together. We never warmed up enough. We got out to the field pretty late. There was only twenty minutes of warm up. By the time the whistle blew, I don’t think any of us were actually ready to start playing, and that showed pretty clearly,” said Glover.
Taking advantage of Andover’s lack of focus, St. Paul’s scored two goals within the first ten minutes of play, according to Co-Captain Will Raphael ’18.
“We started off really slowly. In the first two minutes, we had a mistake in the back and then five minutes later we had an almost identical mistake, resulting in [another goal]. It was unfortunate, but it happens. After that we woke up,” said Raphael.
Andover began to connect passes and control the flow of the game as time went on, according to Cutts and Glover.
“Especially in the second part of the first half we were moving the ball really well and were getting a lot of people forward. We were switching the ball from side-to-side really well,” said Cutts.
Glover said, “Offensively, we had a nice period in the end of the first half, we were moving the ball well side-to-side, and I think there were a couple possessions where the entire offense touched the ball at least once and finished with a shot on goal.”
Despite its strong offensive performance for the rest of the game, the team was unable to put away many of its scoring opportunities, according Isaac Hershenson ’20 and Raphael.
“The first fifteen minutes were tough, but we really outplayed them for the rest of the game. I think we just ran out of gas late in the second half and our shooting was a little off. We had 20 or 30 shots, but we weren’t able to put away the ones that we should have,” said Hershenson.
“After the first 20 minutes we started to kick into gear. We started connecting passes and moving the ball up field, and eventually we got chances, but we hit the crossbar. We just couldn’t put the ball in the net,” said Raphael.
After this loss, Andover looks to improve on maintaining focus from the first whistle to the last, according to Cutts.
“We need to come out with the right focus and mentality from the start of the game. This time around it’s our [Family Weekend], so hopefully we’ll have that energy right from kick off,” said Cutts.
Andover will play Northfield Mount Hermon at home on Saturday, Family Weekend.
