Andover Boys Hockey played and won four games against Brooks, BB&N, Brewster, and Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) over this past week, with scores of 3-2, 3-0, 5-2, and 5-4, respectively. The team’s record now stands even at 12-12-1.
Matt Veneri ’21 said, “[The mentality going into last week] was to win. We had to not only win the games but be disciplined, [which] we’ve been working on.. during practice. We knew that we had to win all of those games, which we did. Our team has learned to never stop working hard during a game. We have had many games that have changed for the good or bad when our work ethic also changed.”
Chris Hocevar ’21 wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “The hockey team has and is still building a team chemistry that is one of the many reasons that we have been winning lately.”
According to Veneri, however, the team needs to work on continuing to stay determined throughout the whole game.
“A lot of our losses [have] been a result of us not playing well the whole the whole game… We could have been a little bit more disciplined throughout those games. Especially in our last NMH game, we had gotten some penalties at some bad times that we didn’t want,” said Veneri.
For the final weeks of the season, the team aims to combine all of its strongest points and work together.
Head Coach Paul Tortorella ’80 wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “We have momentum going into the last two games against [the] top ten teams [of 26 in the NEPSIHA]. Christian Kukas [’18] has come back from injury to help the defense, the goaltending has been consistently good, and all the forward lines are getting goal production. I like our chances.”
In particular, the team aims to produce a successful game against Phillips Exeter Academy.
Hocevar said, “Earlier in the year, we lost to Exeter in a devastating loss, but for us that was just motivation to practice and compete harder. Many players on our team have been stepping up to rise to the challenge and this Saturday we need everyone to rise to the occasion.”
This Saturday, Andover will play Exeter at home at 4:00 p.m
