Jed Heald ’20, center, blocks out a Hotchkiss opponent.
Building off of Andover Boys Lacrosse’s momentum from Saturday’s comeback win against Hotchkiss, Jon Krikorian ’21 posed a tenacious threat on offense, contributing one-third of the team’s points against Rivers on Wednesday. Despite a strong effort from him and others, Andover came up short in a close 11-6 game, leaving the team’s record at 2-1.
“I just played my role and did what the team needed me to do, which was generating offense from behind the net,” said Krikorian.
Despite starting off slowly on Saturday against Hotchkiss, the team pulled together and directed its focus towards playing a clean technical game, which translated to scoring goals and causing turnovers, according to Will Kantaros ’18.
Kantaros said, “There were a lot of chances Saturday for us to throw in the towel, but we all rallied together and pulled out a victory which was really nice.”
During some intense practices earlier in the week, the team focused on playing in unity for the duration of the game, according to Co-Captain Larson Tolo ’18.
He wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “We had been working more on consistency in practice. The game against Hotchkiss went well for us on the score sheet, but we struggled in maintaining a constant level of play and energy. We did a lot of competitive drills in practice this week to help teach us how to maintain that competitive spirit and focus on keeping our energy consistent.”
Tolo continued, “We also focused on having some fun. It may sound weird, but we have been getting so serious lately as a team that it was a main focus in practice to have some fun with the drills. Each drill was competitive, as I mentioned, but still allowed for us to gain appreciation for each other and play in an informal way that felt like backyard pickup.”
According to Tolo, the team needs to translate skills highlighted during competitive practices into its games.
“We were focusing on just playing the way we have been playing in practice and how we played over Spring Break in San Diego [during our game at Rivers]. We had some glimpses of success, as we started the game out hot with a 4-1 lead, but after the first quarter we began to depart from that play style and let Rivers get the best of us. The weather did not help us, as it was pouring and the sticks were hard to handle, but we should have been able to overcome that. In looking forward, we have some soul searching to do as a team moving into our next game,” Tolo wrote in an email to The Phillipian.
Considering the unfavorable conditions, the team maintains a hopeful outlook on correcting its mistakes so early in the season.
Kantaros said, “The team has been playing really hard these last few weeks. We’re just trying to solidify our fundamentals and focus on playing our brand of lacrosse.”
After beginning the season with a few games where the team has not played to its fullest potential, the team has decided to concentrate on developing and harnessing mental toughness.
Krikorian said, “It plays a huge role in the way each of us plays individually and how we perform as a team.”
Head Coach Luke Duprey ’10 believes that connecting the team and fostering leadership among teammates will result in success.
“I’m trying to hold these kids accountable and hope to teach them to hold each other accountable, because that is the only way we will be a good team: if we can really be honest with ourselves and with each other to say what we need to work on and get better at and what we don’t need to work on as much,” said Duprey.
The team will play New Hampton at home on Saturday with the hopes of continuing to build camaraderie, demonstrate fortitude during tough competition, and hone its basics.
