Playing under the lights at Choate’s stadium, Andover struggled on both sides of the ball, according to Co-Captain Henry Rogers ’19, and suffered a 4-0 shutout loss this past Saturday. The team’s record now stands 2-5 on the season.
Rogers said, “We didn’t play anywhere near the level we want to be playing at. We didn’t do well on defense, as we got played through too much during the game. Giving up four goals is never a good thing. We also didn’t create enough on offense.”
According to Tulio Marchetti ’21, playing under the lights presented a challenge for the team.
“[Choate] brought in a bunch of motor lights, and it was really loud… so we had to talk a lot and loudly in order for the team to hear us. First half we were down 2-0, [and] during halftime we thought we could bring it back… but unfortunately in the second half we conceded another two, and the game ended in a 4-0 loss,” Marchetti said.
David O’Brien ’21 said, “[Choate is] a pretty good team. They have a couple of athletic, fast forwards, and then some solid defensive players. It was a pretty even most of the game even though the score does not reflect that. We had a poor defensive performance, but other than that I think it went pretty well.”
Despite getting shut out, Andover still had very consistent players that limited Choate’s offensive opportunities, according to Marchetti and O’Brien.
Marchetti said, “Rolando [Rabines ’19] played well. He’s very consistent. [Head Coach Edwin Escobar] put him on as a winger so he could switch the ball more, and he tried to do that a lot. I also think Sam Kumler [’21] also did really well. He is also a very consistent player, and he’s always locking the backup and doesn’t let anything go over his head, just like Coach [William] Scott tells him to do.”
O’Brien added, “David Wang [’20] had a good performance defensively in the midfield. He swung a lot of tackles and was able to take some pressure off of us when we needed it.”
The team is looking to improve on its organization, which will ultimately help improve its defensive skills, according to O’Brien.
O’Brien said, “I think we had a good offensive performance although we didn’t score. We got pretty unlucky with some missed shots. We did well moving from side to side and just penetrating their defense. I think we will try to improve on organization and just trying to become a better defensive team, and hopefully get a little more lucky.”
Marchetti said, “I think there are a lot of places where we can improve. At practice we work more on possession, and I think that if we could work more on our possession game and capitalize on big chances, we would do way better than we are doing right now. I think we could also work on playing as a team, I feel like the chemistry is not 100 percent. I think once the team links up, we will be very good.”
Andover will face St. Paul’s at home this Saturday.
