With 15 seconds left on the clock, Brandon Reilly ’20 fired a shot into the back of the New Hampton net to send the game into overtime. Despite Reilly’s efforts, Andover Boys Lacrosse fell 9-8 to New Hampton on Saturday.
Andover lacked energy from the start on Saturday, according to Assistant Captain Sal Lupoli PG’19.
“We came off the bus with no energy and when we play with high energy we are lethal, but we didn’t jump off the gate. I learned that energy can affect an entire game,” said Lupoli.
Andover gave up a penalty in overtime putting it at a disadvantage. Moving forward, Andover needs to focus on maintaining its discipline, according to Jed Heald ‘20 and Mark Witt ‘20.
“I think we just need to capitalize on the other team’s mistakes a little bit better, and we need to stand more disciplined as a team, not making as many mistakes. Especially when we had a penalty in overtime, that kind of cost us because we were starting with a man down,” said Heald.
Following its loss on Saturday, Andover took a break from traditional practice, and focused on character building through fitness, according to Troy Pollock ’21.
“As our coach was saying to us [on Monday], all of our systems are really good. I think that we play as a team well sometimes, but we just can’t finish. We don’t have that last fourth quarter drive to put up goals on the other team and finish it,” said Pollock.
On Wednesday, Andover travelled to Northfield Mount Hermon and was able to secure a 9-4 win despite playing man-down for the majority of the game. The victory moved the team’s record to 2-2.
Witt said, “We learned today that as a team, we can’t worry about the referees or the other team because even if the referee makes a bad call or the other team makes a dirty play, we have to put our heads down and keep playing our way.”
According to Jack Fates ’22, the team has strong lacrosse fundamentals but needs to work on its play as a cohesive unit.
“We need to work on just playing as a team because there are moments where we do and there are also moments where we play selfish; and we don’t pass the ball and just try to shoot it for ourselves,” said Fates.
Andover will face Salisbury in a home game Saturday.